Building Digitisation
Capacity in developing
countries: the case of
Uganda
By
Gertrude Kayaga Mulindwa
Director – National Library of Uganda
Presented to the WDL Partners Meeting, Washington, D.C, 22-23 June, 2010
Outline
• Digitisation and preservation situation
in Uganda
• Why digitise?
• Project highlights
• Challenges
• The ‘Good News’
• Lessons learnt
• Conclusion
Digitisation and Preservation
situation in Uganda
Cultural heritage institutions:
• The National Library of Uganda (NLU)
(2003)
• The Uganda National Documentation
Centre (1969)
• Makerere University deposit library
(1958)
• Uganda National Museum
• Uganda National Archives
Digitisation and Preservation
(Cont…)
In summary
• The ‘national’ collection is a scattering of
collections in various institutions and private
hands.
In addition:
• Conservation and preservation policies are
almost non-existent in some institutions.
• Most collections are not easily accessible to
the general Ugandan public
Digitisation and Preservation
(Cont…)
Also in existence are:
• Archives in various religious
institutions.
• Private collections especially on
cultural matters
eg.Genealogical records of clans in some
Ugandan communities.
Digitisation and preservation
(Cont…)
Several digitisation projects of different
scales in Uganda include:
• Digitisation of land records at the Ministry of
Lands
• Digitisation of university dissertations/theses
at Makerere University (abstracts).
• Digitisation of Church archives by Uganda
Christian University
Uncoordinated efforts leading to duplication and
under-usage of acquired capabilities.
Is digitisation really a priority?
Questions to think about:
• Does it make sense to digitise?
• Shouldn’t we be concentrating on more
basic things to improve quality of life?
• How about the levels of literacy
• Has the Internet penetrated all sections of
society?
eg. Uganda Bureau of Statistics: Literacy rate is
about 68%
Uganda Communications Commission: Internet
penetration less than 0.1%
The answer is “Yes”
We would like to ensure that the
collections are preserved, wellmaintained and easily accessible
for now, for the future, for
Ugandans and for the world.
NLU’s strengths
• The National Library is
by law mandated to
ensure preservation of
Uganda’s documented
heritage.
• Ready and willing staff.
• Funding from Carnegie
• Support from the Library
of Congress
WDL Uganda Project
highlights
• Dec 2008– April 2009 - NLU approached
Library of Congress about possible support.
• March 2009 - Funding secured and
preparations for the project commenced
• March 2009 – Initial meeting with other
stakeholders in the country.
• April 2009- WDL launched in Paris
Highlights (cont…)
• May 2009 -
LC staff visited Uganda and met
with NLU and other institutions
• Aug 2009
Partner agreement signed with
LC
-
• Sept – Dec 2009 - Site prepared and staff
recruited.
Visit made to Egypt
(Bibliotheca Alexandrina and
National Library of Egypt)
Highlights (Cont…)
• January 2010 -
Equipment delivered
LC staff arrived in Uganda to
carry out training
• February 2010 » • March 2010
-
Initial training completed
Scanning commenced
Official launch done
• June 2010
- Over 60 items (Mostly in
book form) from various institutions have so far
been scanned and preservation and
conservation work carried out on them.
Challenges
• Young national library - Limited
number of WDL qualifying items from
NLU collections
• Poor environment for documents Tropics climate and paper documents
do not go together – humidity, mould,
insects, water and dust
Challenges (Cont…)
• Documents scattered in various
institutions.
• People not being aware of the
‘treasures’ they have and having
thrown them away because they
have photocopies.
• Suspicion by holding institutions
as to the project’s intentions
Challenges (Cont…)
• Poor handling of documents leading to their
destruction. Some of those that qualify for
the project are in a very brittle state.
Challenges (Cont…)
Intangible heritage
• Most of what we can show to the
world that is unique to us and
inherent within us is passed on to
the next generation orally.
• Most of our uniqueness is
therefore undocumented
Challenges
• Competing national priorities.
• Lack of Internet access by most
ordinary Ugandans.
The ‘Good News’
Rising interest among the
general public to preserve our
documented heritage.
Communities getting involved in
creating their own digital content
The ‘Good News’ (cont…)
 Raised profile of the NLU and the project
The ‘Good News’ (Cont…)
 Discovering those “gems” where
they are least expected
• Some items have been discovered in
private homes and owners are willing
to pass them on to the NLU
The ‘Good News’ (Cont…)
 Inclusion of digitization as a way
of preservation in the next five
year national development plan
The ‘Good News’ (Cont…)
 Building our conservation and other
capabilities
• This is the start of what we believe will be a
conservation department that can be used
by other institutions.
• The meta data skills we are building on are
now being used in other work of the
institution
The ‘Good News’ (Cont…)
 Getting other institutions
sensitive about conservation
• Many have requested to come
and train in both conservation
and digitisation at NLU
The ‘Good News’ (Cont…)
 With like-minded individuals and
institutions, the NLU is steadily
getting a national collection
together:
• Documents in the public domain held
in different institutions are now being
put in one space.
Lessons learnt
• The need to work closely with other
stakeholders in the country.
• The need to borrow experience from
those already involved in digitisation
work.
• The need to fully integrate digitisation
into the mainstream work of the
institution
Conclusion
It is important to maintain the momentum and
interest that the project has generated in the
country. We hope to continue with what we
have done so far and to get even institutions
in the region involved as was the initial
intention.
For those many endangered items especially
where the climate and other conditions are
not friendly to paper and other library items,
digitisation provides a viable alternative to
preserving them for future generations.
Thank You