Sabinet Gateway, a non-profit organisation that promotes and supports library and information services in Africa, has been awarded a $1 800 000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to create an African Online Journal Archive. This archive, the first of its kind to contain purely African content, will make academic inputs from all over Africa available for research purposes to local and international organisations and academic institutions.
Says Rosalind Hattingh, firector: product management at Sabinet Online, which has been contracted to manage the project: "This is an exciting project and an important one. It will, for the first time create a central full-text repository of retrospective journal content that contains important African research across a number of fields, including the medical, social sciences and environmental arenas. These materials have unique value, providing not only the vital groundwork for further or related research but assisting to preserve the heritage of the African continent."
Two hundred journals from across English speaking Africa countries, including Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa, have thus far been identified for possible inclusion.
Stretching over four years, this project will include the sourcing of African journal content, the negotiation of publisher agreements, digitisation and indexing of the journal content and the creation of a front end that will make the journal content easily accessible to end users online. Says Hattingh: "We have already identified a number of the journals we will include but the real challenge will be gaining access to the existing hard copies of the journals going back to their first publications. In all, we expect the archive will contain approximately 90 000 articles."
Sabinet Online has significant experience in the creation, development and maintenance of information services. Its service offerings include online access to information from the legal, parliamentary and news sectors that are updated daily. It also has a South African ePublications service that constitutes the largest online collection of South African journals.
Concludes Hattingh: "This project will contribute significantly to the global pool of knowledge by making available a wealth of important information created by scholars, academic bodies, institutes and professional organisations across Africa. We are proud to be part of this initiative."
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Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." For more than 95 years the Corporation has carried out Carnegie's vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international peace and advancing education and knowledge. The Corporation's capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million, had a market value of $3.07 billion on September 30, 2007. Under Mr. Carnegie's will, grants must benefit the people of the United States, although up to 7.4 percent of the funds may be used for the same purpose in countries that are or have been members of the British Commonwealth, with a current emphasis on Commonwealth Africa.
Sabinet Gateway
Sabinet Gateway is a not-for-profit organisation promoting and supporting library and information services in Africa
Sabinet Online
With a sound history of more than 25 years in the information industry, Sabinet is firmly established as a leader in facilitating electronic access to information. Sabinet is one of a limited number of companies in this industry with a long track record of experience and effectiveness in addressing the diverse needs of a large and continually growing client base, spanning the corporate, academic and government markets. www.sabinet.co.za
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