Alexandrea, Egypt The Planetarium Bibliotheca Alexandrina · 2015. 12. 8. · 12th Annual Conference The world’s window on Egypt Egypt’s window on the world At the forefront of

OFF

ICIA

L M

AG

AZ

INE

OF

LIBRARY & INFORMATION ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4 • DECEMBER 2010

9 771562 760442

ISSN 1562-7608ISSN 1562-7608

THE KEY OF LIFE

Alexandrea, Egypt

The Library Wall

The Planetarium

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Library staff

Denise Nicholson Elmari Kruger

12th Annual Conference

The world’s window on EgyptEgypt’s window on the world

At the forefront of the digital age

A centre for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding

2 LIASA-in-Touch DECEMBER 2010

The end of the year is rapidly approaching and

before we know it we will be faced with new

challenges for 2011. Diarise the week of 19-26

March 2011 when South African Library Week will be

celebrated. More details will be made known very

soon.

The current paid-up membership stands at 1445.Thank you to those of you who have already renewed.Members are reminded to renew their membership for2011 to continue to enjoy benefits. The early bird specialends on 31 December 2010. To qualify for the Early Birdfee, you have to ensure that payment is made by the31st. You are now able to renew or join online via thenewly updated LIASA website. You will receive aregistration number which you need to use when youdeposit your membership fee. This will enable the officestaff to reconcile your payment in the bank account.Please remember that your membership will not beprocessed until payment has been received and that youhave to send the proof of payment to the office.

We are very proud of the updated and refreshedwebsite and would welcome your comments.

We have had to say goodbye to Francien Maritzwho has retired from the LIASA office. We want tothank her for managing the membership adminis-tration and for her wonderful contribution to the LIASAteam. Good luck Francien with your next greatadventure. You are a role model for your continuedpassion and contribution to the profession.

On behalf of the LIASA Executive Council and theLIASA Representative Council, we would like towelcome Ms. Louise Coetzee, who has been appointedas membership administrator. Louise will be adminis-tering and managing the Association’s membershipdatabase as well as other membership tasks. Louisematriculated from Framesby High School in PortElizabeth and then attended the University of PortElizabeth. She taught at the Commercial High Schoolwhere she was also the school librarian for sevenyears. She has worked in the offices of the Departmentof Water Affairs and Forestry and PBMR (Pebble BedModular Reactor). At PBMR she worked on andinitiated various databases, placed contracts, sourcedbooks and information from all over the world andcontrolled a large library budget. Louise is married toJannie Coetzee and has two sons. Her passions arecharity work (Lions of Pretoria South), cookingtraditional South African dishes, pearl binding and

dogs.Louise took

up her poston 15Novemberand can becontacted atthe LIASANationalOffice ontelephone 012328 2010, via

fax on 012 323-1033 or 086 6188 620, or via email [email protected]

Members are invited to visit the LIASA nationaloffice anytime when you are in the vicinity. Theaddress is 227 Proes Street, Pretoria. Contact details ofthe office: Tel: (012) 323-4912, Fax: (012) 323-1033.

Please feel free to communicate with the office withregards to your membership or other queries. Theoffice staff is committed to provide the best servicedelivery. The office team consist of Hannelie Brink,Office Manager ([email protected]), Louise Coetzee asmembership administrator([email protected]/[email protected]) andAnnamarie Goosen as CICD Coordinator([email protected]).

The LIASA office will be closed from 24 Decemberand will reopen on 3 January 2011. Season’s greetingsto all. Naomi Haasbroek

N AT I O N A L O F F I C E N E W S

LIASA-in-Touch:

Published quarterly by the Library andInformation Association of SouthAfrica.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of LIASA or the Editorial Staff.

Acknowledgments:

Photographs: LIASA members or otherwise specified

Copyright statement:

© 2001: Library and Information Associ-ation of South Africa.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, storedin a retrieval system, or transmitted, inany form or by any means, includingelectronic, magnetic or other means,without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Editor & News & Advertisements:

Marié RouxLibrary and Information ServiceStellenbosch UniversityTel: (021) 808-2623Fax: (021) 808-3723E-mail: [email protected]

Proof reading: Lyn Steyn

Design to print: Muhdni Grimwood

LIASA office:

LIASA House, 228 Proes Str., PretoriaFax: (012) 323 1033Telephone: (012) 328 2010Website: www.liasa.org.za

Hannelie Brink (Office Manager): [email protected] Francien Maritz (Membership): [email protected] membership@ liasa.org.za (012) 323 4912

Annemarie Goosen: (CICD Office):[email protected] or (012) 324 6096

CONTENTS :

From the new LIASA President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

LIASA 2010:

LIASA’s 12th Annual Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Opening address by Minister of Arts and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

LIASA Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Inauguration of LIASA’s Justice Albie Sachs Freedom Award . . . . . . . . . . . 7

e.tv at LIASA 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

My first LIASA Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Free Staters enjoy conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Membership:

Renewal of LIASA membership for 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

General Interest:

Recognising Excellence Awards, Cape Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

iLEAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

UNISA mobile bus outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

LiSLIG National: Authority Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Rebecca Senyolo @ IFLA 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Puppetry presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

SALW 2011: Read in Your Language @ Your Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

LiSLIG National Exco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Feature Article

Look into the past and reveal the future: The Library of Alexandria . . . . . . 12

NLSA

Book Restoration Workshop in Richmond (N-Cape) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Regional News:

LIASA KZN-RETIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

LIASA KZN General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

LIASA Northern Cape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

LIASA Free State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

LIASA Eastern Cape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

City of Johannesburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

People & Letters:

On the Move, Retirement & Memorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3Volume 11 • Issue 4 DECEMBER 2010

This is the

first time

that I will be

writing to you in

my capacity as the

President of

LIASA. It is al-

ready three

months since our

Annual Confer-

ence held at the St

George’s Hotel

and Conference Centre in Gauteng. Thank

you to the Local Organising Committee,

Exhibitors, Sponsors, Speakers and Dele-

gates for contributing to a very successful

conference. I want to acknowledge with

gratitude the contribution from the Depart-

ment of Arts and Culture who provided a

grant with which 70 delegates were sup-

ported to attend the conference; funded

various expert speakers; and paid for ICT

and AV equipment. Congratulations to the

Winners of the LIASA Librarian of the Year

award and thank you to UKS, EBSCO Infor-

mation Services, EBSCO Publishing and

SABINET for sponsoring this award so gen-

erously. The Justice Albie Sachs Freedom

Award was handed over for the first time

due to the contribution of Clare Walker and

support from the Finnish Library Associa-

tion. Congratulations to Mr Piet Westra as

the very first winner of this award. Well

done also to all the nominees who all

make significant contributions to the free-

dom of access to information.

Congratulations and welcome on boardto all the members of the incomingExecutive Committee and RepresentativeCouncil for the term of office 2010-2012.Also congratulations to all members of theBranch Executive and Interest GroupCommittees. Thank you for makingyourself available to serve the Associationand the profession in this way. I want tothank you for trusting me to provide

leadership and to be the custodian of theassociation for the next two years. I wantto assure you that I know how great thisresponsibility is and I am committed tobuilding the Association to be strong,vibrant and visible.

I am indeed fortunate that I will be ableto build upon a very strong foundation thathas been put in place by the leaders ofLIASA that went before me. I would like topay tribute to the strong, capable andvisionary leadership who were instru-mental in transforming LIS in South Africa.It is through their efforts and vision thatLIASA was born, nurtured through infancyand grown to its first decade and beyond.LIASA has been placed on a solid footingand can boast amazing achievements in itsshort history. LIASA has earned respectamongst its peers on the African continentand have become a truly global force,which can be seen through the leadershipthat LIASA members are providing on theinternational arena. Please allow me tocongratulate the immediate past president,Rachel More for successfully delivering onher theme and the goals set for her term ofoffice. Her clear vision and leadership setthe example for the rest of the team andinspired us to focus our combined energiestowards what we wanted to achieve. Underher leadership LIASA showed growth andattained stability, both financially andoperationally.

The theme of my Presidential term is:Into the future: Mapping the way forward

through leadership, advocacy and growth.

So what do I want to achieve during myterm of office?• Development of strong and capable

future leaders for LIASA• Stronger and effective branches • Growth of membership• Financial sustainability• Visibility through marketing and

advocacy

• Improvement of our flagshipprogrammes, the LIASA AnnualConference and SALW

• Strong and dynamic leadership for theprofessionThe following are strategic priorities for

LIASA:• Statutory status for LIASA• Stakeholder relationships• Revitalization and growth of the

profession• Advocacy for libraries and library

services• Responding to needs and challenges of

the professionThe new Executive Committee is ready

to take on the challenges. We will have aStrategic Planning weekend from 16-18December to brainstorm and develop ourstrategy for the next two years and to mapthe way forward to address the prioritiesand goals mentioned above. ThePresidential Theme will be fine-tuned andhoned to provide us with the vision anddirection for LIASA.

In conclusion – to the members ofLIASA – we have to take combined respon-sibility to drive LIASA into the future.Continue to support the association andcommunicate to us your needs, criticalissues and wishes for LIASA. You have animportant role to play in mapping thefuture of LIS in South Africa. Let us indeeddrive access to knowledge for ourcommunities and the country.

I pledge my commitment to provideleadership and strategic direction to takeLIASA to new heights in the future.

Wishing you all a wonderful end-of-yearbreak and for those of you celebratingChristmas, may your celebrations beblessed. Please travel safely and returnwell rested in the New Year.

Naomi Haasbroek

LIASA President

FROM THE NEW PRES IDENT

12th Annual Conference27 September - 1 October 2010

Saint George Hotel, Centurion, Gauteng

The 12th LIASA Annual Conference

was held at the Saint George Hotel

and Conference Centre 27 September

until 1 October 2010. LIASA adopted the

Presidential theme of Ellen Tise, current

IFLA President, namely “Libraries driving

access to knowledge”. The IFLA President

herself delivered an address on the open-

ing day of the conference.

The conference was officially opened bythe Minister of the Department of Arts andCulture, Lulu Xingwana. The keynoteaddress was delivered by well knownexpert on advanced technologies, PieterGeldenhuys.

The programme made provision for avariety of sessions for all levels of LISworkers and also covering the different

specialist areas of librarianship, such aspublic, government, special, academiclibraries, as well as IT, cataloguing,acquisitions and school libraries.

Other matters of national importancediscussed at the conference included adiscussion on the need for school libraries,the impact of the Protection of InformationBill, driving access through technology,library leadership, library services forclients with special needs, marketing inlibraries, collection development, the roleof LIASA in quality assurance in highereducation, among others.

Information on internationaldevelopments included amongst otherseServices in German Libraries, Web 2.0technologies in libraries and online access

for the Public at the United States NationalArchives. A very valuable and relevantpresentation on how Open Access providesnew opportunities in Africa provided anoverview of the current status, progressmade and future directions on thisimportant matter.

Annual General Meeting A detailed annual report was presented tothe AGM. The President highlighted the fol-lowing matters in her report:1. Progress on the establishment of a

statutory body included the implementa-tion of a pilot project and a presentationwas made to conference to provide op-portunity for input.

continued overleaf


The 2011 LIASA Membership Fees wasrecently announced at the LIASAConference. As of 1 January 2011, thefollowing membership fees will apply:

Did you know that you can now registeronline? Log on to www.liasa.org.za andclick on the Join LIASA link. However, beadvised that your registration will not be

processed until your payment has beenreceived!

LIASA’s growth depends on YOU! Joinnow or renew your membership. Also, donot forget to recruit new members as well!

Raspby RamugondoLIASA EXCO Convenor: Membership

Fee

R375

R215

R110

R55

R1650

R220

R100

Membership category

Individual membership

Full time students / pensioner

International Individual

Africa Individual membership

SA Institutional membership

International Institutional

Africa Institutional membership

Renewal of LIASA membership for 2011

2. Membership increased by more than16% in 2009 and more than 6 % in 2010.

3. With the support of members, donorsand partners, the financial situation hasimproved significantly and LIASA hasabout R1 million in its accounts.

