As part of AT and the Northwestern University Library’s digitization efforts, NUAMPS partnered with the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, the NU Library, Digital Media Services, and Cushing Color, a Chicago-based imaging services firm, to create a digital counterpart to the Herskovits Library’s extensive collection of African Maps.
Established in 1954, the Herskovits Library is the largest separate Africana collection in existence. The map-digitization undertaking produced digital copies of 113 antique maps of Africa dating from the mid 16th Century to the early 20th Century. These maps are now showcased on a new site.
NUAMPS responsibilities included consultation on acquisition, image quality checks, image post-production, and a number of forms of dissemination such as the development of an African Maps screensaver deployed in the InfoCommons and the future creation of a 2East Gallery exhibition of map details.