Building Knowledge: The Legacy of Alhaji Ibrahim Kwabena Antwi and Ghana’s Academic Library Pioneers

Alhaji Ibrahim Kwabena Antwi

Academic libraries have long powered Ghana’s higher education, but the pioneers who built them remain largely unsung. Among them, Alhaji Ibrahim Kwabena Antwi stands out --- not only as a builder of libraries, but as a builder of people.

After a successful career in Nigeria, where he served as Deputy University Librarian at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, he returned home in 1993 to take on a formidable challenge: establishing the University for Development Studies (UDS) library from the ground up. With multiple campuses, no collections, and limited infrastructure, he led a visionary effort to build a system that now serves thousands.

I had the privilege of working closely with Alhaji Antwi for 23 years. I witnessed, firsthand, his dedication to service, his knack for institution-building, and his deep belief in the power of libraries to shape lives. He didn’t just manage libraries --- he inspired transformation.

“Alhaji Antwi was a rare blend of visionary and implementer,” says Prof. A. A. Alemna, former University Librarian at the University of Ghana. “He didn’t just talk about innovation --- he rolled up his sleeves and made things happen. His work at UDS set a standard for building a university library system from scratch.”

His impact extended beyond UDS. As a founding executive of CARLIGH, he helped forge a national platform for sharing digital scholarly resources. “He was a unifier,” recalls Dr. Helena Asamoah-Hassan, former University Librarian at KNUST and founding Chair of CARLIGH. “At a time when institutions guarded their resources, he championed collaboration. Thanks to his diplomacy and drive, CARLIGH became more than a consortium --- it became a movement.”

Alhaji Antwi’s contributions are part of a broader story --- a legacy shared by other trailblazers whose efforts shaped the academic library landscape in Ghana.

Among them is Mr. S. N. Amanquah of Balme Library, who carved a niche as an astute cataloguer during the critical transition from the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system to the Library of Congress Classification (LC), now used in all public and some private universities and research institutions across Ghana. As my teacher and mentor, Mr. Amanquah exemplified precision, rigor, and a deep understanding of bibliographic organization that laid the groundwork for generations of cataloguing professionals.

Their work joins that of Dr. (Mrs.) Helen Asamoah Hassan, Prof. Mrs.) C. O. Kissiedu, Mr. E. S. Donkoh, and others --- men and women whose careers defined and elevated librarianship in Ghana.

Today, as libraries embrace digital repositories, open access, and knowledge democratization, we walk on the foundations they laid. Their legacy endures --- in systems, in scholarship, and in the people they mentored.

Fuseini Abdulai Braimah
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[email protected] / [email protected]