4. An interactive website was launchedduring the AGM and the online registra-tion option demonstrated.

5. Amongst others, media coverage, publi-cations, South African Library Week(SALW) and “Every child a book” cam-paign contributed to the promotion ofLIASA and its goals.

6. Over the last two years, LIASA has pro-vided valuable training opportunities formore than 1000 librarians via the Centrefor Information and Career Developmentand sponsorship from the Carnegie As-sociation of New York. CEPD also pro-vided various training opportunitiessupported by the SABINET grant.

7. LIASA has secured representation onthe Board of the ETDP SETA and Cham-bers of Higher Education, Further Educa-tion and Training and Provisioning. Being an election year, the new

Executive Committee was announced atthe AGM and introduced to the members.

Awards and achievements 1. Honorary Membership was awarded to

past LIASA Presidents Robert Moropa,Tommy Matthee and Rachel More.

2. LIASA Librarian of the Year. Ms DeniseNicholson was selected as the Librarianof the Year, Ms Elmarie Kruger was therunner-up and Ms Ingrid Thomsonachieved 3rd place. Once again theLibrarian of the Year was generouslysponsored by UKS offering a 1st prize ofR30,000.00, EBSCO Information Servicesand EBSCO Publishing jointlysponsored the 2nd prize worthR20,000.00 and SABINET sponsored the3rd prize worth R10,000.

3. President’s Award for the Best Branch.

All Branches are evaluated in terms ofoutput, marketing, member numbersand activities. The Western Cape Branchwas awarded the Best Branch. This yearan award was also made to the mostimproved branch and the Eastern CapeBranch scooped this honour.

4. The Justice Albie Sachs Freedom Award

was launched at the conference andoriginated from a proposal by Ms CWalker. The goal of the award was tohonour the “unknown librarian” thatJustice Sachs mentioned in his speechat the opening of the IFLA Conference inDurban in 2007. That “unknownlibrarian” had been instrumental inproviding him with books during theperiod he spent in detention - a fact that

he has never forgotten to this day. The Award is a departure for LIASA

whereby the association will honour SouthAfricans who support the concept offreedom of access to information – it is abold stand that we are taking and it showsthat we have grown as an organisationwhen we are able to look beyond theboundaries of our Association and honourcitizens who have made such meaningfulcontributions to our society in this area.

The first recipient of the Award was PietWestra, former Director of the SA Libraryin Cape Town (now the National Library,

Cape Town) and the presentation wasmade during a plenary session duringwhich Justice Albie Sachs shared“Memories of a book-loving activist” withparticipants.

The presentation of the award wasfollowed by a book signing where JusticeAlbie Sachs signed copies of his latestbook The Strange Alchemy between Lifeand Law at conference.

ConclusionThe conference has indeed created aplatform for participants from varioussections and levels to engage; analyze anddebate the challenges of illiteracy, lack ofculture of reading and more specificallythe matters around the theme “Librariesdriving access to knowledge”.

Judy HenningLIASA Secretary (2008-2010)

Nazeem HardyLIASA National PRO (2010-2012)

No. of pre-Conference Workshops 13No. of plenary sessions 16No. of general plenary sessions 30No. of Interest Group parallel sessions 10No. of registered delegates 568

LIASA 12th Annual Conference in numbers

Position NamePresident Naomi HaasbroekPresident-Elect Ujala SatgoorSecretary Martha de WaalTreasurer Ina BothaPRO Nazeem HardyAdditional members Reggie Raju (Consitutional Matters & Governance)

Raspby Ramugondo (Membership)Segametsi MolawaMandla Ntombela (Branches & Interest Groups)

LIASA Executive Committee 2010-2012

continued from page 3 CONFERENCE 2010 • MEMBERSHIP

Past Presidents: Robert Marope, Rachel More and Tommy Matthee


CONFERENCE 2010

OPENING OF THE LIASA CONFERENCE WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF ARTS AND CULTURE, Ms LULU XINGWANA MP

ST GEORGES HOTEL, PRETORIA, 28 SEPTEMBER 2010

arts and cultureDepartment:Arts and CultureREPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

amendments to the current cohort of legis-lation that we administer to align them withnew government priorities. Such a reviewhas been completed in respect of the fol-lowing Acts:• The National Council for Library and In-

formation Services Act, 2001 (Act No. 6of 2001)

• The National Library of South Africa Act,1998 (Act No. 92 of 1998)

• The South African Library for the BlindAct, 1998 (Act No. 91 of 1998)

• The Legal Deposit Act, 1997 (Act No. 54of 1997).The draft Cultural Laws Amendment Bill

will be submitted to parliament after thefinal consultation process has been con-cluded.

The Library Transformation CharterThe Library Transformation Charter hasbeen completed and was recently pre-sented to the portfolio committee of artsand culture. The committee supported theCharter and congratulated the technicalteam under Professor Nkondo for a job welldone. We will soon submit the charter tothe select committee for recreation and ed-ucation for further consideration.

The Library Transformation Charter willbe a framework for the transformation ofthe library sector in the country. It will sig-nify the commitment of stakeholders, in-cluding all spheres of government, to thedevelopment of libraries in South Africa.

Once adopted by government the char-ter will raise the profile and status of the li-brary profession. The overall objective is toensure that the library profession becomesa strategic and transforming resource capa-

ble of improving the socio-economic conditions of society.

The Department is currently discussingthe draft South African Community Li-braries Bill, 2010. The purpose of the Bill isto set national norms and standards for thedelivery of library and information servicesin all provinces and to promote and de-velop community library and informationservices of a high standard.

Through this Bill we hope to address arange of challenges that still exist in thesector. Some of these challenges includecapacity issues, lack of ICT equipment, lackof indigenous language materials, openinghours, infrastructure, and the disparities inthe remuneration of librarians. We need toensure that we eliminate all the past injus-tices and inequities that were prevalentduring the dark years of apartheid.

The Department conducted an extensiveresearch on the training of librarians andother related professions. The recommen-dations of this report are currently receiv-ing attention and we will consult with theDepartments of Higher Education andTraining as well as Public Service and Ad-ministration before implementing them.

Community Libraries Conditional GrantsThe implementation of the communitylibraries grant continues apace. The projectaims to extend reading experience anddeliver library infrastructure and servicesto the previously disadvantagedcommunities, particularly rural areas.

An amount of R512 million will be trans-ferred to provinces in the current financialyear to support the appointment of morestaff in our community libraries.

In addition the funds will be used forproviding relevant library resources thatwill promote the government’s social cohe-sion and empowerment agenda.

Since the inception of the programmethree years ago over 600 professional andsupport staff has been appointed at com-munity libraries across the country. In aneffort to bridge the digital divide public in-ternet access facilities are also being estab-lished in all libraries. The provision ofcomputer facilities for the public in li-braries, accompanied by training in theirusage, provides quantitative evidence ofskills development in libraries.

Please read the full speech at: http://www.liasa.org.za/node/415

It gives me great pleasure to be with you

today and to be part of the official open-

ing of the 12th LIASA National Confer-

ence with the theme “Libraries driving

access to knowledge”. I wish to congratu-

late the organizers for bringing together

such a large number of librarians and other

information workers from all over the

country to focus on this very relevant

theme.

The annual LIASA Conference is an im-portant event in the calendar of the libraryprofession. It is during this time that you aslibrary practitioners reflect on what youstand for and the challenges that remain tobe overcome.

I am proud to confirm that my Depart-ment is committed towards the growth anddevelopment of the library sector. We be-lieve that access to information is a key ele-ment in the creation and building of aninclusive society.

A few weeks ago I launched the inaugu-ral National Book Week at Museum Africain Johannesburg. This initiative is aimed atpromoting literature in indigenous lan-guages as well as fostering a culture ofreading especially amongst our youth.

As part of our week long programme wedonated books to under-resourced librariesand schools. I am most grateful to the VanSchaik Publishers for their generous contri-bution in this regard. We hope to consoli-date these efforts in the future.

In addition to the national library week,which is celebrated in March, the nationalbook week will seek to coordinate the ef-forts of all partners in the promotion andpreservation of our documentary heritage. I therefore call upon you as library practi-tioners to take advantage of national bookweek and use it to create new audiences forour libraries.

Your conference theme, “Libraries Driv-ing Access to Knowledge” resonates wellwith the Department’s strategy of rollingout new library infrastructure to communi-ties. As the Department of Arts and Culturewe recognize the significance of access toinformation and its impact on the socio-economic conditions of our people.

Policy and Legislative ReviewAs you are aware, the Department of Artsand Culture is responsible for the overallpolicy development for libraries. To this ex-tent we constantly review and propose new


Six of the nominees for Librarian of the Year 2010 with new LIASA president, Naomi Haasbroek, far leftand outgoing president, Rachel More, far right

Second runner-up, Elmari Kruger, (middle), withEBSCO’s John Murray (left) and Colleen Mills

3rd runner-up: accepting the award for Ingrid Thom-son is Nazeem Hardy, with Ross Hattingh (Sabinet)”

Librarian of the Year, Denise Nicholson, with UKS’sNeesha Ramsumar

LIASA AWARDS 2010LIBRARIAN OF THE YEARThe 2010 LIASA Librarian of the Year Awardwas awarded to Denise Nicholson (GautengSouth Branch) this year. The runner up wasElmarie Kruger (Free State) and third placewent to Ingrid Thomson (Western Cape).The presentation of the Librarian of theYear Award was once again done at theGala Dinner held on 30 September, part ofthe annual LIASA Conference and one ofthe highlights of the week.

Denise Nicholson has been CopyrightServices Librarian at Wits University sinceNovember 1996. She provides a specialistcopyright management and advisoryservice to academics, support staff andstudents at Wits and attends to enquiriesfrom institutions, libraries, GovernmentDepartments and individuals from outsidethe University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

nominated for this award.The winner of the Award walks away

with a prize of R30 000 sponsored by UKS,the runner-up prize totals R20 000sponsored by EBSCO Information Servicesand EBSCO Publishing SA, and the thirdprize of R10 000 sponsored by SABINET.The prize money may be used for studyingpurposes, to undertake a study tour or toattend a Conference.

LIASA once again thanks its sponsorsfor making this award possible, for recog-nizing the contributions of our colleaguesand for contributing to our profession.

PRESIDENT’S AWARDThe President’s Award is awarded on anannual basis to the best performing Branchand is adjudicated on the work that theBranch does in marketing, advocacy andadministration. This year the Award onceagain went to the Western Cape Branch.This is the second successive year that theWestern Cape has won the award and the4th time that it has won the award, includingthe inaugural award. Runner up was theFree State Branch and the 3rd place went tothe KZN Branch. The winning Branch isawarded R5000 for their achievement.

This year an award was also presentedto the Most Improved Branch and thisaward went to the Eastern Cape Branchnetting them R1 000 for their achievement.

Nazeem Hardy

Elmari Kruger is responsible for theMotheo District Library Service.

Ingrid Thomson is the HumanitiesSubject Librarian at UCT and is responsiblefor the following subject areas –Librarianship, Film & Media Studies,Education, History and Social Development.

Seven nominations were received thisyear and the other nominees includedErika Rood (North West), Mona Niemand(Gauteng North), Caroline Madzhie(Limpopo) and Mariana du Toit (KZN). TheLibrarian of the Year has grown in statureand prestige over the years, having startedas the SABINET Librarian of the Year in2006 to the current format where the threemain sponsors award prizes totaling R60000. All the nominees received a certificaterecognising their achievement in being

The first Justice Albie Sachs Award wasawarded during the 2010 LIASA annualconference. The Award honours SouthAfricans who support the concept offreedom of access to information. Theinitial concept of the award was proposedby Clare Walker formerly of WITSUniversity library. The background to theorigin of the award can be found in theJuly issue of LIASA-in-Touch.

The award honours the “unknownlibrarian” that Justice Sachs mentioned inhis speech at the opening of theInternational Federation of LibraryAssociations (IFLA) Conference in Durbanin 2007. That “unknown librarian” hadbeen instrumental in providing him withbooks during the period he spent indetention - a fact that he has neverforgotten to this day.

