African Newspaper Union List: low‐tech resource/high‐tech access
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830010348116 |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Pages | 215-223 |
| Author | Gretchen Walsh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
African Newspaper
Union List: low-tech
resource/high-tech
access
Gretchen Walsh
Introduction
The African Newspaper Union List
(AFRINUL) is a centralized electronic finding
aid for African newspapers held in US libraries
and elsewhere, which has been developed by
the Africana Librarians Council of the African
Studies Association (ASA), in conjunction with
The Cooperative Africana Microform Project
(CAMP) of the Center for Research Libraries
(CRL). When complete, it will consolidate the
worldwide library holdings of African
newspapers in any format in one searchable
database. Located on the Web site of the
CRL[1], AFRINUL will provide easy access to
newspaper holdings worldwide, promote and
facilitate the use of African newspapers for
social and historical research, and provide a
collection management tool for participating
libraries.
Still in its preliminary stages, AFRINUL is
described on the CRL Web site[2] and a sample
search form is also provided (see Figure 1).
Input to AFRINUL will start with the libraries
with the largest African newspaper holdings:
Northwestern University, the Library of
Congress, and the Center for Research
Libraries and its CAMP. With this foundation
in place, the database will add the holdings of
the other initial participating libraries: Boston
University; Center for Research Libraries;
Columbia University; Hoover Institution/
Stanford University; Indiana University;
Michigan State University; New York Public
Library; Northwestern University; Ohio State
University; Ohio University; University of
California, Berkeley; University of California,
Los Angeles; University of Illinois; University of
Kansas.
The database will also include information
from African Newspapers Received by
American Libraries, an annually updated list
compiled by Mette Shayne at Northwestern
University's Melville J. Herskovits Library of
African Studies, and available on the CRL Web
site[3]. Newspapers currently available
electronically without subscription have been
compiled on the Web site maintained by Joseph
Caruso at Columbia University Library[4].
Another good source for information about
digital African Newspapers available on the
Web is found in African Electronic
The author
Gretchen Walsh is Head of the African Studies Library,
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Keywords
Libraries, Africa, Newspaper publishing,
Collection development
Abstract
Describes the development of the African Newspaper Union
List by the Africana Librarians Council of the African Studies
Association, in conjunction with the Center for Research
Libraries. The process involved selecting a project which was
attractive to funding agencies, effectively addressed a real
problem of Africana libraries, and would not overburden
already busy staff at the participating libraries. The
difficulties that had to be overcome included the challenge
of developing a high-tech project for librarians whose main
experience with technology was limited to its use in library
service, not its design and implementation. Other challenges
were the nature of the problems of acquiring publications
from Africa, and the small pool of participating librarians
who were widely scattered geographically, each in quite
different institutional settings.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
215
Library Hi Tech
Volume 18 .Number 3 .2000 .pp. 215±223
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0737-8831
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