From LAM to GLAM

Posted on April 26, 2021

From the ancient Mouseion and library in Alexandra, Egypt, to 18th-century England, museums, archives and libraries have always been natural partners. Historical objects and books were kept side by side, creating knowledge spaces for reading, collecting and scholarship.

Libraries and museums began to diverge largely because of the increased size of their collections; it was easier to keep books and objects of rarity separate. Over time, museums, archives and libraries became separate disciplines and followed separate paths of professionalism. But in recent decades, the grey lines of separation have blurred, as libraries and museums are often located close to each other, within larger institutions such as universities.

Each had developed unique histories yet emerged as libraries, archives and museums (LAM) in the early 1990s. LAM institutions are educational, yet remain historical and contemporary institutional repositories of knowledge. They go beyond the support of learning, teaching, training and research, and are instead stewards of information and places of preservation.

As part of its strategic campaign (2020-2025) to widen access and deepen engagement, the University of Pretoria Museums (UP Museums) partnered with the UP Alumni Relations Office to launch a cultural campaign called GLAM (galleries/gardens, libraries, archives and museums). GLAM is a well-recognised acronym and is an industry sector common in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK, among others, and is the later iteration of LAM. UP GLAM was founded by the UP Museums during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to collectively and collaboratively bring together knowledge found within galleries/gardens, libraries, archives and museums.

Partnerships and transdisciplinary collaboration across UP GLAM remain ongoing. Many joint exhibitions have been installed by the UP Museums and hosted by the Department of Library Services at the University of Pretoria (UP Library) over the years. Preservation projects as well as much of UP’s art collection can be viewed within the library, such as the large UP Centenary Tapestry. GLAM’s partners are important places of academic knowledge, yet are also spaces to ensure wider public engagement, and to widen access and promotion to UP alumni specifically.

Another focus of the UP GLAM is libraries., most notably the Special Collections Unit. The UP Library curates, maintains and provides access to some of the University’s unique collections for the benefit of the UP community and wider society. UP Library and its Special Collections play a key part in the art, culture and heritage of the institution, both as a partner in and within its position on the University of Pretoria Heritage Committee.

The Special Collections Unit contains the largest collection in the Africana collection, and focuses on the fields of historical and heritage studies, arts, indigenous crafts, and the fauna and flora of sub-Saharan Africa, according to Nikki Haw, co-ordinator of Special Collections.

The unit is housed in the Merensky 2 Library and dates from 1932, when the decision was first taken to build an Africana collection. At first, the existing collections in the library were used, but later £100 a year was allocated for Africana purchases to further develop this collection. Various donations over time have added to the unit, and have included valuable primary materials, ranging from magazines, travel narratives, and historical manuscripts to an extensive Africana book collection, among many others.

The oldest book in the unit is an edition of Summa De Casibus Conscientiae (Cases of Conscience) by Angelo Carletti di Chivasso, published in 1491. The book is described as “a dictionary of moral theology”, but was often publicly burnt in 1520 as it was considered a symbol of Catholic orthodoxy. One of the most treasured books is the first edition of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus, published in 1543. Several other special books include a signed first edition of Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, as well as a second-edition copy of Holism and Evolution which belonged to Jan Smuts, and contains personal annotations.

One of the most valuable special collections, largely unresearched at UP, remains the ethnological work of Dr NJ Van Warmelo (1904–1989), the internationally recognised anthropologist and former government ethnographer. This extensive southern African collection comprises 97 boxes of manuscripts, mainly covering the South African indigenous groups. More than 600 of these manuscripts are digitally available on the institutional repository known as UPSpace.

South African Heritage Publishers has been working to translate the available manuscripts for research and wider accessibility. City Press newspaper also ran a series on the work in 2020, and a call was put out to assist in finding the relatives of the original authors of the manuscripts. Thus far, the details of a few of the authors of the manuscripts have been identified, and are listed on the SA Heritage Publishers website, on the Ancestral Voices webpage (www.saheritagepublishers.co.za/ancestral-voices/).

GLAM hopes to act as a conduit to promote research and public access to UP’s cultural works. It allows UP to widen its impact, accessibility, and inclusivity, and honours the diversity of UP’s art offerings. Alumni will find value in learning more about GLAM through bespoke museum tours and via the UP Alumni Connect app, special GLAM events and online discussions.

For more information on the Special Collections Unit, contact Nikki Haw at [email protected] or visit the Special Collections webpage on the library’s website: www.library.up.ac.za/special

 

- Author Dr Sian Tiley-Nel

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