From its inception, the goal of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University has been to collect as comprehensively as possible materials from and related to Africa, regardless of subject. Due to this comprehensive collection policy, the library contains many materials that are not readily available at other institutions in the United States, Europe or Africa, as was made evident by last year's SCOLMA presentation on materials on sport at the Herskovits Library.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the Herskovits Library began to consider digitising portions of its unique resources, not only to better serve its local community of researchers on the Northwestern University campus but remote users as well, regardless of location. Along with increased availability, such digitisation would support broader access to primary resources in African studies, leading to expanded research as well as enhanced teaching and curriculum enrichment, especially for undergraduate students.

In 1994 around 800,000 Rwandan people were killed in a hundred days of genocide. The Aegis Trust, a genocide education charity, began collecting testimonies from survivors in 2004 and, in partnership with Kigali City Council, established a national memorial site and archive, known as the Genocide Archive of Rwanda. In addition to the testimonies, this Archive now houses a wide range of materials such as footage of Gacaca court proceedings and annual remembrance ceremonies, maps, historical photographs, colonial documents, propaganda literature, identification cards and other official documents. To increase the accessibility of these archival materials, on 10 December 2010, the Genocide Archive of Rwanda launched its own website (http://www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw). providing members of the international community with an opportunity to explore the digital database. As yet, the digital archive contains only a small number of the testimonies that have been recorded.

‘A Very Different Land’ tells the story of how the strong . agricultural economy of present day Kenya is based on the agriculture of the Colonial period, a story told through the eyes of my father and his colleagues. My father, Owen, was an Agricultural Adviser in Kenya from 1928 to 1950, rising from Assistant Agricultural Officer to assistant director of the department. It was a period which saw a transformation in farming throughout all parts of Kenya.

Kenya was always part of my life. I grew up surrounded by talk of life in Kenya, and it was a benchmark of comparison and memory. My parents both loved their life there and my childhood was full of reminiscences and Swahili phrases; when we went to France and my parents were searching for a word in French, out came a word in Swahili.

The first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, delivered his 2012 Christmas message in front of a portrait of David Livingstone at the exhibition in the National Museum of Scotland. Salmond stressed the values and achievements of the great Scot and suggested that they should energise Scots to fresh accomplishments in the future. This adoption of Livingstone as a heroic ideal to be followed in the present symbolically heralded the year of events, conferences, publications and web developments for the bicentennial year.

This report summarises the extraordinarily diverse way in which Livingstone, born on 19th March 1813, has been commemorated in a variety of different communities, academic, museum, public, medical, and religious - in both Scotland and in Africa. There was an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland with an accompanying book edited by Sarah Worden (reviewed elsewhere in this issue).