 Aluka logo | |
Type of site | Digital library |
|---|---|
| Owner | Ithaka Harbors |
| Created by | Aluka |
| URL | http://www.aluka.org |
| Commercial | Not-for-profit |
Aluka was an online digital library focused on Africa-related material. It focused on globally connecting scholars by building a common platform for online collaboration and knowledge sharing. Aluka's intended audience was higher education and research communities.[1]
Aluka was an initiative of Ithaka Harbors, a non-profit organization focused on incubating promising new projects that use technology for the benefit of higher education. It aims to grow successful projects into independent services or adjoined to larger, existing organizations for the academic community. In June 2008, the Ithaka and JSTOR Trustees approved a recommendation that the Aluka initiative be integrated into JSTOR.[2]
Founded in 2003, Aluka was an initiative of Ithaka, a non-profit organization based in New York City and Princeton, New Jersey. The initial funding was provided by the Mellon Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation.
The first release of Aluka took place in early February 2007 with preview access to JSTOR subscribers. Aluka was made free to all academic and other not-for-profit institutions in Africa.
The name 'Aluka' is derived from a Zulu word meaning 'to weave'.[3]
Aluka sought to attract other collections of scholarly interest from institutions and individuals worldwide. By bringing materials together, it created new opportunities for research and collaboration. Documents and materials that were previously hard or impossible to access were made globally available to researchers.
- ^ Isaacman, Allen F; Lalu, Premesh; Nygren, Thomas I (2005). "Digitization, History, and the Making of a Postcolonial Archive of Southern African Liberation Struggles: The Aluka Project". Africa Today. 52 (2): 55–77. doi:10.1353/at.2006.0009. ISSN 1527-1978.
- ^ "JSTOR and Ithaka Merge, Uniting Efforts to Serve the Scholarly Community". USC Libraries. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
- ^ "Aluka - Association of Southeastern Research Libraries". 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2022-07-30.