“the unknown librarian … probably she, whoprovided me with these marvellous books. She never knewshe was doing it, but she was saving me. Without those

books I would not have survived my detention … myspirit and soul would have been destroyed. So it was alibrarian, quite unwittingly, like so many librarians in somany parts of the world, simply doing his or her job byproviding a resource, a bit of illumination and access to aworld that otherwise might never exist. It is somethingvery wonderful, something very precious, somethingmagical that your profession does.”

The first recipient of the Justice AlbieSachs Freedom Award went to Piet Westra,former Director of the South AfricanLibrary (now part of the National Library)in Cape Town.

Mr Westra was recognised for his worksupporting the right for the citizens ofSouth Africa to have access to informationat a time when the censorship wasrampant. Both in his capacity as LibraryDirector and as chairman of the SteeringCommittee on Censorship in the previouslibrary associations, he called for andcoordinated the submission of previouslybanned publications to the CensorshipBoard for review and managed to haveimportant books unbanned and madeavailable to the general public. He alsoensured that local universities knew of thespecial concession made to the SA Libraryto acquire any books or periodicals whichhad been banned and making theseavailable for research in the Library. In1994 he was elected to the workingcommittee which drafted a newPublications Act that established thefunctions of the current Film andPublications Board.

LIASA congratulates Mr Westra on hisachievement.

Nazeem Hardy

LIASA inaugurates the JusticeAlbie Sachs Freedom Award

Justice Albie Sachs presenting the award to Mr PietWestra at a special session arranged at LIASA 2010

CONFERENCE 2010


attend, but I do not regret the choices Imade. I attended the ICTLIG session, andleft being a Secretary of the Committee.The Chairperson of the outgoing Commit-tee, Lesiba S Ledwaba, updated the dele-gates on what has happened since theformation of the interest group… CharlieMolepo, Mary Nathoo, Narios Mpholefoleand Walter Siwele addressed the group ondifferent topics, ie. technological advancesin Library Management Systems; imple-mentation of State Library and InformationManagement Systems (SLIMS); Legal Deposit challenges, as well as legalizing the depositing of broadcast materials, and finally; the use of Free Open Source

Conference Experience and Highlights

Being at the conference for the secondtime in about 10 years was a beautifulexperience. Overall, the conference servedto awaken the sleeping Librarian in me. Itwas very interesting to see how much theProfession has grown, and how manyopportunities there are, since the last time Icared to pay attention. It was goodmeeting so many people that I knew.Contrary to the exterior look of the venue,the interior was very impressive. Well, tome at least… It was great to be among thefirst to register, before the rush.

I am a grateful South African having“witnessed” the sacrifices that were madeby those who fought the evils of the past,and were faced with “battles” that mygeneration and future generations willnever have to fight. The Constitutional Hilltour was one the highlights for me. Wethen had a great tour of some of theHeritage sites in Soweto, where we visitedNelson Mandela’s House, as well as theHector Petersen Museum. Thereafter, wevisited the beautiful Jabavu library, whichis in the process of growing its collection.Here, we also had our long overdue lunch,after 15h00… What a relief it was for all ofus! On our arrival back at the Hotel, the funrun was already starting, which sent mestraight to taking a bath and thereforemissing a medal.

At the conference, I heard for the firsttime, though not totally a new concept,about Cyberlibrarians (new role of librari-ans in a changing environment). It was dif-ficult deciding which parallel sessions to

Software in Enterprise Content Manage-ment.

The 2nd parallel session I attended wasfor the Free Access to Information andFreedom of Expression group (FAIFE).Among the papers presented was one bySiphiwe Sigodi about the Protection ofInformation and the Media Tribunal.

I just liked Justice Albie Sachs’ talkabout books and reading, and his sonOliver’s love for reading. His talk came during the Justice Albie Sachs Award… Ibought myself a copy of one of his books,which he autographed! One of the interest-ing quotes from the conference was; “Thefuture has already happened. It’s just thatit’s unequally distributed”. Other paperswere about Online Access providing newopportunities at the US National Archives,and Open Access providing new opportuni-ties in Africa.

Conference Lowlights…• Transport to Constitutional Hill came

after more than an hour. It seemed therewas no proper co-ordination, even afterwe had arrived. We did not get to visitthe Constitutional Court Library. I guessthis was due to our late coming. It tookclose to seven hours to have lunch!

• The cocktail evening was notimpressive. Someone said there was nocock, nor tail in it. My highlight for theevening was a Tswana dance performedby the youth.

• There was no proper organisation of thevisit to the Menlyn Mall, again!Oh, generally, I enjoyed the food on all

days!

Thobeka DakieTV Libraries and Archives, JHB

e.tv @ LIASA 2010

The highlights of the conference includedvisiting Constitutional Hill and the Constitu-tional Court; the Hector Petersen Memorial;the Mandela house in Vilakazi Street andlast, but not least, meeting and listening toJustice Albie Sachs. Through these events Ihave learnt so much about the history ofSouth Africa that you don’t hear of every-day, giving me greater insight and makingme proud to be a South African. The fun runthat I participated in was great and I reallyenjoyed the exercise part of the week andreceiving a silver medal.

The Gala evening was absolutely fantas-tic. It was a great pleasure reconnectingwith my librarian friends from back home;and seeing Gavin Davis, my lecturer fromUWC, performing with the band was a realtreat. And of course we danced until thelast song, not wanting to leave because wewere really enjoying the evening.

As a young professional in the Libraryand Information Service sector, I hope tobuild on what others before us haveachieved in LIASA and I hope to be anasset to the Association. It was a privilegeto be part of the conference and to soak upall the interesting points of information. Ihope that I can do my best to be a positiveand hard working member in the future.

Valdi Phillips

e.tv Libraries and Archives DepartmentCape Town

My first LIASA Conference

I was very privileged to be chosen toattend the LIASA Conference 2010 by mycompany e.tv. The experience left its markon me in the form of a very importantquestion posed at the LIASA conference:“what can I do for LIASA”? I thoughtabout it and I decided to heed the call toaction. I’m now delighted to say I am aLIASA member and I am going to work inthis organisation and make a difference.

The newcomers’ session helped a greatdeal in explaining the Week, what to doand where to go. LIASA’s then still Presi-dent-elect Naomi Haasbroek and Ujala Sat-goor made us feel welcome and interestedin the week ahead. There were loads ofsessions to choose from with very interest-ing topics and choosing which sessions toattend was very difficult. The displayswere very interesting; walking throughthem and getting a sense of what is on themarket really gave me a new view of whatcan be used to deliver a service to ourusers within the community. The speakerthat I was looking forward to hearing wasMs Ellen Tise, IFLA President and I was notdisappointed at all.

During the sessions, the topics thatstood out for me were the following:1. The Library sector needs a regulatory

body2. Technology is playing an important part

in our sector and we need to embracethe various technological areas enablingus to become better in the Library andInformation Services (LIS) environment

3. The Protection of Information Bill is athreat to the Library and InformationServices sector. As a sector we need tostand together to fight for the right ofaccess to information in our country andfor our profession. My first LIASA conference experience

was a great adventure, meeting and engag-ing with peers from all over the country. Al-though there were a few disappointmentse.g. the Menlyn Park Mall outing where wedid not get the 50% discount that shouldhave been organised for the conferencedelegates. I have decided just to laughabout it and remember the great time I had.

CONFERENCE 2010

Thobeka at Constitution Hill

Valdi with new LIASA President, Naomi Haasbroek


CONFERENCE 2010

The Free State Provincial Library &

Information Service sent a group of

18 delegates to the LIASA Conference

in Centurion. All testified that they

thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the

exposure.

Bernie Pelser, a Principal Librarian,Documentation at the FSPLISI had the privilege of attending the 12thannual LIASA Conference, held in Gautengfrom 27 September to 1 October 2010. Thetheme of the conference was “Librariesdriving access to knowledge”.

The venue was the Saint George Hoteland Convention Centre in Centurion, whichhas been described as “a Mediterraneanoasis in the heart of Gauteng”. It is indeeda beautiful place with a very calm and re-laxing atmosphere. As I was staying at thehotel, I had no worries about transport tothe different venues to attend sessions.Everything took place on the grounds,which was great!

This year they had about 50 exhibits.Among them were exhibitions of the De-partment of Sport, Arts and Culture, theNational Library, various booksellers, andsuppliers of library materials. There wasalso an exhibition on library systems, andthe North West Provincial Library Servicehad an attractive exhibition highlightingtheir toy library service.

About 50 papers were presented duringthe course of the conference. Speakers in-cluded national experts as well as four in-ternational speakers.

One of the presentations that stood outfor me was the keynote address deliveredby Pieter Geldenhuys, a Director at the In-stitute of Technology, Strategy and Innova-tion. His presentation was titled “Beyondcyberspace”. He started by saying that thefuture has already happened. We are livingit. In the next decade, 95% of video storeswill close down, you will have your veryown TV channel, augmented reality will re-define how we see the world, and you willbe able to carry 10 000 books in your bag.He then proceeded to show how each ofthe above phenomena are in the process ofbecoming part of our lives. Forces drivingthese technological changes are: - processing power, doubles every 18 mth- bandwidth (doubles every four months) - storewidth (doubles every 12 months).

All of these factors are contributing tothe creation of a new world. Geldenhuysstated that libraries/librarians must becomeexperts in technology and utilise new tech-nology (e.g. by creating a profile on Face-book or Twitter) to keep up with theirpatrons and keep them informed aboutwhat is happening at the library. This pres-entation was interesting, lively and fast-paced. Although the new ideas sometimesmade my head spin, it was very enjoyableand informative.

Another informative presentation wasthe one delivered by Ellen Tise, President ofIFLA. Her presentation was titled “Innova-tion and development through access toknowledge and technology”. She statedthat libraries must move away from simplyproviding information services and space

to becoming active participants in innova-tive developments. Libraries and librariansmust be early adopters of technology. Libraries must provide creative new serv-ices and tap into the creative potential ofstaff, vendors and customers. Major stridesmust be taken to open access to knowl-edge. Immediacy must be a priority for li-braries. The library environment ischanging in terms of greater access to in-formation and librarians must play a moredynamic role in the whole process. Thiscalls for a new breed of librarian, namelythe cyberlibrarian or cybrarian.

Another presentation I enjoyed and thelast I attended was the one presented onFriday morning by Barrie Bramley, “Be-yond the hype: how Web 2.0 is impactingtoday’s young people and how they’regoing to impact your business”.

Bramley gave interesting statistics toshow why we as librarians need to use thesocial platforms available on the Internet.He stated that in April 2010 Facebook had500 million users. Young people will con-tinue to use social platforms in the future,and we as libraries need to plug into thesesocial platforms and start using them asmedia to communicate with our users. Peo-ple want to contribute, collaborate and beinvolved. We have a connected young gen-eration who are getting smarter. The realityis that we (the librarians) are not as smartas we used to be.

The three presentations mentioned arejust some of those that stood out for meand that I particularly enjoyed. I attendedothers that were just as interesting, e.g.presentations on the protection of informa-tion and freedom of information, and onthe draft South African Community Libraryand Information Services bill.

On Thursday evening I attended the galadinner and awards ceremony. We as dele-gates from the Free State Provincial LibraryService were very proud when our co-worker Elmari Kruger was announced asrunner-up for the Librarian of the YearAward. This award went to Denise Nichol-son from Gauteng South.

LIASA 2010 was a great learning experi-ence as well as an opportunity to socialisewith colleagues from other institutions andprovinces. I enjoyed the conference andwant to thank the Free State Provincial Li-brary Service for giving me the chance toattend.

Mavis Mosala, Parys Public LibraryAs this was my first LIASA Conference, itwas an exciting, memorable adventure.The most important things amongeverything that I saw and enjoyed were allthe discussions and presentations by thedifferent speakers. I especially liked thepresentation “One school one library”.

I was also impressed by the nationalMinister of Sport, Arts and Culture – shetouched on several topics including that ofthe Conditional Grant. She said that theyare busy discussing the matter of all thecontract workers who have been appointedbeing made permanent employees.

