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S A Library Week 2008 | Media statement | History of S A Library Week
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South African Library Week is now a fixture on the country's national calendar of commemorative days. And that is thanks to LIASA's spearheading of process to get the Week recognised that libraries across South Africa now celebrate this week (17 March - 22 March 2008).
The vision was to celebrate a truly national library week, one that would embrace all types of libraries and all kinds of users and potential users, celebrating the country's intellectual and literary heritage. The aim to highlight the role that libraries play in a democratic society.
In 2001 LIASA initiated a drive to have the week recognised by government as a commemorative period on par with Water Week etc, when all types of libraries across the country would use it to market their services to their users, the broader community, civil society and decision makers. A formal applications was launched to the then Minister of Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology - Ben Ngubane. The then Deputy Minister of the Department, Brigette Mabandla, suggested that the week be renamed South African Library Week instead of National Library Week. And in 2002, South African Library Week became part of the national calendar.
LIASA, as part of the drive to make this a national event, selects the theme and produces an official poster (with the financial support of sponsors Red Pepper, Ebsco and Swets) which is distributed to all LIASA branches. The national launch of the Week takes place in different provinces each year, hosted by different branches.
The week within which 20 March falls is celebrated as National Library Week (now called South African Library Week). The date was chosen based on research into the history of libraries in South Africa. The South African Public Library, now known as the National Library of South Africa (Cape Town), was established by government proclamation on 20 March 1818.
Also given that Human Rights Day is celebrated on 21 March, and given that the freedom of access to information is enshrined in our Bill of Rights, there is an important link between this important historical event in libraries, with a crucial date in our new democracy.
In the event of that day falling within a weekend, the week before is celebrated as South African Library Week.
The idea of a National Library Week is not new and is in fact a customary celebration in numerous countries. In South Africa, it had been suggested as early as 1965 at the Annual Conference of the South African Library Association, but nothing came of that until 1985, when Public Library Day, driven by the Public Libraries Group of South African Institute for Library and Information Science (SAILIS) was celebrated on 6 June. In 1988 SAILIS declared that from that year onwards, the third week of May would be celebrated as Library Week.
But Library Week was mainly celebrated in the public library sector and spearheaded by the various Provincial Library Services and during the last two weeks of May.
LIASA joined in the celebrations, marking National Library Week in 2000 from 15 - 26 May with the theme "reach the world @ your library", with the distribution of a poster. In 2001, National Library Week was celebrated 14 - 25 May with the theme "African Renaissance through Libraries", with the distribution of a poster.
But with the recognition of SALW and the change in dates, the national launch was celebrated in 2002 with a theme "Free your mind - read!" at the Jerry Moloi Community Library in Etwatwa (Daveyton) on 16 March 2002, hosted by the Gauteng North and South branches.
In 2003, the name of the week was changed to South African Library Week, with the theme "Your Right to Read". The theme reflected that libraries render services to all members of the community, including the disabled, that it is the responsibility of every librarian to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to exercise their "Right to Read". The launch event was held at the Robert Moffat Mission Trust in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, hosted by the Northern Cape branch.
2004 saw South Africa celebrating 10 years of Democracy with the theme "1994 - 2004: Libraries in a Decade of Democracy". In celebration, librarians across the country were asked to nominate what they considered to be the Top Ten South African books published during the decade, and which they considered should be available to every South African. At the launch event at the Central Library in Cape Town, hosted by the Western Cape branch, the Top Ten South African books were announced and the authors of these books were invited to read from their works.
"Libraries: opening the doors of learning and culture to all" was the theme for 2005. The theme was derived from President Thabo Mbeki's inaugural speech when he called for learning and culture to be made available to all South Africans. In addition, it was also the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, a milestone in South Africa's struggle for liberation and the basis on which the new South Africa is founded. It was seen as an opportunity for libraries around the country to demonstrate their contribution to learning and culture. The national launch event was held at the Kliptown Library, a highly appropriate venue, given that it was in Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was signed. The national launch was hosted by the Gauteng South branch.
In 2006, we continued to focus on the role that libraries can play in a democratic South Africa with the theme "Libraries: partners in learning, nation building and development". The theme explored the various ways in which libraries as the repositories of knowledge and information for future generations contribute to learning, nation building and development. The national launch was hosted by the Free State branch in Phuthaditjhaba, ("Meeting place of the Nations") at the R.J.R. Masiea Public Library. At the same event the R.J.R. Masiea Public Library was declared an Official Publication Depository.
In 2007, the theme was "Libraries: your key to the future" where libraries are seen as "universities of the poor" because they bring within the reach of all, the wonder contained in books and other media. Indeed, keys to the future. The national launch (reported on elsewhere in this issue) took place at the Saulsville Community Library in Atteridgeville, hosted by the Gauteng North branch.
In 2008, South African Library Week was celebrated from 17 March - 22 March 2008. The theme was "from local to global @ your library" which was inspired by the story of Neal Petersen. He is a South African yachtsman who was the first black man to sail solo around the world, who says that he would not be where he is today without libraries. Growing up as a young boy on the Cape Flats, he discovered sailing and the art of navigation through books in his local public library and from there truly went from local to global through his library.
Libraries bridge the world and are places of opportunity, as Neal testifies. Libraries are about more than having access to information; it is about what one does with that information and where it can take one. Imagine a young boy discovering books about sailing; a university student doing research; an academic finding the latest research through resources made available by the library; the budding entrepreneur getting guidance on how to set a business up; the young schoolgirl locating information for her research, or an unemployed person posting his/her curriculum vitae (cv) on to websites using the computer provided by the public library or emailing in response to an advertisement he read in the newspaper at his library.
Libraries are also about reading and encouraging a culture of reading, enabling one to explore the world and to broaden one's horizons … "going from local to global". Think about the internationally published writers who started out by attending writing workshops at their public library; there are the literacy classes run by libraries. What of the steel trunk and container libraries of Biblionef taking books to the rural areas? What about the project by the National Library of South Africa to publish and disseminate more books in indigenous languages? The examples are endless.
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