THE EAST AFRICAN SCHOOL of Librarianship was the brainchild of S. W. Hockey, at one time Libraries Organiser in East Africa for the British Council. In 1960 Hockey submitted a report to the Governors of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, proposing the establishment of a joint librarianship school for the three territories. This was at a time when a big expansion of the public library service was taking place, or at least was being planned, throughout the region, but Hockey also foresaw that a fast growth of school and specialist libraries was bound to come within the decade. It would have been difficult at that time to find a single fully qualified African librarian in any of the three countries.