Biography: Originally trained as typesetter (Berlin) I later studied Printing Technologies (Leipzig) and subsequently worked for a Printing Press and Publishing House in Berlin. Coming to South Africa 1991, I joined the University of the Witwatersrand as an administrative staff member and completed a BA in Information Science at the University of South Africa. I joined the Historical Papers Research Archive in 2007, and completed my MA (Heritage Studies) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2009. Having worked at the Historical Papers Research Archive for more than 12 years, I have been part of digitization projects initiated by our archive, as well as training programs funded by the South African National Research Foundation. We have successfully implemented our archival repository based on AtoM as one of the first Universities in South Africa. At the same time we were also instrumental in accentuating the role and status of archives in civil society, with events and initiatives around 'Archives and Democracy', something which I have become passionate about in recent years.