The opening speech of the President ofLIASA was very encouraging. We as first-

time attendees were welcomed warmly andshe suggested that we should networkamongst ourselves so that we could get toknow one another. The conference venuewas excellent and I came across useful in-formation at the well-organised exhibitions.I was also happy because some tours hadbeen organised and I chose to go toSoweto and Constitutional Hill – it was anemotional experience for me.

Jeanet D Makuts, Welkom Public LibraryAlthough my bed in the beautiful hotelroom was rather uncomfortable and wehad to eat some meals standing up, attend-ing the Conference was a wonderful andvery fruitful experience – I gathered somuch information and knowledge from thevarious sessions and workshops. I was gladfor the opportunity to attend the Power-Point training workshop and sorry that itonly lasted three hours.

There were also many attractive exhibi-tions to visit, amongst them a number ofexhibitions featuring books, a toy library ex-hibition; a fascinating exhibition on mobilelibraries, and an exhibition of library equip-ment (organised by the 3M company).

The impressive information sessions aretoo numerous to mention – suffice to saythat they improved insight and know-how,and gave me a broader and deeper under-standing of what it means to work in thisfield. The conference organisers kindly alsogave us the chance to take part in some re-freshing recreational activities such as thefun run (they even handed out medals!).

Tshepiso Takadi, Free State School ofNursing (Eastern Campus)I saw the Conference as an important learn-ing experience and took meticulous notes. Iattended the Quality Assurance workshopand listened to various presentations,amongst others: IFLA President Ms EllenTise’s presentation on “Innovation and de-velopment through access to knowledgeand technology”; the American presenterSteven Kerchoff’s talk on the United States’vision of “Libraries driving access to knowl-edge”; Mercy Mokgele of Unisa Limpopo’scontribution on “The professional librar-ian’s core competencies and their relevanceto the current library trend”, and Mr Nari-ous Mpholefole of the National Library’spresentation on “Technological challengesand prospects facing management and ac-cess to e-publication”.

Most presenters highlighted librariesand technology, changes in the field of li-brarianship and other important issues ofconcern to librarians. I talked to some ofmy colleagues from other districts, andsome didn’t know about technological mat-ters such as databases (and how to usethem) and Net library services (e-resourcesetc). Librarians need to be trained and bemore knowledgeable so that they can ren-der an excellent service.

I would like to thank the management ofour Provincial Library Service for allowingme to be part of this Conference. It wasvery informative and very challenging tome as a librarian.

Free Staters enjoyed the LIASA 2010 Conference!

Provincial Library Servicestheme for SA Library Week2009, namely “Read theGame, Score @ Your Library”.The displays were judged bythe Library Marketing Officerand an outside judge. Twosemi-finalists were identifiedfrom the 46 libraries thatentered with the final winneridentified as SouthfieldLibrary. The runner-up wasParow Library.

The Manager of the Yearwas based on a templatewhich measured allLibrarians-in-Chargeaccording to set criteria. Thefinal scores resulted inSamantha Christians ofPinelands Library beingawarded Manager of the Year.The runner-up was TheresaDenton of Rocklands Library.Both these staff memberswere also part of the Carnegie

Leadership Academy.

Nazeem HardyLibrary Marketing & Research Officer

City of Cape Town: Library & Information Services

This year, the City of Cape

Town’s Library & Infor-

mation Services Depart-

ment celebrated its second

Service Recognition Awards

for staff who achieved in des-

ignated categories. Once

again the 4 categories open to

staff included the Staff Mem-

ber of the Year, the Manager

of the Year, the Best Display

of the Year and the Reader of

the Year.

The Staff member of theYear, nominated by any staffmember in the LISDepartment and voted forinitially by our BroaderManagement Team, resultedin 2 semi-finalists beingnamed, with the ultimatewinner voted for by theLibrary Management Team.Riaan Lengeveldt, part of ourICT administrative staff in ourHead Office ended up as theStaff Member of the Year following thisprocess. The runner-up was Katrina Kotzeeof Wesfleur Library for her contribution tothe success of the library.

The Reader of the Year followed awritten quiz based on a list of books thathad to be read by the entrants to this

Samantha Christians (Principal Librarian: Pinelands Library), winner of Manager of theYear; Nazeem Hardy (Library Marketing & Research Officer, City of Cape Town); RiaanLengeveldt (Assistant Professional Officer, ICT, City of Cape Town LIS); and, Ninnie Steyn(Director: LIS - City of Cape Town)

Award. The winner was Cornita Hawes, anassistant librarian at the Bellville Library.This is also the second year in a row thatCornita has won this award.

The Best Display of the Year involvedlibraries entering the award and having todesign a display that celebrated the

SERVICE AWARD

RECOGNISING EXCELLENCEThe 2nd City of Cape Town’s Library & Information Services’ Service Recognition Awards. 2009/10


UNISA Library reaches out to students with Mobile Libraries

The application includes an essay of 750words or less on applicant’s experiencewith and plans to enhance library andinformation access and development inyour home country, especially to diverseand underserved communities.

More information at: http://lis.uncg.edu/admissions/financial-support/ilead-fellows-program/

Clara M. Chu, Ph.D., Chair and ProfessorDepartment of Library and Information Studies

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

i LEAD; UNISA & L iSL IG

iLEAD (International Librarians Enhancing Access & Development)Fellowship Opportunity

Two iLEAD Fellows will be selected fromthe new incoming international students,starting in Fall 2011, on the basis of demon-strated academic ability, evidence of com-mitment to enhancing library andinformation access and development intheir home country, and financial need. Tobe considered for the iLEAD Fellows Pro-gram, applicants must submit both a UNCGGraduate School application for admissionto the MLIS Program and the Department’sIGA application by the stated deadline.

The Department of Library and InformationStudies (DLIS) at The University of NorthCarolina at Greensboro (UNCG) invites ap-plications from international students to itsiLEAD Fellows Program. An iLEAD Fellowwill be an international student taking theMaster of Library and Information Studies(MLIS) Program, supported by an Interna-tional Graduate Assistantship (IGA) with tu-ition waivers. The iLEAD Fellows Programis one of the Department’s iLEAD initiativeshttp://lis.uncg.edu/about-us/international/.

The University of South Africa, through

its Open and Distance Learning philo-

sophy, is committed to providing

access to its distance learners wherever

they live or work. One of the strategies for

meeting this goal was an approved strate-

gic project to provide 2 mobile libraries for

use in urban and rural areas of the country,

where library service is limited or unavail-

able or not accessible for learners.

Many UNISA students in remote areasare isolated and dependent on postalservices to deliver learning materials.UNISA is therefore proud to introduce thisunique academic library service (first of itskind in an academic library) to its clients,demonstrating the university and Library’s

commitment to service its clients and itsstrategies to support Open DistanceLearning.

The goal of this project which the libraryundertook is therefore to take the libraryservices to students in rural areas who arenot served by UNISA Library branches,agency or other partnerships. The regularvisits of the mobile library to communitieswill break isolation, enhance learning andcan ultimately contribute towardscompletion of studies.

The Mobile Library Services includebook circulation, training on the use of

libraries and systems, professional libraryadvice as well as assistance in the use oflibrary materials. The Mobile Libraryservice is an excellent example ofenhanced learner support in an ODLinstitution and embraces the principle ofstudent centeredness.

The project starts as a pilot with twomobile libraries, one in Polokwane andanother in the Cape Coastal Region. Theproject will be closely monitored andassessed and information gathered will beused to make recommendations on theimprovement of the services and also onthe expansion of the services to otherareas.

Judy Henning

The national LiSLIG Exco had invited DrHester Marais from the Unisa Library toaddress the members on 29 Septemberduring the LiSLIG session at the 2010LIASA Conference at the St George Hoteland Conference Centre in Pretoria.

In her presentation “Authority control inSouth African Special Libraries: is it neces-sary?” Dr Marais thoroughly convinced theLiSLIG members of the importance of author-ity control – even in small special libraries.

Terminology in the field is:• Authority control is an overall broad

term of the technical processes of au-thority work.

• Authority form is the chosen form of anaccess point.

• Authority record is the unit of authorita-tive information representing an individ-ual heading in an authority file.

• Authority file is the collection of author-ity records to provide structure in thecatalogue.The purpose of authority control is to

structure the access points in the cataloguein such a way that the user, and the librar-ian/information worker, may find what he/she is searching for quickly and easily. It hasa collocation function in the sense that it as-sembles related works and related subjects.

It leads to identification of pseudonyms andtraces name changes. It directs the user tothe information he is looking for with refer-ences.

Authority records can be created by individual librarians or existing authorityrecords can be used. A third way is to out-source the authority control function of thelibrary. Some libraries use a combinationof methods. Dr Marais showed us one ofthe ‘sources’, i.e. NACO – Name AuthorityCooperative Program of the PCC from theLibrary of Congress in the USA.

She discussed the AACR II rules for au-thority control for personal names and cor-porate bodies. She concluded herpresentation by talking about the rules fornames in different languages and punctua-tion rules.

See the full presentation from the LiSLIGlink on the LIASA web page.

Erna MostertVice Chair: LiSLIG

Dr Judy Henning, Mrs Dudu Nkosi, Mrs Joyce Gozo, Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata (Executive Director of UNISALibrary), and Ms Kgaladi Kekana

AUTHORITY CONTROL

LiSLIG chair, Ms Ann Torlesse, handed Dr Marais atoken of our appreciation

When my plane from Cairo landed

at Alexandria airport at midnight

on 29 March 2010, it brought me

another step closer to the realisation of a

childhood dream to visit all the seven won-

ders of the ancient world and in particular

the great Library of Alexandria. As I

stepped off the plane into a chilly and

windy night reminiscent of the scene from

the movie ‘Casablanca, it was not a trench-

coated Humphrey Bogart that stepped up

to greet me but a windcheater-clad hire car

driver.

As he sped me through dark anddeserted streets towards my late nightcheck-in rendezvous at the famous CecilHotel, I was looking forward to a luxuryEgyptian cotton made bed and a good bitof sleep. I was not disappointed in eitherrespect.

At 8:30am, I asked the hotel doorman topoint me in the direction of the BibliothecaAlexandrina and set off as he indicatedtowards 2 kilometres of easy walking. Ineedn’t have asked the way. The Library isimpossible to miss.

Nothing could possibly have preparedme for the sheer physical magnificence andbeauty of the Bibliotheca, its gleamingwhite granite outer walls shining in thebright morning sun, proclaiming itself as aseat of learning with huge bas-relief in-scribed letters of alphabets from all aroundthe world, both ancient and modern.Shaped like a honey-combed disc repre-senting the sun rising from the sea, the

building rises out of its own artificial lake. Itseemed to me that as an architectural state-ment it was striving to, and had succeededin, recapturing the spirit of the ancientEgyptian centre of learning and under-standing. The huge standing pillars sup-porting the ceiling are a moderninterpretation of the ancient LotiformColumns typical of Old and Middle King-dom temples. The inner walls are pittedand holed, as if waiting to hold preciousscrolls of papyrus, just as the ancient li-brary once did. King Ptolemy I and his suc-cessors couldn’t have topped this. Phew! Iwas in awe and so glad I chose to visit thisvery special place in the world and I had fi-nally arrived in such a circuitous way.

Even before I started my studies inlibrarianship I had already read about theancient Library of Alexandria and Egyptwas always on my list of places to see atsome time in my life. It was therefore notsurprising that when I came to study theHistory of Libraries I chose to look at therole that libraries played in preserving“western civilization” with a special focuson libraries and scholarship in the MiddleEast and North Africa. The western worldowes much to the fabled Library ofAlexandria and the fact that it attractedscholars from all over the ancient world.Over the centuries, in various ways,scholars, their treatises and texts reachedcentres of learning in Spain and beyond.

