Page 35 - Annual Report 2023

6.5 Transformative agreements
As part of the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLIC), the LIS is transforming existing publishers’ agreements to repurpose subscription funds to include gold open access publication of all Unisa-authored manuscripts. In 2023, the LIS participated in 11 transformative agreements and signed new agreements with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Institute of Physics and Oxford University Press. The Unisa Library added four new transformative agreements through SANLIC.
6.6 African Digital Library
The LIS continues to enhance the African footprint and access to information through the African Digital Library (ADL) (URL: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=url).
In 2023, 217 e-books were added to the collection, resulting in a grand total 13 852 items that are accessible on the African continent, free of charge.
6.7 Digitisation of heritage collections (TMPL – digitisation)
The Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library (TMPL) collection was prioritised for digitisation and access via the Unisa Library Digital Collections platform. At the end of January 2023, the LIS had 39 linear metres of documents needing to be sorted and prepared for scanning. Nine additional staff members from the Records Management Division and two from Examinations started on 8 March and worked until 7 September 2023 to assist the LIS. More than 101 broad subjects were identified for sorting and numbering, without being arranged and described. Sabinet came on site to do the scanning of the documents on 21 February 2023. Sabinet completed the scanning of the documents by the end of April. The scanned images were then stored in a cloud-based location for the further inclusion of metadata and uploading to CONTENTdm by the cataloguers.
Figure 30: Image of broad subjects identified for sorting
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