Reading lists are meanwhile becoming lighter. Students expect free information and are reading fewer books, in favour of video and Internet. In these inauspicious conditions for African publishers seeking to break into the US and Canadian markets, she recommended giving more attention to what she described as the amateur scholars, i.e. those who may not be accredited and may have no connection with any university, but who love Africa and will buy materials from there. Publishers blame a declining market, reflecting declining library resources. The funding crisis has had a serious impact.
Some lively series do continue nevertheless.
Many are moving into fiction to increase profitability, e.g. Northwestern. Efforts to increase trade crossover result in declining academic quality, e.g. footnotes. African libraries might buy local books in local currencies and exchange with North American partners. Northwestern has several exchange programmes but these tend to be with African universities rather than libraries per se and to cover research materials. The exchange of commercially available materials would be an interesting expansion.