The grant from EBSCO was my prize forbeing placed second in the LIASA Librarian

of the Year Award 2009 and this helped mefulfil a childhood dream and a present dayprofessional reality. Over the years myinvolvement in LIASA had exposed me tosome challenging questions about theprofession of librarianship with regard totraining and qualifications; how do weraise the profile of our profession and howdo we instil pride and nurture profes-sionalism in our new professionals? Mythoughts on these issues are always led bythe knowledge that we librarians are theinheritors of a noble and ancientprofession. Callimachus, a noted poet,critic and scholar of the Ancient Library ofAlexandria may not have been its chieflibrarian but he is known as the father ofmodern cataloguing and his Pitakes wouldbe recognisable to librarians even today. Ipersonally believe that in both personaland professional life we need to knowwhere we come from in order to knowwhere we are going and this is as truetoday as it was in the time of the ancientLibrary.

So, what does this mean for librariansnow working at the BibliothecaAlexandrina?

Today the writing is not only on thewalls of the great new library but also onits official website where it declares boldlyin its Mission and Objectives:

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina aims to be: A centre ofexcellence in the production and dissemination of knowl-edge and to be a place of dialogue, learning and under-standing between cultures and peoples.


Look into the past and reveal the futureThe Library of Alexandria

B ib l io theca A lexandr ina

Youth library wing

Conference roomsThe pillars of Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Children’s libraryAerial view


The key of life by Dr Ahmed Abdel

Lighting to soothe the eyes

The view from my hotel room Morning traffic and a beautiful beach

www.b iba lex .o rg

The unique role of the Library of Alexandria, as thatof a great Egyptian Library with international dimensions,will focus on four main aspects that seek to recapture thespirit of the original ancient Library of Alexandria. It aspires to be:• The world’s window on Egypt.• Egypt’s window on the world.• A leading institution of the digital age.• A centre for learning, tolerance, dialogue and

understanding.I was curious to see how the BibliothecaAlexandrina would try to achieve these ob-jectives and also how the management or-ganisation would prepare and instil thisspirit in the staff. After all, as an institutionthey were less than ten years old. Howwould they “recapture the spirit of the original ancient library”?

Over the three days of my visit I got toknow most of the nooks and prominencesof the library, and many members of thestaff as well. An orientation programmehad been organised by Dina Youssef,Deputy Director, IFLA Centre for ArabicSpeaking Libraries (IFLA-CASL) at the Bib-liotheca Alexandrina, which started off withAcquisitions and Technical Support andended on Day Three with the Referenceand Information Services. Day Two was de-voted to Special Libraries and Special Col-lections. I walked kilometers of floor spaceand climbed hundreds of steps but therewas always more to discover. I was evenshown the donation from the French gov-ernment, which is the second largest col-lection of French material outside of Franceand would take an estimated ten years tocatalogue and be made shelf-ready.

I interviewed staff at all levels, and from

the most junior to department directors,they expressed pride in the Library and en-thusiasm for the challenging tasks ahead.They loved their jobs and had universal ad-miration for Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Directorof the Library of Alexandria, who has re-cently been awarded the Millennium Excellence Award for Lifetime AfricaAchievement Prize 2010, under the theme“Repositioning Africa: New Values, NewStrategies” for scientific research in Africa.Although some bemoaned the lost gloriesof the ancient world, the high level of illiter-acy and the general lack of a secular cultureof reading and learning in modern Egypt,all were convinced that through their indi-vidual contributions they could make a difference.

Departmental managers were proud ofthe fact that they developed their owntraining programmes and that these wereexpanding to other countries in the Arabworld. A training certificate in library skillsfrom the Bibliotheca Alexandrina hasgreater prestige than a tertiary qualificationin librarianship. This is mainly due to thefact that library schools have not revisedtheir curricula and new graduates are gen-erally ill prepared for the demands of atechnologically modern library. It has there-fore become common practice to offertraining programmes to post-graduateswith no guarantee of employment. Thosewho successfully pass are then offered jobswhen they become available. To my mind,this has advantages and disadvantages: thenon-library graduates bring their subjectknowledge to the workplace but there is no development in terms of librarianship

beyond the skills required to perform a spe-cific job. I hope that those lucky enough tobe employed will go on to enhance theirskills with more holistic studies in the fieldof librarianship or information science. As ashort-term measure though, this pro-gramme has been very successful in pro-viding suitably trained staff at short notice.

Throughout my days at BibAlex I waspresented with a steep learning curve, forc-ing me to question many assumptionsabout our profession as well as bringinghome the many challenges of establishinga “first–world, technologically advanced facility” amongst a population not quiteready to use that facility to its full potential.However, in the six years of its existence,the Bibliotheca and the people who workthere have moved forward in leaps andbounds, eyes firmly focused on a vision forthe future, while driven by pride in theirheritage and historical achievements.On my farewell walkabout, as the stillwarm sinking sun made elongating shad-ows of the sculpted pillars late on my lastday, I could see the Bibliotheca Alexandrinapromise of a new dawn and I felt the be-nign spirit of those ancient librarians inwhose footsteps we all walk.

For more information: www.bibalex.orgMy sincere gratitude to EBSCO, LIASA Na-tional, LIASA Western Cape Branch and myoriginal nominators Lynn Johnson andMsimelelo Fana for helping me make mydream a reality.

Nohra MoeratLibrarian of the Year Award 2009

2nd Runner-up


human beings’ experience -despair, love and knowledge.

Delegates were treated to liveband music to open the ceremony.Many of us began to dance and itwas really fun; it was a real warmwelcome!

Other sessions I attended werethe Africa Section meetings andBuilding Strong LibraryAssociations by ALP. The purposewas also to understanddevelopments and activities takingplace on the African Continent; andthe updates and developmentwithin the LIS sector. This was avery informative, networkingplatform to share our ideas andexpertise relating to the Africantopics presented. It was alsointeresting to learn more abouthow each country is progressing in

as far as the LIS services are concerned.Most of my time was spent at Africansessions.

2. PLENARY SESSIONSThe plenary session was great! Librarianswere advised by the IFLA President toexplore all possibilities to manageknowledge and to pursue the theme of theconference: “Open access to knowledge –promoting sustainable progress”. HenningMankell, another keynote speaker,delivered a paper, “To be able to Read andWrite – a Question of Dignity”. He beganby giving a scenario of street kids found inparking lots washing cars. These kids couldnot trust adults. He decided to ask them aquestion: “what is it that the boys wantmost in their lives?” They said they wantan identity card that shows that they arehuman beings, just like any other – i.e.dignity. They would like to learn to readand write just like him. None of them wereable to read and write - they were totallyilliterate. They all eventually died due to acar accident, criminal occurrence, murder,etc. Only one survived. His mother foundhim and he learned how to read and write.He got his identity and others could not.We should supply the fundamental tools ofbeing able to learn how to read and write.We should make sure every child learnshow to read and write. There are librariesin our communities, where you borrowbooks to read, everyone can borrow forfree. We should encourage people to learnmore in the library than in school. Whatwould have happened if there were nolibraries? The following should follow oneanother: libraries – Librarians – Books –Freedom. He concluded by saying bookscan never gain the readers they deserve ifthere are no libraries to circulate them.Dignity and knowledge goes hand in hand.Libraries should become the temple ofknowledge and Librarians become theguardians of dignity. The book is still thesuperior thing, everything changes exceptthe book. We should make sure thatlibraries are important for everything andwe should fight against illiteracy. (see page 15)


Iremember, it was on my birthday

and I had to pack and go! Just

straight from church, I took off to

OR Tambo International. It took me

three planes to reach the large,

clean and safe city of Gothenburg,

Sweden. I finally arrived in Gothen-

burg, just in time to allow me to go

and register for the conference.

There I met with fellow South

Africans who were meeting at the

reception/registration desk of the

Swedish Exhibition & Congress

Centre. Because of the long days in

summer there, I was curious to see

exactly when the street lights

would be turned on. So I only went

to bed at 9:45 pm, rather exhausted.

Wearing my name tag on thefirst day of conference, I started byattending one of the StandingCommittee sessions on Manage-ment and Marketing. It was all aboutfeedback of their previous meetings andactivities which didn’t make much sense tome so I decided to look for somethingmore interesting – and that was a visit toone of the community libraries. Most of thelibrary visits especially for academiclibraries were fully booked. I first hesitated,as I come from an academic library andthought a visit to a community librarywould not be relevant for me. I was wrong.The Tuve City library had it all – and what awonderful warm welcome we receivedfrom the staff! Amazingly, the Tuve libraryhad much of what a typical South AfricanUniversity library has.

The City of Gothenburg has one Citylibrary, the Tuve library and 24neighbourhood libraries (what we refer toas branch libraries) and two mobilelibraries. This library uses the Innopacsystem which is accessible remotely usinga library card number and a PIN code. Thelibrary also subscribes to many databaseswhich can be accessed from home andthey are all freely available for anyone whohas a library card. Amongst so many oftheir fascinating services, they have a ‘cafe’in the library – a ‘language cafe’ run by theRed Cross. There is also an opportunityevery month for library members to meetthe District Committee politicians called‘Politician Hotlines’ where they can askquestions, anything they want to know.This is a way of practising democracy andadvocacy (hanging out with politicians).

The book entitled: “Makwelane and theCrocodile” was the winner of this year’sPeter Pan Award. The prize was to beawarded at the Gothenburg Book Fair inSeptember 2010, to which Piet Grobler, oneof the authors was invited. Anotherfascinating service they offer is called“books as gifts”. Every child in Tuve libraryreceives a book as a gift from the librarythree times during childhood. Firstly, as anewborn baby, to welcome them to thelibrary. Parents will receive a notice saying:“welcome to the library and pick the bestgift your child can get”. Secondly, for sixyear olds, to stimulate reading for

My Wow experience and excitement of attending IFLA 2010 The 76th IFLA General Conference & Assembly 10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden

IFLA 2010

IFLA President Ellen Tise and former LIASA PRO Rebecca Senyolo at IFLA 2010

beginners and the third time is when theyare nine years old and the book isdistributed to the libraries in each district.

The visit concluded with a tour of thelibrary and then we had a very relaxinglunch with live music playing in their GreatHall.

1. OPENING CEREMONYThe theme of the conference “Open accessto knowledge – promoting sustainableprogress”, was inspired by the Presidentialtheme. IFLA President, Ms Ellen Tise, in heropening speech, indicated that:• the Swedish had been supporting

libraries for a long time through the ALPprogramme funded by CIDA.

• the commoditisation of information wasone of the challenges we are faced within our world today.

• Technology enables us to make accessto knowledge available to a wideraudience. Ellen Tise’s speech was followed by the

keynote speaker, Jan Eliasson, formerPresident of the United Nations GeneralAssembly and Minister for Foreign Affairsof Sweden. His topic was “the Power ofthe Word – Communication and Access toInformation in a Globalized World”. Heemphasized that without roots, there is nosense of adventure, discovery, respect forthe word, conditions for growth for societyand community. Words are ‘tools’.Iif youonly have a few tools, you can only solve afew challenges. The more tools you haveat your disposal, the more challenges youcan overcome. Words can be ‘actions’.Information is power and the key todevelopment and to society. There can beno peace without development and nodevelopment without peace. Knowledge isthe crucial part of human rights and ofpeace. Access to information andknowledge should be freely available in thepublic domain. Progress for one individualis progress for all. He said we need torealise the power of knowledge – with itthe world is better balanced. He concludedby indicating three passionate things that

• Maretha Snyman (Human Resources Officer, Vega School of Branding)

• Suellen Daniel and Angie Chetty (Recruitment Agency - Kelly Girl)This was a practical workshop on how to

present a CV (no more than two pages);how to prepare for an interview; how toparticipate in an interview; what do you doafter the interview.

The feedback was very encouraging. Itseems, that this workshop will be repeatedat several institutions.

Many colleagues renewed their member-ship and were surprised with prizes from alucky draw.

Mariam Natalwalla: eThekwini Municipal LibraryPhotographs by Dennis Mpumlwana, DUT


LIASA Kwazulu-Natal Research, Educa-

tion, Training Interest Group ( RETIG)

convened its Annual General Meeting

and Workshop on Wednesday, 20 October

at the Alan Pittendrigh Library, Steve Biko

Campus, Durban University of Technology.

