In October 2015, a programme of workshops on literary manuscripts was hosted by the National Archives of Namibia and the National Library of Namibia, with presentations from several SLA members, under the auspices of the Diasporic Literary Archives Network. The workshops were attended by archivists, librarians, authors, representatives of authors and their estates, and government officials; and two full days of lively discussions ensued.

See the full programme here: Literary Archives Writers’ Workshops (PDF or DOCX).

A number of outputs are now expected from the workshops, of which the most important should be the arrival at the National Archives of Namibia of several literary collections, some of which were promised during the workshops themselves. In addition, the period October-December 2015 should see:

• The agreement of a Strategic Plan for Namibian Literary Archives
• The development of a Literary Collecting Policy for the National Archives of Namibia
• The creation of a Namibian version of Authors & their Papers
• The development of a document outlining the respective roles of the National Archives of Namibia and the National Library of Namibia
• The drafting of a template legal agreement between authors donating their papers and the National Archives of Namibia
• The facilitation of joint work with Namibian authors on the development of a stronger “reading culture” in the country

Namibia was a founding partner in the Diasporic Literary Archives Network, and developed a number of original new collecting initiatives from 2012 onwards. If the action plans which follow from the workshops are successful, it is hoped that they might provide a template for some other countries: a Namibian Toolkit.