Bianca Lawrence, a Facebook friend of the Antarctica Legacy of South Africa, recently made contact with the project to say that she was downsizing and needed to dispose of her collection of 150-odd books on Antarctica, offering them to ALSA. Bianca has written to ALSA of her interest in polar literature:
“I was on the S.A. Agulhas 7th Voyage in May – July 1979 as a technical assistant with a geophysical team from the University of Witwatersrand’s Bernard Price Institute. Our voyage also changed the Marion Island Team. We went to Marion, Prince Edward Island and did dredging in sub Antarctic waters. I am presently a librarian at the Cedara College of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in Kwa-Zulu Natal.”
ALSA archives only virtual data and has no space to keep more than a few books in its home in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University. Its electronic archive of photographs, scanned documents and oral interviews is hosted by the University’s JS Gericke Library. So ALSA’s Archivist, Ria Olivier approached the library this month to see if it had the interest (and capacity) to house donated Antarctic and sub-Antarctic books – starting with Bianca’s. We are pleased to say that a positive response has been received from Dr Ellen Tise, Senior Director of the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service and the Science Faculty Librarian Marié Theron will oversee the acquisition process. The way is now open for Bianca’s books to remain together for scholarly research and general interest alike.
ALSA will now design a bookplate with its logo and space to add the names of donors, and is currently making plans to transfer Bianca’s 10 wine boxes of books from Kwa-Zula Natal to the Western Cape. Books donated via ALSA will also be listed in the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa Database noting they are available for consultation in the JS Gericke Library. Duplicates not required by the library will be housed in the ALSA office on the campus for the duration of the project.
Following on from Bianca’s kind and valuable gift, I will donate most of my own Antarctic books (some 100 volumes) which are not duplicated by Bianca’s to the JS Gericke Library, keeping back just a few that cover Dronning Maud Land that I still need for regular consultation. The intended donation of my much larger collection of sub-Antarctic literature will be delayed for a few more years yet.
Feature photograph: Bianca Lawrence’s Antarctic books – before packing them up for ALSA
John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany & Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 29 May 2016
