SCOLMA 50th anniversary conference, June 25–26 2012

SCOLMA 50th anniversary conference, June 25–26 2012,


Rothermere American Institute, Oxford

Dis/connects: African Studies in the Digital Age


Provisional Programme
(NB This programme is subject to change)

Monday 25 June

9.00–10.00 Coffee and registration

10.00–11.00 Keynote: Dr John Darwin, Beit University Lecturer in the History of the British Commonwealth, Nuffield College, Oxford ‘Africa in Global History’

11.00–12.30 Panel 1

Jos Damen, African Studies Centre, Leiden ‘Who needs a paper library in Africa?’
Jonathan Harle, Association of Commonwealth Universities ‘Understanding the research environments of African universities and their implications for the use of digital resources’
Ian Cooke and Marion Wallace, British Library ‘African studies in the digital age: Challenges for research and national libraries’

12.30–1.30 Lunch

1.30–3.00 Panels 2 & 3 in parallel

Panel 2

Daniel A. Reboussin, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida ‘Library research behaviour in the digital environment: Implications for librarians’
Brenda van Wyk, UNIZULU Library Service, University of Zululand ‘Information and content management of institutional repositories in southern Africa: A comparative study’
Pier Luigi Rossi, Research Institute for Development (IRD), Bondy ‘Log analysis and text mining on internet access to dissertations of the Dakar sports faculty (INSEPS)’

Panel 3

Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town, and Peter Limb, Michigan State University ‘Southern African history in the digital era’
Angel David Nieves, Hamilton College and Marla Jaksch, The College of New Jersey ‘Using digital history to narrate the liberation struggle in Tanzania and South Africa’
Lucia Lovison-Golob, Afriterra Foundation (tbc) The Integration of Historical Cartography into Present-Day Cartography: The Darfur Case’

3.00–3.30 Tea

3.30–5.00 Panels 4 & 5 in parallel

Panel 4

Simon Tanner, King’s College London ‘The impact of digitisation in Africa’
James Lowry, International Records Management Trust ‘Digitising colonial and post-independence government papers in Kenya’
Edgar Taylor, Ashley Rockenbach and Natalie Bond, University of Michigan ‘Archives and the past: Cataloging and digitization in Uganda’s archives’

Panel 5

Kate Haines, University of Sussex ‘Dialogue, text and memory: Social media and literary responses to the post-election violence in Kenya’
Jenni Orme, The National Archives (UK) ‘Viewing “Africa through a lens”: Using digitisation and online tools at The National Archives to widen audience reach’
Thomas Sharp, University of Manchester ‘A counter-hegemonic archive? The revelation of hidden histories on the internet: a case study from Cameroon’

5.15 Tour of Rhodes House

7.00 SCOLMA Golden Jubilee conference dinner
St Cross College
Guest speaker: Professor John McIlwaine, Emeritus Professor of the Bibliography of Asia and Africa, University College London

Tuesday 26 June

9.30–10.15 Keynote: Christine Kanyengo, Deputy Librarian, University of Zambia Library

10.15–10.45 Coffee

10.45–12.30 Panel 6

Stephanie Newell, University of Sussex ‘From stacks to pixels: How archival preservation shapes (re)search methods in African news’
John Pinfold ‘“Can you write a biography without papers?”: Researching the life of African adventurer Herbert Rhodes’
Diana Jeater, University of the West of England  ‘Data, data everywhere, but not a byte to think: Use of digital resources in the HE Humanities sector in southern Africa’

12.30–2.00 Lunch and SCOLMA AGM

2.00–3.30 Panels 7 & 8 in parallel

Panel 7

Michelle Guittar & David L. Easterbrook, Melville J. Herskovits Library, Northwestern University ‘Digitization at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies: A consideration of processes and outcomes’
Geoffrey Mukasa, University Library, Uganda Christian University Library, Mukono (tbc) ‘Digital library information resources in Uganda’
Guy Thomas, Archives and Library, Basel Mission ‘Reconfiguring concepts of living archives through remote access’

Panel 8

Gabriela Redwine, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin ‘At home and abroad: Born-digital African literary archives in the digital age’
Amidu Sanni, Lagos State University (tbc) ‘The West African Arabic manuscript heritage: challenges of the digital revolution in a research economy’
Korklu Laryea, University Library, University of Ghana (tbc) ‘Research pathways in African studies’
Massimo Zaccaria, University of Pavia ‘Recovering the African printed past. The case of a dispersed collection and the attempt to virtually rejoin it: the Eritrean case’

3.30–4.00 Coffee

4.00–5.00 Plenary: Dis/connects: Building and maintaining digital libraries on Africa
Led by Peter Limb, Michigan State University

For enquiries and bookings please contact the SCOLMA Secretary:

Lucy McCann, Archivist, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth & African Studies, Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 270908 Email: mailto:lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

SCOLMA website: http://www.scolma.org/