The following are the new CommitteeMembers for 2010-2011.• Bianca Lawrence – Cedara Technical Col-

lege, Pietermartizburg• Mariam Natalwalla – eThekwini Munici-

pal Libraries – Departmental Librarian• Asha Basthdew – Principal Librarian,

Children’s Services – Msunduzi Library• Nomonde Mgqalelo - Circulation

Co-ordinator – Alan Pittendrigh Library,Durban University of Technology

LIASA KwaZulu-Natal RETIGRET IG - KZN IFLA 2010

• Farhana Yunnus – Librarian – VegaSchool of Branding – Westville

• Catherine Dubbeld – Retired LibrarianThe Workshop was called "Showcase

your Skills - a workshop on CV compilationand interview techniques" and involvedgroup discussions as well as a panel of experts (consisting of Library Directors/Managers and Recruitment Agents)• Nora Buchanan (Director, University of

KwaZulu Natal)• Lucille Webster (Manager, Steve Biko

Campus, Durban of Technology)• Hoekie Msimang (Deputy Director,

Mangosuthu University of Technology)• Mandla Ntombela (Principal Librarian,

Msunduzi Library)

I am so chuffed, I love receiving gifts Flashing smiles for a photo finish Say no more, I want my T-shirt

So cool We hereby declare An attentive audience


(from page 14)Libraries have an important role to play,

highly regarded and less likely to bechallenged by the Teaching staff. Otherlearning support professionalsacknowledge the need to work together asdifferent teams of the institutions exploringdifferent activities. I learnt that the way werun our libraries clearly demonstrates theoverall success of our institutions. Thelevel of students’ satisfaction is linked tothe service that librarians give.

I also learned a lot about leadership;that you must believe in what you do sothat you can motivate and inspire others todo their best. Good efforts should beencouraged and given credit. Concretebenefits to the organization should bedemonstrated to the people involved.

Furthermore, I learned about windowsof management such as; - We know what we know - provide

access and facilitate knowledge sharing- We know what we don’t know - focused

information research- We don’t know what we know -

information auditing and knowledgemapping

- We don’t know what we don’t know -applicable to all of usI also learned that due to pressure in the

libraries with regard to spaces andresources, some libraries have alreadystarted to embark on projects that will helprelease spaces. The libraries especially theUniversities, would like to share services inorder to reduce costs and increaseefficiency. Amongst others they started todispose of materials they no longer need intheir collection. But this needs andinvolves thorough planning.

Every day there was an IFLA night spotfor delegates to network and relax andreview the day’s activities. I managed toattend the Gothenburg City library wherethe night spot was hosted. I then went onthe Elsevier’s night cruise where Icontinued to network with colleaguesaround the world and danced the nightaway!

I was fascinated by a number of thingsat the exhibition, one of which was the‘Bookshower’ a book sterilizer that usesultra violet rays. This allows a reader toenjoy reading books that are safe fromdust and bacteria.

During conference, the IFLA Expresswas published daily so that people couldfollow the conference as it happened. I wasalso privileged to get a slot where I wasinterviewed about receiving the first EllenTise LIASA Leadership grant. The articlewas published in the IFLA Express andlater on the IFLA website(http://2010.ifla.org). This is a new grantnamed after the current IFLA President andI was the first recipient of the grant, whichrecognizes active involvement in LIASA.Thanks to LIASA for awarding me with thisprestigious unique grant and theopportunity to experience an IFLAConference abroad. Thanks also go to EllenTise for enabling South African Librarianslike me, to attend an international IFLAconference. Without this award I would nothave been able to go. You have set SouthAfrica on the mark, I am proud of you! Ihave learned a few Swedish words like‘tack tack’ meaning thank you very much! Ifeel truly inspired by this opportunity.

Rebecca SenyoloHead Librarian: Geosciences Library University of the Witwatersrand



The NationalLibrary ofSouth Africain coopera-tion with theNorthernCape LibraryServices

conducted a book restorationworkshop to coincide with theRichmond Book Festival. Theworkshop was attended bymembers of the local commu-nity. Ten participants (includingsome school children) weresponsored by the local businesscommunity. The workshop waspartly funded by the Depart-ment of Arts and Culture. Thetechniques of bookmaking weredemonstrated and practised in-cluding types of sewing, suit-able adhesives and glueing,making of a cover, doing re-pairs to broken hinges, looseand damaged covers andpages. The workshop was pre-sented by staff of the NLSA.

Douwe Drijfhout

Book Restoration Workshop in Richmond (Northern Cape)

Puppetry workshopsLorraine Smith fromBloemfontein did a puppetshow presentation. HereLorraine shows some of herpuppets to the librarians.

Picture on the right: PriscillaSnyders (Kokerboom Library -Kenhardt); Lorraine Smith;Maryna Visagie (KeimoesLibrary); Manda Hough(Kakamas Library); IreneKloppers (PostmasburgLibrary).

NLSA • @ YOUR L IBRARY

“Read in Your Language” @ Your Library

South African Library Week 2011LIASA is pleased to announce that the theme for SA LibraryWeek 2011 is “Read in Your Language @ Your Library” and willbe celebrated from 19-26 March 2011.

In 2007, during IFLA in Durban, LIASA signed on to theCampaign for the World’s Libraries using the “@ Your Library”slogan. One of the aims has always been to translate the sloganinto all 11 official languages and this will finally come to fruitionthis year, hence the choice of theme. The lack of a readingculture is of great concern and greater awareness should beraised. While reading is high on the agenda from varioussectors, the Library Week theme speaks to this issue, stressesthe importance of mother tongue instruction while at the sametime promotes the use of libraries.


LIASA-KZN an-nounced the newcommittee at theAGM of 17 Sep-tember 2010. Theguest speaker wasMr Guy Redman –Director at DurbanNatural ScienceMuseum who presented apaper on the challenges facingpublic libraries. The AGM waswell attended and was hostedat the Msunduzi Library inPietermaritzburg.

At the AGM the announce-ment of the 2010 KZN-Librarianof the year was also made.

She is Dr Mariana duToit. Mariana has beenemployed by the KZNDepartment of Educa-tion in the directorateschool library servicesknown as ELITS (Educa-tion Library InformationTechnology Services)

for the past 19 years. She hasbeen the chair of Slysig for theregion for the past term and hasplayed an active role in the 2010Library week celebrations ofLIASA-KZN. Members at theAGM lauded her nomination andwish her well in the nationalstakes.

L IASA-KZN Reg iona l round-up

?

Annual General Meeting 2010

KZN ExCo 2010 – 2012

Ronnie Kasrils with an Unlikely

Secret Agent - October 5, 2010.

Former Minister of IntelligenceRonnie Kasrils was joined by acrowd of academics, comrades,librarians, booksellers and

other guests for the launch ofhis biography of his late wife,Eleanor, "An Unlikely SecretAgent", @ Bessie Head Library,hosted by Adams Book Shopand Bookworld - Cascades.

The Unlikely Secret Agent

It has become tradition for thelibrary staff at Alan Pittendrighto celebrate their diversecultures. And this year was nodifferent. Tea-time was asmorgasbord of delectabledishes such as• Ujeqe – Steamed bread• Usu – Tripe• Amagwinya – Vetkoek

• Mince meat• Samoosas (Both Veg &

Meat)• Roti• Beans Curry• Pap• Amahewu, Fruit Juices &

Soft DrinkBelow, the ladies who

dressed up for the occasion!

Heritage Day at Alan PittendrighLibrary

LIASA-KZN hosted a 2 day

workshop on Collection

Development in libraries

on 15-16 September 2010 at the

Msunduzi Library. This work-

shop was well attended by li-

brarians from the various LIS

sectors in particular public and

academic libraries. The main

presenter was Ms Carol van

Zijl, previously from VUT but

now in retirement in Mossel-

bay. Other speakers were Ms

Karin Herbert from DUT, Ms

Moira Anderson from Msundusi

Library.

Some of the topics coveredwere the following:• Collection development - the

basics• What should you consider

when developing yourcollection

• What are the tools forselecting library material

• Collection development inan academic library – theDUT experience

• The Municipality and thecollection developmentprocesses

• Managing budgets andbudget allocations

• Criteria for selecting thevarious information media

• Collection developmentpolicies

• Evaluating library collections• Keeping your collection

relevant - weedingA follow-up workshop will

be hosted in 2011 by the KZNbranch.

Lucille Webster

Collection development workshop

Colleen Cook (Bookworld), John Morrison (Bessie Head Library Manager); Cllr TZondi (Deputy Mayor of UMgungundlovu District); Peter Adams (Adams BookshopManaging Director); Ronnie Kasrils (The Author of Unlikely Secret Agent); ProfessorOmar Latiff (former Mayor of Pietermaritzburg); Mr. David Gengan (Msunduzi Municipality Executive Economic Development and Planning) and Cllr Peter Green(Msunduzi Municipality).

Position NameChair: Mandla NtombelaVice-Chair: Tebogo MziziSecretary: Avishana KushialTreasurer: Senamile ZumaPRO: David Thomas2nd Provincial Representative: Nellie SomersAdditional Member: Hloniphile DlaminiAdditional Member: Charlotte Mdlalose

Committee Members

Carol van Zyl

Elmari Kruger, Raspby Ramugondo, Cathy Giesekke, Erna Mostert,Anna-Marie Jonker, Mariëtte Barnard, Thembile Novelithi

Committee Members

LIASA NORTHERN CAPE’s

AGM took place on

Wednesday 1 September

2010 at Postmasburg Library.

Three guest speakers wereinvited for the occasionnamely: 1. Martie Thiart2. Lorraine Smith3. Fanie Viljoen

Martie Thiart is a regularmember of PostmasburgLibrary and a well-knownspeaker in the community ofPostmasburg. She did a veryenjoyable presentation of oneof PH Nortjé’s short stories.

Lorraine Smith fromKimberley did a presentationon puppet shows. She showedexamples of the differentpuppets that can be used in apuppet show; and gave tips onhow to make your ownpuppets. She encouragedlibrarians to take it uponthemselves to present theseshows. (see pics on page 17)

Fanie Viljoen, well knownauthor of Afrikaans children’sbooks, came all the way fromBloemfontein. He talked abouthis life as an author. It allstarted at school with a storyhe wrote for the BloemfonteinWriter’s Association’scompetition in 1987 for whichhe received a consolation prize.He does many school visits andpresentations. Children arecrazy for titles such as SLYMand GERAAMTE IN DIE KLAS.

Librarians from differentNorthern Cape libraries alsoagreed that BREINBLIKSEM hasconstantly been taken out andthey had to create waiting lists.Fanie received 2 Afrikaanschildren book prizes forBREINBLIKSEM: the GoueSanlam-prys vir jeuglektuur in2005 and the M.E.R.-prys virjeuglektuur in 2006. It has alsobeen translated into Englishrecently. Fanie has receivednumerous other awards. Hedonated some books to thelibraries afterwards and thelibrarians also bought books toread themselves.

A finger lunch was servedwhere the members used theopportunity to network.

After lunch the meeting wasconcluded with the Financialreport and the Chairperson’sreport.

The new branch committeefor 2010-2012 was elected.

The importance and benefitsof LIASA were emphasized andmembers were encouraged tostay active in LIASA.

Manda HoughChairperson

Position NameChairperson Manda Hough (Kakamas Library)Deputy Chairperson Irene Kloppers (Tsantsabane Libraries)Secretary Mary Tlhomelang (Judy Scott Library)Treasurer Ilze Nel (NCPLS)*Additional member Ingrid Henrici (NIHE)*Additional member Fritz van DykPACLIG Representative for N Cape Fritz van Dyk (Sol Plaatje Libraries)*NCPLS N Cape Provincial Library Services*NIHE National Institute for Higher Education

Committee Members

Position NameChairperson Erna MostertDeputy Chair Elmari KrugerSecretary Cathy GiesekkeTreasurer Mariëtte BarnardPRO/Newsletter Editor Monde MadibaMembership Secretary Anna-Marie

Jonker2nd Representative Raspby

RamugondoAdditional Member Mojaki MahuraAdditional Member Stoffel Kok

Position NameAdditional Member Zuki KetiweAdditional Member Thembile NovelithiChair TMD Sub-Branch Stoffel KokChair NFS Sub-Branch Isak MokhatiChair PACLIG Rina Jansen van

RensburgChair LiSLIG Erna MostertChair SSIG Jeanette PonyaneChair IGBIS Huldah

RaubenheimerChair SLYSIG Mojaki Mahura

BACK: Ingrid Henrici; Fritz van Dyk; Mary Tlhomelang; Irene KloppersFront: Ilze Nel and Manda Hough

Northern Cape Branch NewsNORTHERN CAPE & FREE STATE Reg iona l round-up

Riaan Eyman (Postmasburg Library);Maryna Visagie (Keimoes Library);Priscilla Snyders (Kokerboom Library,Kenhardt); Irene Kloppers (PostmasburgLibrary); Fanie Viljoen; Manda Hough(Kakamas Library).


