P Jordan: South African library week

14 March 2009

Ms Rachel More, President of South African Library and Information
Association (LIASA)
Executive Mayor of Msunduzi
Members of the LIASA representative council
Members of the KwaZulu-Natal library and information services
Local councillors
Officials of various government departments
Honoured guests

It is my pleasure to participate in the launch of the 2009 South African
Library Week with the theme “access for all at your library.” The Department of
Arts and Culture is committed to the growth, development and promotion of every
aspect of our national culture and heritage that contributes towards the
improvement of socio-economic conditions of all people. For this to succeed we
need to strategically position libraries as partners in education and social
development. We need to encourage a reading culture that sparks off critical
thinking and debate.

The theme “access for all at your library” is of extreme importance to South
Africans. Our not too distant history showed how the deliberate withholding of
information, knowledge and education resulted in a disparate socio-political
order, Apartheid. Yet this did not detract from the parallel proliferation and
development of workers libraries and community resource centres throughout the
country which ensured that the sharing of information was a key component of
the liberation struggle. But now we have the responsibility of creating an
informed nation as a reality that we can be proud to behold.

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
clearly states, “All human beings have the fundamental right to have access to
all expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity, and to
express their thoughts in public.”

The Bill of Rights in our Constitution affirms this through its declaration
that everyone has the right of access to information. By having access to all
the information necessary to make informed decisions, democracy can only be
enriched, enhanced and entrenched in the minds of our citizens. To this end,
libraries can serve as the means to mould the minds of our nation, as well as
foster the possibilities and potential of a nation. We can therefore describe a
library as the key to mental and intellectual freedom!

“Access for all” implies a huge burden of responsibility as it encompasses
every individual from all strata of society. The impact hereof may be felt
in:
* the design of library buildings which should facilitate ease of use for
visually and physically challenged people
* collection-building and development that will cater for all levels of
literacy, ages, education and language preferences
* bridging the digital divide that will ensure that the relevant and
appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) resources and
training are available
* the provision of free library services nationally
* the emergence of a dynamic local publishing industry that focuses on works in
all literary genres and non-fiction in African languages in order for South
Africa to become a nation of readers
* research, learning and teaching
* contributions to local economic development.

In its efforts to address and eliminate past injustices and inequities,
South African society, including the Library and Information Services (LIS)
sector, need to be guided by developmental goals and relevant global trends.
The LIS sector, especially public and community libraries, is facing a huge
increase in the demand for their services, with regard to study space, study
collections, neo-literacy collections and ICT access.

Through the Department of Arts and Culture, the government’s community
libraries services grant has gone a long way towards contributing to the
increased book collections, staffing and upgrading of library buildings. Over
two hundred librarians were employed at a community level in the first year of
the grant and 450 000 reading material items were purchased. Here in
KwaZulu-Natal I want to applaud the initiative in using young people as
‘cyber-cadets’ to assist with the utilisation of new computers by learners. New
libraries are being built and in the North West and the Northern Cape exciting
and creative outreach programmes are being implemented.

In partnership with State Information Technology Agency (SITA) the
department will roll-out a new integrated library management system in six
provinces. Earlier this year we launched 27 titles of reprinted African
classics at the National Library as part of our broader goals of promoting and
preserving our heritage. The challenge, however, will be sustainability. Whilst
the traditional role of libraries has to be reconceptualised to realise these
demands, we must also acknowledge the importance of the recreational role of
libraries. Reading is an activity that should be encouraged in all age groups.
A young reader will be a willing learner and will read throughout his or her
life. Lifelong readers mean that there is a market for books and a market for
writers and the promotion of writing and publishing is also one of the missions
of my department.

Libraries can and do play a vital role in eradicating illiteracy and
inculcating a mindset of lifelong learning. Although the sharing of information
is indispensable to the national development agenda as well as to the efforts
to stimulate socio-economic development and to sustain human rights, we are
faced with the challenge of locating libraries as community hubs. The lack of
basic and advanced reading skills and an appreciation of the importance of
reading prevent libraries from assuming their rightful role in our
communities.

