A retrospective digitization project focusing on exclusively African Journals

Sabinet Gateway is a non-profit organisation that promotes and supports Library and Information services in Africa. In 2008, the Carnegie Corporation awarded a grant to Sabinet Gateway to create a sustainable and trusted digital archive of African research and cultural heritage published exclusively in Africa. The full-text Archive will include a searchable collection of journal articles digitised back to the earliest issue, if available, and will be accessible on a web-based platform.

African research and cultural heritage

Africa is lagging behind in building digital archives of its own research and cultural heritage, with the result that international exposure and visibility for African research is being hampered. There is a significant social and educational need in Africa and throughout the world to preserve journal literature emanating from publishers and societies in Africa. Such information would be utilised by teachers, researchers, scholars, students and professional bodies both in Africa and internationally.

The African Journal Archive provides

• Comprehensive research into African scholarly work, both continentally and internationally.
• Accessibility for contributors to their own research information.
• International exposure for African researchers/authors work.
• Better utilisation of publically funded research.
• Exposure for African research institutes thereby creating opportunities for future donor funding.
• Linking and interoperability with other digital collections.

Custodianship of the Archive will reside with Sabinet Gateway, a non-profit organization. Management, creation and maintenance will be contracted to Sabinet Online. Free access to the archive will be available globally as long as it can be sustained. The gap between current issues and retrospective issues of the publication included in the Archive will be maintained to ensure that content providers continue to derive income from publishing current issues.

The Collection:

The African Journal Archive Project aims to digitise, index and provide access to over 200 journals consisting of a total of 90,000 indexed articles in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities towards the end of 2012. The guidelines below are used to establish a unique and representative collection.

• Particular collections in the fields of agriculture, botany, zoology, history, law, education, politics, medicine, geology, and interdisciplinary works will be developed.
• The journal archives of academic, scholarly, institutional, museums and professional research organisations in Africa will be sourced.
• Coverage will be retrospective to at least ten years but, back to the earliest issue if possible.
• The intention is to complement rather than duplicate existing digitised content.
  
  

Publisher participation in the Archive:

Leading journals in key disciplines such as archaeology, education, geology, medicine and zoology are included in this collection. Several of these journals started at the beginning of the last century and include detailed colour and grey scale drawings and photographs.

By participating in the archive, publishers grant Sabinet Gateway a license to digitise, host and provide access to the collection by means of electronic technologies. The publisher retains all copyright over the intellectual content of the material.

Benefits for participating publishers or organisations:

There will be no cost to the publisher for digitising the publication.

The publisher or organisation will receive:

• free access for its members to the publication’s own searchable collection via logins/passwords. This includes full search capabilities and downloads via the website.

• a preservation copy of archived journal volumes should they wish to store their own and secure offsite storage for a second preservation copy.

Discovery of titles included in the Archive may lead to subscriptions for current issues.

Electronic access to the publication increases accessibility for teachers, researchers, scholars, students   and professional bodies both in Africa and internationally.

For further information or to participate as a publisher please contact:

Gwynneth Crothall	Tanya Botha
Project Manager	Publisher Relationship Manager
info@ajarchive.org	info@ajarchive.org
www.ajarchive.org	www.ajarchive.org
Tel: +2712 643 9500	Tel: + 2712 643 9500
Fax: +2712 663 3543	Fax: +2712 663 3543