Commonwealth Caribbean government publications: Biographies and acquisition aids

Abstract

The jurisdictions which make up the Commonwealth Caribbean were formerly all British colonies. While most of them are now independent, government organization and hence government publications continue to reflect the British pattern. The jurisdictions included in the term Commonwealth Caribbean are: Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts/Nevis/Anguilla, St. Lucia, St. Vincint, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. This article describes the acquisition tools and sources of information which librarians can use to identify the government publications of these jurisdictions. Early government publications were often produced by HMSO, thus standard retrospective guides and indexes to British parliamentary papers are useful. Several valuable retrospective bibliographies are cited. Current bibliographical coverage varies in quality. Both regional and local lists are cited, some of which are locally produced while others reflect acquisitions of major Caribbean collections in British and North American libraries.