How to Navigate the Digital Archive
Welcome to the Liliesleaf Digital Archive!
PLEASE NOTE: The web interface of this digital archive is best browsed in the Firefox browser.
Liliesleaf has embarked on a project to build a digital archive. Digisation has been carried out since 2012 and is continuing today. The digitised material is loaded to a digital repository system. This website is the web interface to that system.
The Digital Repository
Although this may look like a simple website, it is actually the web interface to what is known as a digital asset management system that will preserve our valuable digital files for future generations and present them to our community. It is not designed primarily for viewing material online, but rather finding the material you are looking for and then ordering a high-resolution download.
Search
If you know what material you are looking for feel free to search for a topic of interest in the search box. If you are wanting to discover what we have, then it is best to go to the Browse area.
Browse
The Browse area presents materials that the Archivist has curated. As more material is added to the digital archive the galleries presented here will grow.
Viewing Manuscripts
Because this is a web interface to the high-resolution archival quality files, different media types are presented on the system in various ways. Photographs are simple to present, since each photograph is a single item. Manuscripts, however, are somewhat more complex since they have multiple pages. It is helpful to understand the options that are being presented to you on the system. To see what the manuscript looks like, click on theView Flipbook option. Once this window opens, click on the top right-hand corner or bottom right of the page to turn over to the next digital page (you may need to resize the pop-up window that the Flipbook loads in to see both pages, by dragging one corner of the pop-up window.)
To search for specific text within one of the manuscripts, click on the “Download Plain Text” link. This will download a plain text PDF that you can then search in a PDF reader by using the keys Ctrl F (Windows) and Cmd F (Mac).
Order
You can also order a high-resolution version of a manuscript, photograph, video or audio file by clicking on the order link. If this is released to you then you will have a high-quality version of the file. For manuscripts, this file not only looks like the original but is also fully searchable in Adobe Reader. These files are made available for research use only and we request a donation to help to sustain the archive.
Donate
If you would like to donate material that should be included in the archive or if you would like to donate towards this project of building and sustaining the digital archive, please email Ivy Chitambo.