Project History

Hidden Collections Africa has the potential to make a significant impact on the preservation and digitization of African collections. The idea originated with Buhle Mbambo-Thata, University Librarian of the National University of Lesotho and current chair of the CLIR Board, who approached CLIR with the concept of building upon CLIR’s expertise in cultural heritage grant making in order to bring more African cultural heritage online.

Mbambo-Thata's extensive knowledge of local partners and expertise in the libraries and archives across Africa have played a pivotal role in shaping the project. With her vision and understanding of the needs of African cultural organizations, she saw the potential for a transformative initiative that would address the challenges of stewarding collections across the continent.

Recognizing CLIR's experience in implementing large-scale digitization grant competitions and its community of expert practitioners, Mbambo-Thata worked with CLIR president Charles Henry to help bring this vision to life. To ensure the initiative's authenticity and effectiveness, the project was designed to be guided by an advisory committee consisting of experts from Africa. Furthermore, the commitment to African leadership was underscored by the intention to hire African program officers and associates if the program received funding.

While CLIR would provide administrative support and act as a fiscal host for the initiative, its involvement would extend beyond mere administration. CLIR's staff would offer assistance in an advisory capacity, leveraging their expertise to bolster the success of the project.

About CLIR

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization based in the United States that plays a significant role in the field of knowledge management and preservation. It started its life as the Council on Library Resources in 1956 with funding from the Ford Foundation to address the issues surrounding the explosive growth of libraries in the United States. Throughout the next several decades, CLR merged with several other organizations and programs, including the Commission on Preservation and Access in 1995, when the organization renamed itself the Council on Library and Information Resources. You can read more about CLIR's history on its website.

Today CLIR is engaged in many programs, including its successful Digitizing Hidden Collections and Recordings at Risk regranting programs; the Digital Library Federation, CLIR Institutes, and the Digital Library of the Middle East. CLIR also maintains many active collaborative partnerships, including those with the HBCU Library Alliance and the Digital Library Federation working groups.

Technology and Infrastructure

Hidden Collections Africa will work with local and regional partners to develop digital content that can be locally and regionally preserved while being shared globally. To this end, Hidden Collections Africa will work with individual grant recipients to support the development of technical and staffing solutions that fit the needs of their organizations and collections. This support would encompass the entire digital asset lifecycle, including capture, description, preservation, and access. Whenever possible, grantees would be connected with larger country and regional organizations so that they might take advantage of developing repository networks that can be collaboratively and sustainably managed.

Applicant organizations will need different levels of support to start and sustain digitization programs. Hidden Collections Africa will develop training resources covering the tools to do all of this work including collections assessment, equipment procurement, capture, metadata creation, quality assurance, storage, and systems management for long-term preservation and access. At the regional level, Hidden Collections Africa will work with partners to develop repository networks based on LOCKSS principles that can be expanded over time.

Local institutions will be able to make decisions on how best to make their collections available following Open Access models. Eventually, Hidden Collections Africa will also develop an additional discovery and interpretive resource that will aggregate not only collections digitized as part of this endeavor but also from collecting institutions around the world. This resource will be modeled after CLIR's work with Stanford University Libraries to develop the Digital Library of the Middle East.