SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ARCHIVE

VISIT THE SAHA WEBSITE

The South African History Archives (SAHA) needed to both revamp the look of their website, and undertake a major digital cataloging of their collections.

Archives on the internet

By far the most complex part of the project was writing scripts to allow SAHA to import information on items in their collection. The problem was that the information had previously been kept in a variety of formats, and it needed to be converted and presented in a consistent format. Added to this, we needed to adhere to the digital archival standards known as EAD and Dublin Core.

The resulting system takes a variety of formats and converts them into the standards. The infomation is then displayed on the website for users to browse through.

Redesign

SAHA deals with archives from the 80's and 90's in South Africa - everything from Defence Force records, to Free Mandela posters, to Truth and Reconciliation Commision records  We took the metaphors of files and documents to create the look and feel of the site. Staples, faded paper and tabbed files all make up the design, as well as the thick black edges of old photographs and the thick black marker of the censor's pen.

BESPOKE CMS TOOLS

The largest part of this project was developing the Content Management System (CMS) tools to allow the staff at SAHA to upload Collections or create Collections.

On top of the basic set of content management modules in the Black Square CMS, this bespoke module was carefully tailored to deal with a specific set of data that needed to be transformed into a standardised format that could be easily worked with in the CMS and easily navigated through on the website.

FROM OUR CLIENT

The Black Square team responded innovatively and attentively to the niche needs of the South African History Archive. By developing a bespoke content management system in line with international archival standards, Black Square has enabled SAHA to raise the visibility of our archival collections, to manage our organisational information more efficiently, and to exchange materials and metadata seamlessly with other archives and online repositories in a range of collaborative projects. Since launching the site, we have consistently received compliments about both the creative design and the usability of the website, and feel confident that the web solution developed for us by Black Square will continue to meet the needs of the organisation into the future.

Catherine Kennedy

Director, SAHA