Aluka was an

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...

focused on

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

-related material. It focused on globally connecting scholars by building a common platform for online collaboration and knowledge sharing. Aluka's intended audience was higher education and research communities. Aluka was an initiative of

Ithaka Harbors Ithaka Harbors, Inc. is a US not-for-profit organization whose stated mission is to "help the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways". It is the paren ...

, a non-profit organization focused on incubating promising new projects that use technology for the benefit of higher education. It aims to grow successful projects into independent services or adjoined to larger, existing organizations for the academic community. In June 2008, the Ithaka and JSTOR Trustees approved a recommendation that the Aluka initiative be integrated into JSTOR. Founded in 2003, Aluka was an initiative of Ithaka, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. The initial funding was provided by the

Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitt ...

, the

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Redington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation awa ...

, and the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation. The first release of Aluka took place in early February 2007 with preview access to JSTOR subscribers. Aluka was made free to all academic and other not-for-profit institutions in Africa. The name 'Aluka' is derived from a Zulu word meaning 'to weave'. Aluka sought to attract other collections of scholarly interest from institutions and individuals worldwide. By bringing materials together, it created new opportunities for research and collaboration. Documents and materials that were previously hard or impossible to access were made globally available to researchers.

Content

The Aluka digital library was focused on three major areas: * African Plants Initiative: Collection of African plants specimens and related material funded by the Mellon Foundation, which was migrated to JSTOR * Cultural Heritage: 3D models, panorama tours, plans, sections, and elevation data derived from the 3D models and a collection of photographs documenting African

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...

sites, which were created and provided by the

Zamani Project The Zamani Project is part of the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database. Zamani is a research group at the University of Cape Town, which acquires, models, presents and manages spatial and other data from cultural heritage sites ...

. This collection includes the Djingereyber mosque in Timbuktu, the great mosque of Djenne, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Petra, the Swahili ruins on Kilwa Kisiwani and Sonog Mnara, the Lamu fort, the Shela mosque, Elmina Caslte, Fort of São Sebastião, and many more. This content area also includes a large collection of African Rock Art. * Struggles for Freedom: Documents, images, and other materials documenting the liberation struggles in Southern Africa, including those from

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

External links and Further reading

Project briefing
at the meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information * Meeting of Africana Librarians Council at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

* Introduction to Aluka from the

Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 127 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and resea ...

* Isaacman, A., Lalu, P., Nygren, T. 2005. Digitization, History, and the Making of a Postcolonial Archive of Southern African Liberation Struggles: The Aluka Project. in Africa Today v.52 no.2.
Can Technology Save the Developing World
in the

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to r ...

July 21, 2006. * Building a Digital Library of Scholarly Resources from the Developing World: An Introduction to Aluka, Rajan, R., Ruther, H. in African Arts v.40 issue 2. * Documenting African Sites: The Aluka Project, Rajan, R., Ruther, H. in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians v.66 number 4.
Project Digitizes Works from the Golden Age of Timbuktu
in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' May 20, 2008.
The Rush to Save Timbuktu's Crumbling Manuscripts
in the Der Spiegel August 1, 2008.

References

{{Reflist, 40em American digital libraries Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Academic publishing Non-profit organizations based in Princeton, New Jersey Geographic region-oriented digital libraries Organizations established in 2003

Content

See also

External links and Further reading

References