Case studies of Large-Scale Digital Preservation Initiatives (LSDIs) as a Conservation Strategy for Heritage materials in Africa

Cultural institutions have rich heritage collections but not continuous in series due to different factors such as natural disasters, rodents, and acidified papers causing materials to become fragile. Many of the cultural artefacts were exported during colonial era while others were destroyed by natural disasters including fire, war and malicious ignorant people. Incomplete series affects the quality of information service delivery and hence the need for collaborative preservation. This paper discusses large scale digital preservation initiatives (LSDIs) and their ability of sharing or distributing the available series thus providing an opportunity to have the complete information material at no extra costs for individual institutions. The paper demonstrates how Albert Cook Medical Library at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Mulago Kampala and the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (now the Wellcome Library), London, UK were able to create complete series of heritage material.