Cooperate, Preserve, Share: Improving access to primary source materials from Africa

Abstract

This paper is a case study of the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP), (formerly the Cooperative Africana Microfilm Project) a collaboration of higher education institutions based in North America, Europe and Africa. It was established by the Africana Librarians Council (ALC), a coordinate organization of the African Studies Association (ASA) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) a library consortia based in Chicago. The project was created to improve access to research materials, especially rare primary source resources from Africa through cooperative acquisitions and preservation. This paper provides a brief history of CAMP, describes current and recent CAMP projects in Uganda, Liberia and Senegal and surveys selected collections; including manuscripts, newspapers in English and African languages, government documents, political ephemeral from South Africa and personal papers like the Tubman papers from Liberia. It also discusses the successful methods used to foster collaboration focusing on its collaborative efforts with African partners.