Acting Chairperson
Honourable Members of the Legal Deposit Committee
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning
I would like to extend a warm welcome to you on this very special day where we have come together to meet one another and to start planning on the objectives that this specialist committee would be engaged with during its term of office. I want to congratulate you on your appointment to the Legal Deposit Committee, and convey my sincere gratitude to you for accepting your appointment to serve on this committee. The programme for the day makes provision for you, especially the new members, to be orientated on the legislative framework and the purpose of the committee and the responsibilities that would be entrusted to you during the next three years.
I would like to repeat to you what I conveyed to the Council of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) during its inauguration on 24 August 2010:
“By accepting this challenge, you have automatically joined the Department’s pursuit of its vision to develop and preserve South African arts, culture and heritage to ensure social cohesion and nation building. You have joined us in the consolidation and promotion of policies, programmes and projects that are designed to achieve this noble vision. Together we shall work hand in hand in ensuring that financial and human resources that are set aside to give fruition to this vision are properly utilised.”
Our President said in his State of the Nation address on 11 February 2010 that government is committed to five priorities, which are: education, health, rural development and land reform, creating jobs and fighting crime. Government has placed education and skills development at the centre of its priorities, and it is our aim to improve the ability of children to read, write and count from early on. As custodians of our documentary heritage it is incumbent upon you to promote your activities and resources extensively to our communities.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the Bill of Rights recognises the right of everyone to have access to information. This right will not be realised by many in our communities unless you as places of legal deposit reach out to them. We live in an Information Age where access to and the usage of information forms part of our daily activities. We experience an increased abundance of information on both published and digital formats. Your ability to adapt to the changing environment of collecting and preserving these formats will determine your success. One of the biggest challenges in the legal deposit sector has always been the collection and preservation of digital publications as well as commercial and private publishers’ work. These publications are continuously changing and therefore difficult to identify.
My Department is in the process of developing a national digitisation policy for the digitisation of heritage resources. The digitisation of heritage resources will be an important milestone in our cultural collective memory. We must make use of the unique opportunities provided by technology in recording, preserving, and promoting access to the knowledge held within our memory institutions.
The South African government acknowledges the value of libraries and the supporting role that libraries play in fulfilling the society’s need for knowledge and information. It is part of my Department’s priorities to establish official publications depositories (OPDs) in all provinces to serve as centres for promoting public awareness and to give access to official publications and information held by government. To date four OPDs have been designated, i.e. one each in the Free State, North West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga, and the other provinces are encouraged to apply for this status too. My Department has since 2007 started with a recapitalisation programme to transform community library and information services sector, to improve access to information and communications technology (ICT), and to build infrastructure in remote rural areas. Since the introduction of the programme we have seen an increase in the usage of libraries especially by young people.
My department is aware that publishing and reading in African languages must be encouraged, and is currently engaged in a project with the National Library of South Africa to reprint classic literature in African languages. Copies of these works are distributed to community libraries via the provincial Departments of Arts and Culture.
One of the objectives of the department is to promote access to information for the visually impaired by extending library and information services to them. My department has always worked closely with stakeholders in this sector and has accepted the previous committee’s advice to make provision in the Legal Deposit Act for the Head of the South African Library for the Blind to be represented on this committee. In addition my separtment will commission an investigation into national Braille production needs and policy matters in South Africa during this coming year. The purpose of the investigation is to develop a common, generally accepted Braille production strategy and a well-coordinated South African Braille production sector in order to render a more effective and efficient service to visually impaired readers.
In conclusion: I would like to encourage the committee to familiarise itself with the broad policy imperatives and strategic framework of government. This will inform your planning and daily operations.
I trust that you would truly live up to the vision of the Legal Deposit Committee by providing dynamic and strategic leadership with regard to the collection and preservation of the South African published heritage, and to give free access to this material.
Chairperson, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to declare this meeting open and the Legal Deposit Committee truly launched. May a very exciting and successful term of office lie ahead of you!
Thank you.
Source: Department of Arts and Culture
