Africana Collections and Librarianship at the University of California, Berkeley: A History Since 1960

UC Berkeley’s history of collecting Africana materials traces back to the earliest years of its founding, but it was the foundational collections work of Africana Collections Librarian Lee Petrasek and his successor Phyllis Bischof, in the post Word War II era to 2005, that established Berkeley as a major source for Africana collections in the United States. Through details gathered from staff files, library records and personal accounts, this article provides a glimpse into the collecting practices, priorities, and strategies of former and current librarians charged with building and maintaining Africana materials collections at UC Berkeley from 1960 to 2024.