in touch Official magazine of the library and information association of south africa December 2016 volume 17 issue 4 9 771562 760442 ISSN 1562-7608 LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016 Neesha Ramsumar • Laila Vahed • Segametsi Molawa • Freda van Wyk • Ina Smith Nominees • Ina Smith • Lianda Coetzer • Nozuko Matiwane • Laila Vahed • Gizelle Kirkman • Benford Rabatseta • Maropene Ramabina (absent) • Manda Hough • Mercia Sias UKS REPRESENTATIVE Joint First LOY Out-going LIASA PRESIDENT SAPNET REPRESENTATIVE Joint First LOY www.liasa.org.za
Transcript
in touchOfficial magazine of the library and information association of south africa
December 2016volume 17
issue 4
9 771562 760442
0 1ISSN 1562-7608
LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016
Neesha Ramsumar • Laila Vahed • Segametsi Molawa • Freda van Wyk • Ina Smith
Endings and beginnings – the endless cycle of life to which we are all subject.
This issue of the LIASA-in-Touch magazine sees the introduction of a new term of office under the leadership of President Mandla Ntombela (2016 – 2018) who has chosen to lead under the banner: “Libraries for communities” which aims to instil in commu-nities a sense of ownership of libraries thereby fully integrat-ing these into communities.
While a formal handover to the new Exco is planned for November and further planning meetings are imminent, the firm foundation and infrastructure passed on from immediate past President Segametsi Molawa and her team have made it possible for this committee to hit the road running. We express our admiration for the contribution to the Association of the 2014 – 2016 Representative Council and Executive Council. This sentiment was expressed by members at the LIASA AGM on receipt of the President’s report. We are certain that Mandla’s term of office will build on this base to take the Association to new professional heights. We offer him our full support at this time characterised by global challenges and local turmoil.
most challenging in recent mem-ory with upheavals among others in the higher education sector and, continued service delivery protests that question the nation-al political, social and educational structures. Libraries have been on the receiving end of all of this with regular reports of libraries being set alight or being the targets of attempted arson. The personal effect on library staff has to be acknowledged as staff operated at times behind heavy security and among others were in the thick of library invasions and responses from security. The LIASA conference programme was adjusted to respond to these circumstances in acknowledge-ment that libraries are part of a greater ecosystem. The session was well-attended with presenta-tions from senior leadership in LIASA and varied contributions from the floor that recounted ex-periences, shared coping mech-anisms and opined on solutions. The LIS Social Justice Group was formed with the brief firstly to formulate a conference statement on the current situation and then, to propose actionable plans.
Matters of note for the next period:• The 2016 LIASA AGM ap-
proved the proposal that set the annual period for Early
Bird Membership renewal as: from the first day of confer-ence to 31 December. As this is effective immediately, the Early Bird period for 2017 membership renewal opened on 10 October and will end on 31 December 2016. Renew your membership now directly on the LIASA website: http://members.liasa.org.za/ . We closed 2016 on 1692 members – we are aiming for 2000+ in 2017
• 2017 South African Library Week (SALW) will be celebrat-ed from 18 – 26 March 2017 under the theme: My Library, your Library. The sub-themes: My Library, My Home, Mind your Library and Tell me about your Library will assist with unpacking the relevance of this extensive topic
• The 2017 LIASA conference will be held in Gauteng from 02 – 06 October 2017
• The annual holiday closure period of the LNO will be announced in due courseOn behalf of EXCO and Rep-
resentative Council we wish you well over the upcoming holiday season, Season’s Greeting, Happy Holidays and a happy New Year.
Nikki CrowsterInterim Secretary
LIASA President-elect
The Legal Deposit Committee 2016
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
The Library and Educational sectors have been campaigning since 1998 for more balanced copyright laws in South Africa.
I was Convenor of two Copyright Task Teams in 1998 and 2000 which successfully challenged proposals for more restrictive copyright laws by the Department of Trade and Industry. Had these proposals been adopted, they would have had negative implications for access to information, particularly for education, research, libraries and persons with disabilities. We continued to lobby for change and finally in 2015, the Department of Trade and Industry published proposals to amend the current Copyright
law in July 2015. Submissions were invited from all stakeholders and the closing date for submissions was extended to 16 September 2015. A Joint Academic Submission was submitted to the DTI. This document was formally endorsed by IFLA, EIFL, and several other international and local organisations. See: http://infojustice.org/archives/35003.
A DTI conference was held in Boksburg on 27 August 2015 to give all stakeholders the chance to discuss and debate the contents of the Copyright Amendment Bill. The Bill was then redrafted based on all the submissions received and on 8 June 2016, it was approved by Cabinet. Notice of Introduction
of the Bill into Parliament was published in the Government Gazette on 5 July 2016. The only chance that the public will get to see or comment on the Revised Copyright Amendment Bill will be at public hearings organised by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Trade and Industry. The Bill was supposed to proceed to Parliament and the Portfolio Committee for Trade and Industry in August 2016, but the process of certification of the Bill has not yet been completed. The Bill is now only likely to come before the Portfolio Committee sometime in 2017.
