Donation of valuable resources to the Jotello F. Soga library

On January 23, 2019 the Jotello F. Soga Library received a valuable donation of scientific tick sketches and signed copies of books about the current state of the biology of ticks of Southern Africa and the world.

The donors are:

• Prof Ivan Horak, a dedicated researcher and world expert in ticks and parasites. He is an Emeritus Professor in the Dept of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science and has contributed to more than 300 scientific publications. He was the receiver of several national and international prizes during his research.
• Ms Heloise Heyne, a well-known tick and parasitic mite taxonomist of the ARC, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications and was the first Curator of the Gertrud Theiler Tick Museum at the ARC, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research.

The donation consists of original coloured and black and white sketches of ticks as published in several books and articles authored by them. The original detailed sketches were created by the artist and scientific illustrator, Andre Olwage. All black and white and coloured sketches were financed by Prof Ivan Horak, except for the black and white Rhipicephalus sketches financed by the late Dr Jane B. Walker of Onderstepoort Veterinary Research. Dr Jane B. Walker (1925-2009) was an internationally renowned expert on the Rhipicephalus tick species of the world. In her testament, the sketches, used for the book “The genus Rhipicephalus (Acari, Ixodidae): A guide to the brown ticks of the world”, were bequeathed to Prof Horak and Ms Heyne. Photocopies of the original sketches contain handwritten notes about the research Jane Walker did and add enormous value to the donation. The physical sketches will be stored in acid-free paper and containers to prevent future deterioration of the original paper sketches. CD’s with the digitised images of the sketches, owned by Mr Andre Olwage, will at a later stage be donated to the library for addition to UPSpace.  By uploading the collection of sketches to our repository, the preservation of this scarce and unique resource will be ensured for future use.

Prof Horak donated signed copies of the following two books to the library:

• Horak, I. G., Heyne, H., Williams, R., Gallivan, G.J., Spickett, A.M., Bezuidenhout, J.D. &  Estrada-Peña, a. (2018) The Ixodid ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of Southern Africa. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-70642-9.
• Guglielmone, A. A., Robbins, R. G., Apanaskevich, D. A., Petney, T., Estrada-Peña Agustín and Horak, I. (2014) The hard ticks of the world : Acari, Ixodida, Ixodidae. Dordrecht: Springer.

Ms Susan Marsh thanked the donors for their contribution to the Jotello F. Soga Library’s collection. The Library greatly values the donation that will definitely assist in providing a better service to the research community.