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Collection Growth, New Milestone
In July 2025, the MEAP Digital Collection reached a significant milestone, surpassing 100,000 unique digital objects. These materials are from 44 different collections from 27 different countries and include over 100 different languages and scripts. The breadth of MEAP collections is remarkable: objects include video and audio recordings, photographs and negatives, letters and correspondence, newspapers, magazines, manuscripts, and more from across the globe.
Connecting MEAP collections through the UCLA Digital Library allows users around the world to track photography across continents, document Human Rights organizations in numerous countries, hear voices and watch moving images from South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.
As a result of MEAP grants, these collections are now not only accessible, but can be found alongside each other, shifting narratives both locally and globally.
Linguistic Diversity Across Collections
As MEAP collections surpass 100,000 objects, the linguistic diversity continues to grow with over 100 languages documented across all materials. Through multilingual metadata, printed materials, and a range of audio recordings, MEAP captures, documents, and preserves materials in multiple global and local languages.
Audio collections reflect the most linguistic diversity. Explore these collections:
- The Archive of Sound and Vision, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan(opens in a new tab) from Nigeria includes audio and print materials in 38 different languages.
- The Recordings of Hereditary Musicians of Western Rajasthan(opens in a new tab) from India includes musical performances in 13 languages.
- The Ricardo Montejano Collection(opens in a new tab) from Mexico includes 3,300 audio recordings that document Mexican social movements and indigenous cultures through the voices of social activists, peasants, native (indigenous) Mexicans, musicians, traditional physicians, and guardians of traditional culture. The collection documents 26 languages.
- The Radio Rurale de Kayes Collection(opens in a new tab) from Mali includes popular songs, oral traditions, and broadcasts in vernacular languages from the Radio Rurale de Kayes station's creation in 1988 through the 2000s. Broadcasts include 5 languages.