Free State Exco 2010 – 2012

Workshop: Northern Cape

Flippie van der Walt Workshop was held to provide training and to establish a committee for the Northern Cape

Motivational talks: Rachel More and Dr E Jacobs


FEZILE DABI DISTRICT

Spring Day @ Sander-sville Public LibraryOn the 1st of Sept, theSandersville librarystaff created a veryattractive book displayon gardening tocelebrate the season ofrejuvenation. Thisflowery display was onview for the entiremonth.

LEJWELEPUTSWA DISTRICT

Soccer fancy-dress @ Venters-burg PublicLibrary The winter holi-day programmeat Ventersburgwas very excit-ing, since thefocus was onsoccer and peo-ple were on fire

for soccer this year. Librarian Gusta van der Berg organised enjoy-able, hands-on activities: there were a soccer fancy-dress competi-tion and a story hour (which the kids attended in their colourfulsoccer costumes). After the story hour they played a soccer game.The children also made decorated soccer balls, and cut up oldnewspapers to make images of soccer players, which they pastedonto white paper.

THABO MOFUTSANYANA DISTRICT

Window cleaning @ NthaPublic LibraryThe library workers gearedthemselves up for a libraryspring-cleaning, knowing thatit would have a positive effecton everyone’s spirits. They be-lieve that the library should becleaned inside and outside ona regular basis to avoid the ac-cumulation of dirt and ensurethat the library environmentfeels bright and pleasant. On 1October, a lovely spring day,they cleaned the library and itswindows. People of Masupat-sela Social Development as-sisted the staff, helping themto make the community proudof their library.

XHARIEP DISTRICTDebating session @ AlbertNzula Public LibraryA thought-provoking debatingsession took place at the li-brary on 16 October, focusingon the social advantages anddisadvantages of moderntechnology. It ended with theteam of Rouxville PrimarySchool outrunning the Thabo-Vuyo Secondary School teamand receiving two trophies.

Library assistants Mirriam Motloung and SophiaBeukes, the creators of this beautiful Spring dis-play, were rightly proud of their handiwork.

Roselina Motsei (librarian), LikontsaneMadingaka, Teboo Mohono, MolefiSparks, Malindi Moyekase and JuliaMokoena (assistant librarian).

The winning team of debaters was fromRouxville Primary School.

Gusta van der Berg with the children in colourful soccerfancy-dress, all “dressed to win”.

News from Free State province REGIONAL ROUND-UP

With new leadership elected throughout LIASA’s structure, the FSBranch Committee decided to invite Mr Igno van Niekerk, a moti-vational speaker, to address the branch members at the FS AGM on18 August 2010 on the aspects of leadership and motivation.

Mr Van Niekerk started his presentation (in which he used everyday photographs to illustrate his points) with the words: “leader-ship, energy, passion - we must have passion in our lives – are wedancing with the sun? The sun comes up every day and if we aredancing with the sun, we’ll be positive.”

Leadership is about vision. The question is what are we seeingtoday? We may not have a clear vision, but in our quest for our vi-sion, the ‘scenery’ is always there. Vision leads to energy and onthe way there we spend energy to gain energy. Therefore we mustknow what the big picture (our vision) is. How often do we lovewhat we do? Do we love the vision we have?

To motivate or inspire is a big job, it will take a lot of effort andlong nights, . . . and taking risks. We think that to do things is ahuge risk. Risks are good, but we have a fear of failure so we do nottake risks. As managers we want perfection; but we must not letwhat we have done wrong, keep us back. We have to move on.Learn from the past, and leave the rocks (the past) behind.

He also said that life is about strategies – we must decide whatour strategies are going to be; what we would like to achieve. Mo-tivation is energy and at our work place we spend time, energy andskills. What do we put in our frame of life? We must concentrate toput positive information in and not negative information. What wefocus on will create a positive scrapbook for us.

Mr Van Niekerk said that we must build caring into our vision. Somany times we miss the caring factor, and as leaders we must carefor others. We think that not forgiving people will hurt them, butwe are only hurting ourselves. Be proud and humble and respectothers.

He said that we all have a wonderful life, it is a gift given to us.We must give ourselves wings by having vision, energy and pas-sion. If the passion is right, the world is right. Inspired people areinspiring people. When last did we create a revolution by inspiringpeople?

We must act now – we do not have a second chance . . .

Erna Mostert & Marina Greyvenstein

Leadership and motivation: Free State

Mr Igno van Niekerk inspiring branch members

On 9 September 2010, the Free State ProvincialLibrary Services Buildingwas abuzz with about 55writers who had comefrom all over the FreeState to attend a writers’workshop. The event wasgraced by the presence ofDr Mongane Wally Serote,who delivered a motiva-

tional address and later in the afternoon led the poetry discussiongroup. Other guests of honour were Prof Nico Luwes and Prof MMoleki, both from the University of the Free State. They gave pre-sentations on writing plays and short stories. Ms Elsa den Haan ofNB Publishers in Cape Town talked about the publishing process.A big thank-you to our brilliant presenters, who left the audiencewanting more! A follow-up workshop will take place in April 2011and will be organised to coincide with World Book Day.

Aspiring writers were serious and purposefulabout learning to write

Emerging Writers’ Workshop

AGMOn the 26th of August 2010, we had anAGM which was held at the Department ofJustice in East London. Our guest speakerwas the Director for South African Libraryfor the Blind, Mr F. Hendrikz. He gave us apicture of the library: when was it con-ceived; how and where it is now and thetype of users that are using the library.

Elections were handled by Mr F Hendrikz.

Conference 2010 held at Centurion,Gauteng● Eastern Cape won an award for the best

improved branch.● It was announced that 2011 conference

will be held in our Province.● Eastern Cape Branch Executive had a

meeting with the National Office on the29th of September 2010, where we weretold about the things that are needed forthe conference, for example, venues,theme and logos etc.

● Ann Torlesse was elected again as thechair for LISLIG and Zuki Maya elected As the Secretary for HELIG.

Sub-branches AGMSub-branch 1 had an AGM on the 14th ofOctober 2010 and it was held at BothaSigcau Building in Umtata.

LISLIG AGMThe LISLIG AGM was held on the 21st ofOctober 2010 at Amathole MuseumLibrary, King Williams Town.

Up-coming Events for Sub-branch 1- Khwezi Public Library to be launched on

the 4th of November 2010, (Zola 7 initiative) sponsored by Vodacom.

- Nyati Rural Library to be launched onthe 11th of November 2010, Sponsored by Impala Platinum Mine.

Sindy CingoPRO

EASTERN CAPE Co JL IS

LIASA Eastern Cape branch

The City of Johannesburg in partnershipwith the Mirriam Tladi Book Club hostedthe 8th book discussion of the year onSaturday 25 September 2010. Bookdiscussions are held every 3rd or 4thSaturday of the month at the AfricanLiterature Book Shop in Orange Grove toencourage leisure reading and dialogue.The theme ” Languages as home:Celebrating our Linguistic Heritage”blended well with the Heritage monthcelebrations.

Discussions highlighted the importance

of embracing African languages andcultures as these give Africans theiridentity and pride. The problem of notenough writing and publishing inIndigenous languages was againhighlighted. The role of libraries and booksupplies/shops in increasing awarenesscampaigns and accessibility to indigenousmaterials was also discussed.

Dr Gomolemo Mokae; activist, authorand academic facilitated the discussionswith thought provoking inputs, questionsand insight while Mr Mosala Huma (writerand poet) and Ms Precious Masuku (writerand poet) entertained the audience withpoetry performances in Indigenouslanguages. Nkosinathi Qubeka

Celebrating our linguistic heritage

Municipal Libraries in partnership with theGauteng Provincial Library and InformationServices assembled an eye catching stall atthe 12th LIASA Conference held at StGeorges Hotel in Centurion. The partici-pating municipalities; City ofJohannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Mogale City,Nokeng, Emfuleni, Kungwini, Morakengand Midvaal exhibited informationbrochures, eye catching marketing itemssuch as colourful banners, bags and capswith original slogans, funky stationery,including innovative gadgets such as keyholders with a torch light, lapel pins andwater bottles in all shapes, colours andsizes. The City of Johannesburg LanyardCompetition created a lot of excitement asbranded vuvuzelas were up for grabs asprizes. There was no doubt that theGauteng Libraries’ stall was very popularbecause at the end of the conference, thevisitors’ register had over 300 signatures.

Look out for the Gauteng LibrariesExhibit next year in East London – we aregoing to be bigger and better with lots ofcompetitions!

Maryna Moolman

Dynamic Gauteng Libraries The Michaelis Art Library Education Projectexhibition was officially opened on 13October 2010, at the Johannesburg ArtGallery (JAG). Samples of art works ofstudents who are part of the Michaelis ArtLibrary Educational Project are on displayuntil 30 November 2010.

The project is funded by the MTN SAFoundation and the Friends of theJohannesburg Public Libraries. In addition,the Herbert Evans Art Shop offers discounton all art material bought for this project.

For more information contact WilliamStuart, the Project Leader: 073 227 2539

Maryna Moolman

Art Exhibition

A programme for the younger participants before thebook discussion starts

Students viewing the beautiful works of the MichaelisArt Library Project art on display

It was a battle of the talents, slam poetry atits best, when learners from Ponelopele Or-acle Secondary School at Ebony Park com-peted for the grand prize of branded City ofJohannesburg Vuvuzela, scarf and beanie.The City of Johannesburg Library and Infor-mation Services in partnership with the in-ternationally acclaimed Arts Alive Festivalfacilitated the event held at the school on13 September 2010.The aim was to pro-mote competitive live poetry

performances andfreedom of ex-pression throughthe spoken wordamongst theyouth. The eventwas electrifyingwith a display ofcreativity spon-taneity and origi-nality ofperformances ofthis poetry genre.

Position NameChair: Busi MbiyoDeputy Chair: Matthew MoyoSecond Rep: Julia MvunelwaSecretary: Zuki MayaPRO: Sindy CingoTreasurer: Nomgcobo SpondoHELIG: Nozuko MatiwanePACLIG: olanda BooiLISLIG: Ann Torlesse

Eastern Cape Committee Members Position NameChair: Siphe MagwentshuDeputy Chair: Lwando DastileSecretary: Sindy CingoPRO: Dorothy SigagayiTreasurer: Tozama MsauliAdditional Members: Nomfusi Mbelekane

Sidima MnengiPam MavumeNokwazi Mtwa Tamsanqa Momoza

Sub-branch Committee Members

Slam Poetry goes International



PEOPLE PAGE: NewJob? �Re t i r ing �New Appo in tmen t s � Te l l u s ! !

ON THE MOVE

News from EBSCO Information Services isthat Piotr Barczuk is the new Academic Re-gional Sales Manager for EBSCO Informa-tion Services. And from EBSCO Publishing,Colleen Mills has been promoted to Sales Di-rector of Sub Saharan Africa while Bernard

Mavoungou has been appointed as RegionalSales Manager for Southern Africa.

Mokoena Nthabiseng Alina

has been appointed Pro-gramme Librarian for theRayton, Refilwe, Onver-wacht, Cullinan and SteveBikoville library at theNoken Tsa Taemane Municipality.

Christina Boitumelo Modise

has been appointed as anInformation ResourcesProcessor at UNISA Muck-leneuck Campus. She hasbeen working as a LibraryAssistant (ILL) at the NWUMafikeng Campus .

