GISA was situated in Stellenbosch and before closing down its Board decided to donate the geological collection, consisting of film rolls and apparatus, books, clippings, photographs and reference works.
“This collection belonged to the HSRC between 1971 and 1997 and forms the key collection of GISA,” said Petronella Coreejes-Brink, Co-ordinator: Special Collections at CPUT Libraries.
“The collection fits well and will complement the special collection that already exists within CPUT Libraries, it can thus add a lot of value to the collection of CPUT Libraries.”
Coreejes-Brink added that the collection would form part of the bigger community support collections that the university is starting.
During the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions recently, Dr Andrew Kok, GISA Chairperson, thanked CPUT for raising its hand in keeping the collection.
Kok hailed the state-of-the-art infrastructure in the university’s Wellington Library, where the collection is kept, as well as the staff members dedicated to it.
“People from all over the world can now see it, which was not the case before.”
Dr Elisha Chiware, Director: CPUT Libraries, thanked Kok for conferring custody of the collection upon the university and said CPUT would keep it safe and make it accessible to academics and researchers.
“It [the collection] won’t be used for gaining profit but for advancing the field of genealogy and help members of the public track down their lost loved ones,” said Chiware.
Coreejes-Brink said that in the future they will investigate further partnerships with other universities that have similar collections.