We have enjoyed the support of major foreign donors such as the Carnegie
Corporation of New York and the Andrew Mellon Foundation in the development of
libraries, in promoting a culture of reading, library leadership development
and the preservation of our heritage. We also need to explore the partnership
opportunities between local government, public libraries and private
enterprises in promoting the all important role and services of libraries. We
need to realise that without a culture of reading and high literacy rates, we
cannot succeed with our development agenda as these skills form the basis of
critical thinking and decision making.

Msunduzi Municipal Library formerly The Natal Society Library has provided
public library services for the people of Pietermaritzburg since 1850. On 1
April 2004, libraries and staff of The Natal Society were integrated into the
Msunduzi Municipality as Msunduzi Municipal Library Services. The main library,
named the Bessie Head Library, and eight branch libraries, aim to provide a
comprehensive library service to all residents of Pietermaritzburg and the
Msunduzi Municipal area.

The Adults Reference Library has been in existence for 157 years. It was
founded by a group of prominent residents who hoped to promote the old Colony
of Natal by collecting and disseminating accurate information. These were the
core activity of the Natal society, out of which both the library and the Natal
Museum grew. This library has an extensive collection of reference materials
and information resources with which it is able to support research, business,
government and vocational endeavours and the needs of tertiary level
students.

The legal deposit collection was established in 1916, when this library was
one of the five libraries in South Africa accorded legal deposit status. This
privilege has helped make it into one of South Africa’s major research and
information libraries. Legal deposit libraries play a unique and very important
role as custodians, in perpetuity, of this country’s cultural wealth and
information. Through the Adult Reference Library all the citizens of South
Africa have access to this huge collection of South African books, pamphlets,
government publications, periodicals and newspapers.

The extension to this building which is known as the Bessie Head Library is
an excellent example of a successful partnership. The new developments which I
had the honour to open in 2007 were funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New
York and supported by the provincial and local governments. This established a
model children’s library at a cost of R30 million from Carnegie and from the
KZNPPLIS. This is a tangible symbol of the transformation of libraries in our
country.
 
The process of transformation has been sped up by the development of the
Library Transformation Charter which is almost complete. The Library
Transformation Charter will be a framework for the transformation of the
library sector in the country and will signify the commitment of stakeholders,
including all spheres of government, LIASA and other stakeholders to the
development of libraries in South Africa. Public hearings were held in each of
the nine provinces and a national summit was held in December 2008 in Pretoria
were all key stakeholders and community members were consulted. The charter
will be presented to the Council of Culture Ministers (Minmec) for endorsement
and to cabinet for approval.

The unification of the divided library associations and organisations was
achieved when a unified body representing all librarians was established in
1998. My department has been a strategic partner for LIASA during the course of
its existence. We acknowledge LIASA as the representative of the LIS profession
in South Africa and have readily supported the activities of LIASA. Financial
support is earmarked annually for the LIASA conference and the launch of the
South African Library Week.

A major milestone for South Africa, LIASA, the LIS profession, and the
African continent, was the hosting of the 73 World Libraries and Information
Congress (WLIC) of the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA), in Durban in August 2007. This was a first for South
Africa, and my department was a full partner in this event. We played host to
an exceptional event and gave over 3 500 international librarians an experience
of a lifetime. The generous grant given by Department of Arts and Culture also
supported the attendance of many South African LIS workers to this congress.
This was truly an opportunity for the entire African continent to celebrate and
for us to showcase South African libraries and librarianship.

Together with LIASA, we must look at innovative ways of advocating for
libraries, strengthening and enhancing the skills of the current cadre of LIS
workers and attracting more people to this extraordinary profession. We must
aim to make this a profession of choice and not a last resort choice.

Let us commit ourselves to using libraries to unlock the minds of our
nation, become repositories of our cultural heritage, showcase our literary
talent and become an active role player in bridging the digital divide.
In the words of Ray Bradbury, the famous science fiction writer, “without
libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
14 March 2009