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South Africa
Libraries, Archives, and Publishers

• Africa Institute of South Africa -- Library (Pretoria)
  • Search the online catalog. Note: the log-in password for "Guest" is "guest".
  
  
• AFLIB-L: African Libraries Listserv (National Library of South Africa, Pretoria)
  A web page describing the purpose of the listserv and how to subscribe. "The African Libraries Listserve (Aflib-L) is a forum for African libraries and their colleagues who seek to overcome the professional isolation which presents one of the barriers to library development in Africa. It is an unmoderated discussion list."
  
  
• African National Congress: Historical Documents (South Africa)
  An extensive archive of online speeches, complete books, biographical summaries, photographs, and other documents by leading and historical figures from the ANC archives and from those in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle in general, as well as selected speeches by prominent world leaders in support of the struggle.
  
  
• Cape Town Book Fair, South Africa, 13-16 June 2009 Sponsored by PASA--Publishers' Association of South Africa, Goethe Institute, and Frankfurter Buchmesse.
  
  
• Catalogs and Home Pages of South African Libraries (See below)
  
  
• Children's Literature Research Unit, University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa)
  Select bibliographies of South African and other African children's literature.
  
  
• DISA: Digital Innovation South Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa)
  • Originally called "Digital Imaging Project of South Africa": The site offers a free access to selected periodicals and other publications focusing on the socio-political history of South Africa, particularly the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994.
    
  • "DISA: insights of an African model for digital library development" by Dale Peters and Michele Pickover (2001) D-Lib magazine. (Online) ; Vol. 7, no. 11 (November 2001).
  
  
• DISSAnet--Development of Information Science in South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa)
  The web site features general information about the project and an online library of DISSAnet, SCECSAL, and WWW application conference proceedings---downloadable in PDF format, and a bibliography of references.
  
  
• Dissertations & Theses at South African Universities: Catalogs and Selected Electronic Full-Text
  • Rhodes University (See below)
  • University of Cape Town Libraries--ETDs
  • UPeTD: University of Pretoria
  • UnisaETD: University of South Africa, Pretoria
  • University of the Western Cape ETD
  • WIReDSpace: ETDs at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg)
  
  
• District Six Museum Online (Cape Town, South Africa)
  This site offers general information about the museum and its collections. "In 1989 ex-residents of District Six envisaged a museum to commemoratethe area and honour the people who fought against the forced removals and Group Areas Act. On 10 December 1994, the District Six Museum opened with its first exhibition 'Streets - Retracing the Past'. The Museum provides a space for the community to come together and share their experiences and retrace their memories."
  
  
• Howard University: SARAP--South African Research and Archival Project (Washington, DC)
  The website includes the online guides to records on deposit at Howard University and to a small selection of collections in South Africa, such as those at the University of Fort Hare. "[In 2001...] This project began as an effort to identify, locate and describe documentation about the diasporic relationship between blacks in South Africa and the United States."
  
  
• International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: 68th IFLA Council and General Conference, August 18-24, 2002, Glasgow, Scotland -- Excerpts in PDF Format (via l'Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique, France)
  • Programme (Entire list)
  • "Women, democracy and participation in the information society" (2002), by Louisa Mayer. (Tshwane Metropolitan Library and Information Services, Pretoria, South Africa)
  • "From information to knowledge" (2002), by Solomon Mahapa. (University of South Africa, Johannesburg)
  • Building bridges: LIASA and leadership development in South Africa" (2002), by Gwenda Thomas. (Library and Information Association of South Africa, Pretoria)
  • "Difficulties faced by librarians in Africa -- a comparative analysis" (2002), by Anna-Marie Arnold. (Pretoria, South Africa)
  • "The 'information-starved' -- is there any hope of reaching the 'information super highway'?" (2002), by Denise Nicholson. (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
  • "Promoting diversity and democracy in new democratic societies -- the Unisa experience" (2002), by Jenny Raubenheimer. (University of South Africa Library, Pretoria)
  
  
• Guide to The Karis-Gerhart Collection: South African Political Materials, 1964-1990 (Cooperative Africana Microform Project--CAMP, The Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, Illinois)
  This is the online version of the guide to the microfilmed documents from the project held by CAMP---available through interlibrary loan to member institutions. "The historical materials in this catalogue were assembled in the process of writing volumes 5, 6, and 7 of From Protest to Challenge: a Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1990, published by Indiana University Press in the United States and the University of South Africa Press in South Africa."
  
  
• Killie Campbell Africana Library, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa)
  
  
• LIASA: Library and Information Association of South Africa (Pretoria)
  General information on the organization, conferences, and other news and activities. "The launch (July 1997) marked the end of the process of the unification of all existing library organisations in South Africa ... initiated in January 1995 at the Conference on Libraries and Information Services in Developing South Africa ... an initiative of the two largest existing organisations at the time, the South African Institute for Librarianship and Information Science and the African Library Association of South Africa."
  
