Making African Academic Resources Accessible at the University of Ghana: A sustainable collaborative project

Judith Opoku-Boateng
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Judith Opoku-Boateng: J. H. Kwabena Nketia Archives, Ghana

Journal of Digital Media Management, 2023, vol. 12, issue 1, 76-91

Abstract: This paper discusses the Making African Academic Resources Accessible (MAARA) Project — a collaboration between the Audiovisual Preservation Exchanges at New York University and the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. Since the project launched in 2014, archival staff at the Institute of African Studies have been physically preserving endangered audio assets deposited on quarter-inch open reels, and have digitised thousands of hours of digital audio files to make them accessible to the university community and hence support academic research and creative engagement. This paper describes how MAARA has created a model for audio preservation in the region, with a number of training and mentorship projects emerging from the project. It is hoped that the results described in this paper will pique the interest of potential funders and enthusiasts of cultural heritage preservation as to the possibilities of engaging in sustainable cooperative projects in less-endowed heritage institutions.

Keywords: audio preservation; African archives; cultural heritage preservation; tape degradation; academic resources; preservation; accessibility; collaboration; sustainability; digital preservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M11 M15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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