After more than 60 years of analogue storage in an inadequate environment, the Radio Mogadishu audio archive is being digitized in order to save it from deterioration and introduce the unique Somali historical recordings to new audience.A collection of African Blue Books has been digitised by Microform Academic Publishers and made available on their British Online Archives database. The collection covers 13 former colonies and protectorates, with volumes dating from 1821 to 1953.
‘Blue Book’ is the name given to the annual statistical reports which governors were required to compile. The books were prepared as pro-formas to be completed in the same way in each colony or protectorate. This attempt at standardisation, allowing volumes to be compared either over time or across geographies, was only partially successful owing to variations in interpretation and the availability of data. Nevertheless, the Blue Books provide the most detailed accounts of the day-to-day concerns and policies of colonial administrators. Alongside statistics, governors sometimes included other material such as maps and even illustrations of plants. Examples can be seen on Cambridge University Library’s Colonial Blue Books web page.
Collections of Blue Books can be found in a small number of libraries across the UK, including in the collections of several Scolma member libraries. The British Online Archives collection covers:
These join other collections in British Online Archives including Colonial and Mission records from West Africa, Universities Mission to Central Africa, and Gold Coast records of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The database is free to search and browse, but access to documents is by subscription. Registered readers of the British Library have access to these collections from Reading Rooms at St Pancras, London, and Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre has launched its first online catalogue. The Centre holds strong archival collections relating to the work of the Salvation Army in Africa.
See especially:
Only a small fraction of the SA’s total holdings are currently available via the catalogue; additional catalogue records will be added several times a year. Some of the work behind the catalogue is described in the Heritage Centre’s blog , which will be regularly updated with posts relating to the collections.
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre comprises archives, a library and a museum. Its collections relate to the Salvation Army’s work worldwide.