  
• Library Home Pages and Online Catalogs of South Africa (via Columbia University's "Library Catalogs of Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa.")
  
  
• MapStudio (South Africa) (Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, South Africa)
  
  
• The Mayibuye Center (Bellville, South Africa)
  Information about the center's programs, its staff, and its archival collections on the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
  
  
• National Archives of South Africa (Pretoria)
  The site offers general information about the NASA and access to the various databases of the NAAIRS--National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System.
  
  
• National Library of South Africa (Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa)
  • Special Collections -- including Africana
  
  
• Nordic Documentation on the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden)
  The web site features general information about various projects, conference reports, and a searchable catalog of the archives on southern Africa held in Scandinavia.
  
  
• PictureNet Africa (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  A commercial respository of photographs from photographic agencies in South Africa, with information on fees and permissions.
  
  
• Publishers' Association of South Africa (PASA) Home Page (South Africa)
  The site offers general information about PASA, links to book fairs, a directory of South African publishers, etc.
  
  
• Rhodes University Library (Grahamstown, South Africa)
  • This site includes access to the online catalog, research guides, and information about special collections.
  • The Cory Library
    "The Library's archival holdings are particularly strong in the fields of Southern African history, including Xhosa history, mission and church history, the history of education and mining, commercial and agricultural history. It has a strong collection of material on Lesotho. Since the initial deposit of Sir George Cory's collections there has been a particular focus on the history of the Eastern Cape, and on Grahamstown itself."
    
    
  • Rhodes University eResearch Repository: full-text theses, journal articles, conference papers. (Grahamstown, South Africa)
    Masters' and Ph.D. theses --mostly in the sciences and social sciences-- are available in full text, PDF format.
    --See also: Rhodes University Theses Collection
    
    
  
  
• Soul beat. (Online) -- Braamfontein, South Africa: Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication, in partnership with SANGONeT; Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: The Communication Initiative, 2003-
  The Soul Beat Africa website offers the current bi-weekly issue of the newsletter and the archive of all previous issues. "...for communicators, practitioners, media makers, academics, researchers and others who are using communication for change in Africa."
  
  
• The South African History Archive (SAHA) (University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein, South Africa)
  SAHA was formed in 1988 by the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Trade Unions to collect & preserve documents from the struggle against apartheid during the 1980s.
  
  
• University of Cape Town Libraries -- Manuscripts & Archives (Cape Town, South Africa)
  "This department [at UCT] has an extensive collection of original research material relating to the political, social, cultural and economic history of the Western Cape. Subjects covered include art, music, education, literature and language, botany, politics and architecture." The web site includes online guides to the collections, see especially:
  -- Finding Aids
  -- Subject Guides
  -- Black Sash Archival Collection
  -- South West African People's Organization, 1961-1991. PDF format
  
  
• University of Fort Hare, Howard Pim Library (Alice, South Africa)
  • Established in 1918: "The valuable Africana collection ... houses rare books and unique collections such as the Steve Biko Letters, and the Lennox Papers. Significant landmarks in the growth of the Library include the reincorporation of the Federal Seminary Library into the main campus Library, as well as the integration of important liberation movement archives such as those of the African National Congress.
  • Liberation Movement Archives: Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College Records; UFH Records; Personal records of Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Lionel Forman, and others.
  • UFHL Home Page
  
  
• University of the Free State: Archive for Contemporary Affairs = Argief vir Eitydse Aangeleenthede (Bloemfontein, South Africa)
  "The Archive, previously called the Institute for Contemporary History, was established in 1970. ...It houses more than 900 private document collections. This includes the collections of South African politicians (Prime Ministers, State Presidents, Ministers), economists, church, cultural and community leaders, etc. The Archive also has a fully equipped Sound Archive at its disposal, for recording the memoirs of individuals."
  -- See also: UFS Library Home Page
  
  
• University of Kwa Zulu-Natal: The Campbell Collections -- Guides to Collections and Catalogs (Durban, South Africa)
  The web site for various historic manuscript collections and libraries....including The Killie Campbell Africana Library.
  
  
• University of the Witwatersrand Library--Historical Papers Department (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  "The University established Historical Papers in 1966 in order to retrieve the rich historical heritage belonging to all South Africans. Today we house over 3000 separate collections of historical, political and cultural importance." The web site includes information about its collections, including: Papers of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1977) and the Pan Africanist Congress ; and the Records of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
  --See also: Traces of Truth--Documents relating to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In association with the South African History Archive project.