University of Cape Town Libraries


University of Cape Town Libraries is the library system of the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Chancellor Oppenheimer Library is the main library in the library system and is located on UCT's upper campus, with seven branch libraries situated across various campuses. The system holds roughly 1.2 million print volumes and has access to over 100,500 print and online journal subscriptions. An Africana research collection can be found in the Special Collections Division and consists of numerous monographs, periodicals, ephemera and multimedia sources.
UCT Libraries are specialists in subject areas including African Studies, Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Government Publications, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law and Science.

Branch Libraries

Seven branch libraries are included in the UCT Libraries system:
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Professor W.S. Logeman,a multilingual philologist at the then South African College was the founder of what became the University Library. From 1905 to 1920, Logeman was appointed Honorary Librarian and became the first chairman of the University Library. To commemorate his contribution in the founding of the university's library system, the Logeman Reading Room within the Hiddingh Hall Library was established in 1967.

Repositories

OpenUCT is the University of Cape Town's open access institutional repository. It houses scholarly outputs such as theses, dissertations, journal articles and other open educational resources. The platform was launched in 2014 and managed by UCT Libraries according to UCT's Open Access Policy. The Libraries' Digital Library Services department is involved in a retrospective digitisation project of all UCT theses. The aim is that all UCT's Master's and Doctoral theses, dating back to 1929, will be available via OpenUCT.
ZivaHub is the University of Cape Town's institutional open access data repository. It houses scholarly outputs such as books, conference contributions, datasets, figures, journal contributions, media, online resources, posters, preprints, presentations, and software. The platform was launched in 2017 and is managed by UCT Libraries according to UCT's Open Access Policy and UCT's Research Data Management Policy. The Digital Library Services department, together with the UCT-wide network of Data Stewards that it convenes, actively curates the submissions to ZivaHub. The repository allows researchers to securely store and share research data supporting other scholarly outputs. Ziva is a Shona word meaning "to know".

Manuscript Collections

The Manuscripts and Archives Department collects primary source material of historical value for use by the academic community and other researchers. It is housed in the J. W. Jagger Reading Room of UCT Libraries. There are currently more than 1500 collections, some of which are highlighted below.

Political Collections