Library Collection as a Source of Communal Heritage Reconstruction: Cataloging, Digitizing, and Interpreting the San/Bushmen Collection at the University of Botswana–Okavango Research Institute Library

Abstract

Established in 1982, the University of Botswana (UB) library acquired various collections of missionaries, travelers, explorers, anthropologists, and colonial commissioners in its “Botswana Collection” section. One of these, the Heinz Collection, serves as the case study for this article and is evidence of the range of collections acquired from the library’s founding until 2010, when it ceased to be the sole national university in the country. The Heinz Collection documents the San/Bushmen/Basarwa’s (indigenous community in Botswana) way of life as documented by a former European civil servant. In researching the collection, the authors shed light on the collection’s significance and the cultural heritage of the indigenous San/Bushmen communities that Dr. Heinz lived among and documented during his lifetime. The collection illustrates the impact of social, economic, cultural, governance environments on a community’s way of life and, consequently, its cultural heritage.