Preserving endangered zoological archival material in the National Museums of Kenya (EAP1122)

Aims and objectives

At the National Museums of Kenya, we have endangered archival animal (amphibians, reptiles, fishes, birds, mammals, invertebrates) material in various forms namely; black and white photographs, slides, illustrations, natural history notes, field notes, original catalogue or accession sheets/books. The present condition of most of the material is not good due to the hard use, poor storage environment and the risk of accidentally being disposed as waste. In their present and deteriorating condition most of this material may not last in the next several decades or century, despite their information being irreplaceable, a reason that calls for their urgent digitisation and the original be forwarded to the archives.

Outcomes

This grant has succeeded in making the digitised information about the material openly accessible to the general public and the world, thus adding value to the current scientific information on different zoological taxa. In addition it has also helped to identify other gaps and needs for digitizing zoological material and has increased knowledge of the diverse materials for digitisation and how to prioritise them.

The records copied by this project have been catalogued as: