Digital libraries: Google grants to preserve African history

In March 2011 Google announced that it was awarding five grants totaling US$5 million to African projects.

One of Google's grants will be given to the Nelson Mandela Foundation Centre of Memory, which is digitising photographs, letters and other documents relating to the former South African president. The grant will assist in expanding the online Mandela archive and make it available to global audiences, scholars and researchers in the future. In addition to significant audio-visual materials, the online multimedia archive will include his letters and correspondence with family, comrades and friends; prison diaries during his 27-year imprisonment; and notes he made while leading the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa. In addition to the funding, Google will contribute expertise in document digitisation and archiving. The company has spent the past seven years scanning millions of texts as part of its Google books initiative.

A similar project, chronicling the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will also receive a $1.25m grant. The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, will assist in the documentation and digitisation of Desmond Tutu's archives and provide an interactive digital learning centre.

Grants to African projects are expected to improve internet access and enable African countries to participate in and contribute to the global Internet.