African Studies in the Digital Age

Terry Barringer is a bibliographer who has worked for many years on African and Commonwealth materials. She is editor of SCOLMA's journal, African Research and Documentation, and has published on missionary periodicals and the British Colonial Service.Marion Wallace is Africa Curator at the British Library. She holds a PhD in the history of Namibia, on which subject she continues to write and publish. She was Chair of SCOLMA from 2011 to 2014.

'Published to mark the 50th anniversary of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa), and based on papers presented at its Golden Jubilee conference in Oxford in 2012, this collection of essays seeks to understand the complex changes brought about by the digital revolution, and the impact of the Internet age for the study of Africa, in and beyond the continent'. 'Many other insightful papers, by librarians, archivists, researchers and academics from three continents, analyse the creation and use of digital research resources and archives in and about Africa, exploring the new opportunities for research, issues of teaching and access, making online resources more equitably available, as well as drawing attention to the potential problems and digital divides'.'An essential acquisition for all African studies collections'.Hans M. Zell, in The African Book Publishing Record, Volume 41, no. 3 (2015) 'This quietly subversive little volume of papers from a conference to report progress by African’s digital libraries is full of facts to explode stereotypes about Africa in the information age'.Martin Mulligan, Writer and Journalism Consultant, in: The Round Table: the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, April 2015.

• About the ContributorsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroductionTerry Barringer, Jos Damen, Peter Limb and Marion WallacePart 1 Access, Research and Researchers1 African Studies in the Digital Age - Challenges for Research and National LibrariesIan Cooke and Marion Wallace2 Dazzled by Digital?Research Environments in African Universities and Their Implications for the Use of Digital Resources Jonathan Harle3 Data, Data Everywhere, But Not a Byte to ThinkThe Pitfalls of Increased Access to Digital Resources in University History Departments in ZimbabweDiana Jeater4 Improving Digital Collection Access with Simple Search Engine Optimisation StrategiesDaniel A. Reboussin and Laurie N. TaylorPart 2 Archives and Memory5 Building FuturesThe Role of Digital Collections in Shaping National Identity in AfricaRebecca Kahn and Simon Tanner6 The West African Manuscript Heritage - Challenges of the Digital Revolution in a Research Economy Amidu Sanni7 Recovering the African Printed Past - Virtually Re-membering a Dispersed Collection in EritreaMassimo Zaccaria8 Archives and the Past - Cataloguing and Digitisation in Uganda’s ArchivesEdgar C. Taylor, Ashley Brooke Rockenbach and Natalie Bond9 ‘Life is so Summarised’ - Society’s Memory in the Digital Age in AfricaMirjam de Bruijn and Walter Gam NkwiPart 3 Building on Digital10 African Newspapers in the Online World - Information Gains and LossesHartmut Bergenthum11 Viewing ‘Africa Through a Lens’Using Digitisation and Online Tools at The National Archives (uk) to Widen Audience ReachJenni Orme12 The Integration of Historical Cartography into the Present Day - The Darfur CaseLucia Lovison-GolobConcluding Remarks Peter LimbAppendix: Programme of scolma’s 50th anniversary conferenceIndex of Subjects