Sabinet Gateway to establish African online journal archive

Says Rosalind Hattingh, director: product management at Sabinet Onlinet: “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 African 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, a non-profit organisation that promotes and supports library and information services in Africa, 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.”