The Ghana Book Trust (GBT) is a non-governmental non-profit making voluntary organisation established by CODE (the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education). It is operated exclusively for charity and educational purposes. Its mission is to assist in the promotion of a literate environment in Ghana through the provision of books.

Services offered: distribution, warehousing

The goals of the Trust are:

• to enhance Ghanaians' access to books through support to libraries and the national publishing industry;
  
• to help the development of the Ghanaian publishing industry through the purchase of local books;
  
• to serve as CODE's national counterpart in Ghana.

The Trust supports the programmes of CODE to promote indigenous publishing for primary level education and adult literacy programmes; to distribute books in support of adult literacy and post-literacy programmes; and to cooperate with other bodies engaged in the book industry and the development of educational materials.

Books are donated to CODE primarily by publishers, universities and school boards in Canada and the US. The Trust selects books from an annotated list of tides supplied by CODE and its affiliate, the International Book Bank. The Trust also receives books from Book Aid International (formerly the Ranfurly Library Service), the World Bank Volunteer Services Book Project and the Ghana Educational Assistance Forum in Australia.

Books arrive in Ghana by ship. The Trust takes responsibility for the clearance of containers once they arrive at the port of Tema. The Trust stores and displays the books and materials at its Madina warehouse. In arranging distribution of the items the Trust gives special attention to the most needy institutions in Ghana. Rural schools are considered a priority. Children remain the chief concern of the GBT and receive more than 60% of books distributed.

Membership is open to school, public, special and university libraries. Although the books are free, a membership fee is charged to defray administrative expenses. Any surplus retained is recycled into the fund used to purchase Ghanaian books.

Members are invited to the Trust's warehouses in Accra and Kumasi to select appropriate titles in consultation with GBT staff. CODE also provides funds for GBT to procure Ghanaian books. These are donated to primary schools, junior secondary schools and rural community libraries.

The donations are evaluated by means of evaluation forms and follow-up visits are made.

The GBT is governed by a local Board of Trustees which supervises and determines the policies of the Trust.