The Google Grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Earlier this week the Google Foundation announced a significant grant to further the work of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. This marks the beginning of a collaboration that will:1. Provide much needed resources to help the Centre expand global access to the life and times of Nelson Mandela, through the Centre’s “Mandela Portal”. The grant has no conditions attached other than requiring us to adhere to established financial management requirements.2. Enable the Centre to pursue a key strategy: the systematic digitising of archival materials, including film, paper-based records, sound recordings and photographs. The first priority of digitisation is of course to secure and preserve the archive by creating digital version back-ups to all original materials. The second objective is to provide web-based access to digital content to audiences throughout the world. As part of its public information work, the Centre does not intend to charge subscription fees or other forms of payment.Finally, this grant does not in ANY WAY involve the transfer of rights to any outside party of archival material held by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. It is also worth noting that neither the Google Foundation nor the Google company ever requested such rights. We are proud to welcome Google as a partner. Their wealth of knowledge and experience will be of immense help in this age of the digital archive.Achmat DangorChief ExecutiveNelson Mandela FoundationTel: +27115475600www.nelsonmandela.org