Patience Moitheki Ntuli

joined Vaal University ofTechnology (VUT) Libraryin the beginning of July2010 as HOD: Educity Cam-pus Library. In this positionshe is in charge of Manage-ment Sciences Library, and

is also responsible for satellites. She pos-sesses a wealth of experience working inseveral academic libraries, in various capac-ities. She started working as Library Assis-tant in 1995 at Waterkloof Public Library inPretoria. She spent 3 years (1996-1999) atUniversity of Free State Medical Librarywhere she was employed as Junior Librar-ian. She then moved to KZN to work at RKKhan Hospital Library as Principal Librarianfrom 1999 – 2005. In 2005 she joined Man-gosuthu University of Technology (MUT) asCirculation Librarian until around July 2007.She then moved to head Natural SciencesLibrary (Aug 2007 – June 2010) as FacultyLibrarian also at MUT. Patience is the prod-uct of the Carnegie Library LeadershipAcademy in 2010 and she holds an Honoursdegree from University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Anelise Nieuwenhuizen

joined UKS in October thisyear. She trained as a librar-ian at TUT and then joinedthe Verwoerdburg library inLyttelton as a student intraining during January1992. After completing her

studies she became a permanent memberon their staff in September. Her keen inter-est in Information Technology led her to at-tend numerous courses in hardware like A+and software like Web development. Anelisewas then transferred to the Tshwane Libraryin 2000 as System Administrator. She lovesto travel to countries like Russia, Denmarkand Egypt. While in Egypt, Anelise scubadived in the Red Sea. Wow! Her other trav-els have taken her caravanning with her sis-ter to Namibia for more than a month. Withan obvious passion for reading, she makesfull use of the libraries around her. She also

has a lovely trained voice and has per-formed at some events. Anelise has a posi-tive outlook on life and always endeavoursto find solutions for problems. Her motto inlife is taken from Logon Smith who in 1931said “There are two things to aim at in life:first to get what you want and after that, toenjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achievethe second.” UKS takes this opportunity towelcome Anelise on board!

Deen Shaik

Promotions at FSPLIS Ntombi Mothusi started asa library material proces-sor at the Preparation andDistribution Subdivision ofthe Free State’s Library andArchive Services Direc-torate on 1 July 2001. Dur-ing the first leg of her

library career she was responsible for thephysical preparation of library materialssuch as books, CDs and DVDs. This en-tailed pasting book pockets and datesheets, stamping books and covering them.She also helped the senior library materialprocessor to unpack books in the ware-house and withdraw consignments for thelibrary material processors.

Ntombi was promoted on 1 April 2010 to thepost of Senior Library Material Processor,and is now responsible for providing librarymaterial processors with consignments –she compiles the team’s daily consign-ments, starting from requesting cards forthem and withdrawing books from thewarehouse for processing. She also issuesprocessed books to the district libraries(who in turn distribute them to the affiliatedlibraries in their regions); receives books onthe database, and unpacks new library ma-terial received from the suppliers. Ntombiwants to utilise her skills fully and hopes tobecome a research librarian one day. She iscurrently busy with her third year of part-time study in Information Science at Unisa.

Elmien Grobler started hercareer in 1988. She workedas a typist at NALN (the Na-tional Afrikaans LiteraryMuseum and ResearchCentre) for six months, andthen, from 1989, as anAdmin Clerk at the Direc-

torate’s Preparation and Distribution Subdi-vision. She was responsible for controllingthe payment and administration of librarymaterial to ensure that new publicationswere distributed to libraries. In the course oftime she became a Senior Admin Clerk andSenior Library Material Processor. In 2008she became the Acting Supervisor of thePreparation and Distribution Subdivision.This work made a strong impact on her lifeas she had to learn to focus intently everyday. In March 2010 she was promoted to thepost of Administrative Officer of this Subdi-vision. She supervises the Subdivision andhandles the procurement of goods and serv-ices for the whole Collection DevelopmentDivision, as well as the staff’s HR (HumanResources) matters. Elmien is very happyabout her promotion, and ready to meet anychallenge that comes with the work.

Congratulations Ntombi and Elmien, hard

work pays at the end of the day!

HONOURS AND CITATIONS

We would like to congratu-late our Executive Director,Dr B Mbambo-Thata onbeing elected the 2010Unisa Woman of the Year ata prestigious UnisaWomen’s Forum (UWF)Luncheon.

The Unisa Women’s Forum considered anumber of portfolios of nominees with out-standing performance across all sections inthe University. Criteria used by the UWF Ad-judication Panel were: Leadership, Mentoringwomen in the workplace, Gender Activismand promotion of women’s rights, Couragein adversity and Community service.

A brief summary of the motivation of thePanel stated the following: Dr Mbambo-Thata is an outstanding scholar and activistin her field and is recognized for her sus-tained contributions at local, regional andinternational levels. Her professional careerspans more than three decades of distin-guished service and exemplary leadership,and she has achieved recognition interna-tionally as a leader in her field.

It is her extraordinary and sustained leader-ship, peer recognition and election to highoffices, with substantive impacts, that im-pressed the adjudication panel. She servedas the Secretary as well as the Chairpersonof the IFLA Africa Section, she is a memberof the IFLA Governing Board, and chairper-son of Division 5 Regional Activities of IFLA.In this role she co-ordinates the followingsections – Africa, Latin America and theAsia Oceania regions. This creates a uniqueand influential opportunity for Unisa Libraryand its staff to participate actively in devel-opments and contribute to the federationinternationally. Indeed an example of“Unisa in the service of humanity”.

Her four years at Unisa have seen the intro-duction of several major strategic projects,including the Unisa Institutional Repository;implementation of the Mobile Device Cata-logue Access – AIRPAC – the first of its kindon the continent; extended library hours toimprove student access and the implemen-tation of Radio Frequency Technology(RFID) to enable self services for clients aswell as improving stock management. Thelatter is a critical feature for the Unisa li-brary, given its size and scope. 2010 seesthe library become one of the first to useMobile Libraries to extend the reach to ruralareas and expand Open Distance Libraryservices beyond the major urban centres inthe country. Her work on Open Source andOpen Access is also pioneering.

As the chair of the Board of Trustees of E-knowledge for Women in Southern Africa(EKOWISA), she leads this NGO in its mission to promote the development of agender sensitive knowledge society throughthe effective use of appropriate ICTs at local,national, regional and international levels.

She plays a leading role in the Gender Re-search and Women Studies Project (GRACE)

Send to Ingrid Thomson [email protected] Good quality, high resolution photos are preferred.

part of this celebration. Library workers hadto write an essay about the Tattle-Tape ex-perience: How has their service con-

tributed to your library security?

Since theft inside a library is a complexmatter, it is important for all libraries tohave a security system. The 3M Tattle Tapeprovides reliable security and helps to re-duce the theft of library material by pre-venting unauthorised removal of books.

Tsepiso received a 3M hamper worth R400containing stationery, amongst otherthings. Congratulations Tsepiso!

Itumeleng Rammile

The staff of the Kimberley Africana Librarywho walked away with the 2009 Performersof the Year award by the Sol Plaatje Munici-pality. In front: Nick Feni and Annelize

Tobias; Back: Yvonne Kok, Shirley James

(Head) and Bernice Nagel.

Legal Deposit Committee

The Minister of Arts and Culture appointedthe following toserve on the LegalDeposit Committeefor the term 1 July2010 to 30 June 2013:

Ms I Assmann;

Dr I Faasen;

Ms V Magwentshu;

Mr Mandla Ntombela;

Dr Heila Pienaar

and; Mr I Shabangu.

Ex Officio membersare Mr F Hendrikz,

Mr Puleng Kekana,

Mr Dennis Maake,

Ms R Makume,

Ms M Mnyanda,

Mr Z Montjane,

Mr John Morrison,

Mr Albert Ntunja,

Mr John Tsebe.

RETIREMENTS

On 30 September, Ilze

Swart, Chief Librarian atBellville Library, retiredfrom the library serviceafter 40 years. For most ofher career, Ilze has been themainstay and driving forcebehind Bellville Library, the

highest circulating public library in the West-ern Cape, if not South Africa. Ilze’s passionlay in always finding new ways to improveservice to the public, ways to market theservices of her library and these remainedsome of her main objectives until her lastday in service. While keeping Bellville Li-brary at the forefront of service delivery, shewas also a generous colleague, always will-ing to share her knowledge and expertiseand never hesitated to assist when needed.With her retirement, the public library land-scape has certainly suffered a great loss.

Peter Underwood will be taking early re-tirement from his position as Professor ofLibrarianship at UCT from the end of De-cember 2010, a position he has occupiedsince 1 January 1992. He writes “I intendcontinuing to be active in the profession,writing and other work but am seeking amore healthy mix of work, enjoyment andtime with family!”

The FSPLIS says farewell to Agnesia van

Heerden, a Chief Library Assistant at the Li-brary and Archive Services Directorate, FreeState Province. Agnesia was appointed inMay 1977. Before settling in Bloemfontein,this Cradock girl worked at the Cape Provin-cial Library Service in Graaff-Reinet, and be-fore that she was employed at the City ofPort Elizabeth. Here in Bloemfontein she wasresponsible for Special Requests and Interli-brary and Regional Loans. She was also re-sponsible for the Video Collection and forthe material in the Central Collection.

Agnesia will be retiring on 30 November2010, and will be missed by many of hercolleagues who have relied on her for aslong as they’ve worked at the Service.

IN MEMORIUM

Mrs Nomshado Mkhize, who was a Refer-ence Librarian at Mangosuthu University ofTechnology (MUT), Library Services.Nomshado was one of the loyal members ofLIASA in KZN and was committed to the de-velopment of LIS profession. Her contribu-tion to LIS profession will be solely missed.

Mr Manikum Moodley (Duggie) UniversityLibrarian (ex staff member of UDW). Thelate Mr Moodley served UDW from Salis-bury Island days from 1962 till his retire-ment in 1999.

on the continent, and amongst others a mostnotable Zimbabwean project on Gender andResearch in Africa into ICTs for Empower-ment, initiated in 2005 involving 14 researchteams across 12 countries to examine howwomen in Africa and the Middle East useICTs to improve their living conditions and toidentify the barriers. In that capacity, she hasled various projects pitched at women inhigher education and consciously includescapacity development of young profession-als and academic women in qualitative andfeminist research methods.

In conclusion, the panel was convinced thatDr Mbambo-Thata leads by example, andthat her phenomenal achievements are asource of inspiration. As a compassionateand trained counsellor, she manages to im-pact positively on the lives and well-beingof many of her subordinates and peers. Herassertiveness, high standards and goingthe extra mile to ensure the necessary re-sources for success is impressive.

Judy Henning

Free State takes 2nd prize: 3M EssayCompetition

Tsepiso Takadi received thesecond prize in the 3Messay competition at the2010 LIASA Conference. APrincipal Librarian at theFree State School of Nursing, Eastern CampusPhuthaditjhaba, she pro-

vides a library service to nursing students,lecturers and hospital staff.

3M was celebrating their 40th anniversaryin the business of providing technologicalproducts and service to a wide range of so-cial sectors, and the competition formed

LiSLIG National Exco: 2010-12

After the nomination and electionprocess for the new National ExecutiveCommittee for the next term of twoyears had taken place, the newly electedcommittee was introduced on Wednes-day 29 September 2010 during the LiSLIG National AGM at the LIASA conference held at the St George Hotel& Conference Centre.

Committee Members

Erna Mostert, Ann Torlesse and Eulanda Thantsa

Chair Ann Torlesse (NELM, Grahamstown)

Vice Chair Erna Mostert (FS Education Library, Bloemfontein)

Secretary Eulanda Thantsa (High Court Library, Bloemfontein)

Treasurer Shireen Davis (SAAO Library, Cape Town)

Additional member Fiona Still-Drewett (Rhodes University Library, Grahamstown


L ISL IG

Documents

Alexandrea, Egypt The Planetarium Bibliotheca Alexandrina · 2015. 12. 8. · 12th Annual Conference The world’s window on Egypt Egypt’s window on the world At the forefront of