Technological Infrastructure for Open Data Preservation and Sharing of Classical Literature in Indigenous Languages

South Africa has a rich collection of classical literature written in Indigenous languages. However, much of this literature remains difficult to access due to unclear copyright legislation, out-of-print works, and inadequate digital infrastructure for converting print materials into digital formats. Many classical texts are either no longer in circulation or preserved only within restricted physical collections. This qualitative case study examines the technological infrastructure needed to preserve and share classical literature in Indigenous languages, focusing on the Reprint of South African Classics in Indigenous Languages Project at the National Library of South Africa (NLSA). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with purposively selected staff members involved in the identification, acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of classical Indigenous language literature, and were analyzed thematically. The findings reveal that current preservation efforts rely largely on physical storage and legal deposit systems, while digitization and open data initiatives remain constrained by inadequate infrastructure, funding constraints, and copyright restrictions. The study concludes that sustainable digital preservation requires an integrated socio-technical infrastructure that combines digitization systems, digital repositories, appropriate metadata, skilled personnel, institutional collaboration, and mechanisms for managing copyright and access.