Special Collections: Manuscripts

What is a finding aid?

Finding aids are tools that help a user find information in a specific collection, or search in manuscripts. Examples of finding aids include published and unpublished inventories, catalogues and indexes. Formal publications that help a user find information regarding a record group, collection, or series of archival materials are also finding aids.

What is Referencing?

We reference to acknowledge the other person's intellectual property. Intellectual owners can be an author of a book or article, a designer of a poster or product, creators of films etc. 

About the section:

• We preserve original manuscript collections reflecting South Africa’s past.
• More than 400 collections of individuals and institutions.
• The Manuscripts section, in collaboration with Library Senior Management, will consider donations of original manuscript material of individuals and institutions with research value.
• With donations, a donor agreement between the Library and Information Service and the donor must be signed.
• This section strives to build a collection relevant to current academic research and collects works within its focus areas, worthy of preserving for the future.
• Manuscript collections are sorted, fully indexed and catalogued and finding aids for the collections (inventories and catalogues) are available in the section.