The urgency to restore the AV collections in UCT Libraries Special Collections is underscored by their critical role in documenting the history of struggle, and transition to, human rights and democracy in South Africa.
Copyright is a limited-time monopoly. Which is a fancy way of saying that it doesn’t last forever. Eventually, it expires. Except when it doesn’t. How many things in South African archives have perpetual copyright? So very many.
Nearly two years on, significant gains are evident during the recovery and rebuilding of our African Studies and Rare Books collections. Our goal is to enable access to users during this interim period, albeit in a small way.
The AV Archive (AVA) used to live in the basement of the Jagger Library. It was one of the first areas to be salvaged following the fire. As the water used to douse the flames accumulated in the basement, a decision was made to expedite...