Establishing name authority files in such multilingual nations as Nigeria is complicated by the existence of some 400 languages and dialects, although only about 15 percent of these have been written or used in publications--English is used as the official language and the medium of intercommunication between tribes. Traditionally, Nigerians have been known by their given names derived from four categories: circumstance of birth, religion of the family clan, profession of the family, and history of previous births. With the influence of the English and other Europeans, elements of Islam and Christianity have been introduced into the naming system. At first, surnames were unknown, but as education developed, family consciousness and cohesion have caused the development of an uneven pattern of surnames; it is a mistake to believe that a name is a surname merely because it appears last, and Hausa names have given particular difficulty in this regard. Nevertheless, the National Library of Nigeria has succeeded in establishing name authority files of Nigerian authors through research and the cooperation of authors and publishers brought together in workshops and seminars. (RAA)