Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF)

Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) is a research and training partnership funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. The partnership brings together scholars, heritage professionals and communities motivated by recognition that cultural heritage resources sustain relationships to place and foster community well-being through knowledge revitalization. But to be usable, those resources and insights must be accessible to descendant communities; the data on which they are based must be sustainably curated and archived; and, where appropriate, the lessons drawn and sources of insight shared with broader audiences as a means to improve futures. These are the urgent challenges our partnership addresses with a focus on Ghana.

The three-year Partnership Development Project (2018-2021) will create digital heritage collections that foster new forms of research and knowledge mobilization relevant to communities, scholars and the broader public. A key project outcome will be a public-facing Ghana Heritage web portal through which users can access sustainably archived digital heritage resources. The portal will provide entry to an expanding array of heritage resources (photos, videos, data bases, maps, reports) housed in trusted digital repositories distributed across institutions and countries. Working collaboratively with Ghanaian communities, the project will co-create relevant heritage resources, promote training and provide mentoring in the archiving and uses of heritage resources that can help to build sustainable futures. The project also aims to produce an educational benefit by developing English and first-language heritage curriculum for Ghanaian schools, fostering both literacy and digital literacy.

Primary contact: Dr. Ann Stahl, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, located on the traditional territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. E-mail stahlann@uvic.ca

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)

  • Developing Photo Metadata (2019)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Ann Stahl.

    This handout, "Developing Photo Metadata," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. The focus of this guide is on creating metadata for photographic collections. While there are many metadata categories that can be included in describing photographic collections, choices about which ones to include in a metadata template must be made. Metadata categories you record should anticipate your needs and those of future users of a...

  • Digital Data Management Plan Workflow (2019)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Rachel Fernandez.

    This handout, "IAfF Digital Data Management Plan Workflow," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. This guide leads you through prompted sections to create a preliminary digital data management plan that can be used for any project that produces digital data.

  • File Format Cheat Sheet (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "File Format Cheat Sheet," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. This guide describes access and archival file formats that are required when creating digital objects. A table of recommended archival and access formats for various media types are included.

  • How to Organize and Scan Photographic Collections (2019)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Ann Stahl.

    This handout, "How to Organize and Scan Photographic Collections," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. When working with photographic collections, it may come to you as a set of prints, negatives or slides. This handout provides a brief background on each medium and provides a recommended workflow for working with photographic collections. Helpful resources and practice questions are also included.

  • Making Digital Copies of Photographic Prints (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Making Digital Copies of Photographic Prints," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. This guide walks you through the process of digitizing photographic prints from properly setting the scanner to creating archival and access copies. Best practices for file naming conventions and batch processing are also discussed.

  • Sample Dublin Core Cataloguing Guidelines (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Sample Dublin Core Cataloguing Guidelines," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. A sample list of Dublin Core metadata categories and associated definitions and examples are outlined in this guide.

  • Scanning from Slides and Film (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Scanning from Slides and Film," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. The digitization process for both film and slides are described along with the pros and cons of scanning these media compared to photographic prints.

  • Scanning to a Text File (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Scanning to a Text File," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. Although PDF is a convenient format for reading and sharing textual documents online, there are times when it is most useful to create a fully editable transcription of a document. This guide walks you through the steps on creating a Word document from a paper report. Anytime that you have a paper copy of a document, and you would like to have a digital,...

  • Scanning Unbound Documents (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Scanning Unbound Documents," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. Although it is possible to scan printed documents on a photo scanner, it is more convenient to purchase a document scanner if you are going to do a lot of this kind of material. A document scanner is optimized for scanning documents quickly, and it comes with optical character recognition software that can turn an image into editable text. This guide...

  • Tips for Producing Good Quality Video (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Tips for Producing Good Quality Video," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. Best practices when producing video including camera orientation, lighting, and transferring files from camera to computer are discussed in this guide.

  • Using Adobe Premiere Elements to Edit Video (2018)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Goddard.

    This handout, "Using Adobe Premiere Elements to Edit Video," is a part of the Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) Digital Resource Guides. It is a step by step introductory guide in using Adobe Premiere Elements to edit videos.