Denise Nicholson
REPORT ON THE COPYRIGHT AMENDMENT BILL 2015
This is the first time that I am writing to you in my capacity as the President of
LIASA, the glorious association of Library Workers in South Africa.
We recently hosted another successful Annual Conference held at the Durban International Conference Centre in KwaZu-lu Natal. I would like to thank outgoing REPCO and Exco, Scatterlings (PCO), the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Exhibitors, Sponsors, Speakers and Delegates for contributing to a very successful 2016 Annual Conference.
I want to acknowledge with gratitude the contribution from the Department of Arts and Culture who provided grants for delegates to attend the conference; funded various expert speakers; and paid for ICT and AV equipment.
Congratulations to the joint winners of the LIASA Librarian of the Year award: Ms Ina Smith and Ms Laila Vahed and to the 1st Runner up Ms Mercia Sias.
Thank you to UKS, SAPnet, and SABINET for sponsoring this award so generously.
Congratulations to Prof Johannes Willemse, the first recipient of the SALI Trust – LIASA Lifetime Achiever award.
Welcome on board to all the members of the incoming Executive Committee and Representative Council for the term of office 2016-2018 and like sentiments to all members of the
LIASA welcomes its new President!
Mr Mandla Ntombela
Branch Executive and Interest Group Committees. Thank you for making yourself available to serve the Association and the profession in this way.
As I acknowledged in my presidential acceptance speech on 14 October 2016, I thank the members for electing me as their President for the term 2016-2018. It is an honour to lead an Association that has a self-sacrificing mandate of contributing towards an educated and informed nation, thus improving the lives of people. I am humbled that you have placed a vote of confidence in me and the team that I will be working with on EXCO.
The Executive Committee Mandla Ntombela: PresidentNikki Crowster: President-elect; Secretary: Vacant; Senovia Welman: PRO;Danie Malan: Treasurer;The Four additional members nominated from the Representa-tive Council of 2016-18:Nomgcobo Spondo: Member-ship and Social Media ConvenorMmaditshipi Seageng: Advocacy and Marketing Convenor;Teboho Morajane: Governance, Branch and Interest Groups Convenor; Theresa Denton: Projects, Policies and Fundraising Convener;.
We pledge our commitment to provide leadership and strate-gic direction to take LIASA to new heights and to a brighter future.
I want to assure you that I know the magnitude of this responsibility and that I am committed to building the Association to be more visible, stronger, dynamic, vibrant and cohesive. I am indeed fortunate that I will be able to build upon a strong foundation that has been put in place by the visionary leaders of LIASA that went before me.
I would like to salute and pay
tribute to the previous leadership who were instrumental in transforming LIS in South Africa. It is through their efforts and vision that LIASA was born, nurtured through infancy and grown to its first decade and beyond. In 2017 LIASA will celebrate 20 years of existence boasting of amazing achievements among others, recently attaining Professional Body Status and, the 2nd hosting in South Africa in seven years of the IFLA WLIC, in 2015 in Cape Town. LIASA is acknowledged also as a key stakeholder in the development of LIS in Africa having six members serving on AFLIA Governing Council. It has earned respect amongst its peers on the African continent and has become a truly global force, which can be seen through the leadership that LIASA members are providing in the international arena.
Please allow me to congratulate the immediate past president, Ms Segametsi Molawa for successfully delivering on her theme and the goals set for her term of office. Her vision was based on “Libraries for development: Action, integration and collaboration”, her focus on the role of libraries in relation to NDP priorities such as unemployment, poverty and so on, and the promotion of the Transformation Charter. Under her leadership LIASA showed growth and attained stability, both financially and operationally.
The theme of my Presidential term is ‘Libraries for communities”. In this theme the word communities is used widely to include all library workers who serve in all types of library and information services be it national, academic, government, public, school, business, law, or other. So what do I want to achieve during my term of office? This theme encourages all librarians, patrons and relevant
stake holders, with special reference to advocacy, to support and to ensure that:• systems are in place to
provide best service to all• standards are upheld
within the LIS sector • skills are developed for all
(librarians and library users)• good quality of service is
provided to the nation at large• the interests, image and
development of the library and information services in South Africa are repre-sented and promoted
• the spirit of ownership is built which will lead to protecting libraries during this era of burning libraries.Furthermore, some of the
strategic priorities within my LIASA presidential theme are: foster stakeholder relationships, advocacy for libraries and library services and responding to needs and challenges of the profession.
In conclusion; as members of LIASA we have to take combined responsibility to drive LIASA into the future. Continue to support the Association and communicate to us your needs, critical issues and wishes for LIASA. You have an important role to play in mapping the future of LIS in South Africa. Let us unite and indeed drive access to knowledge for our communities and the country. I am looking forward to the next two years of exciting times as we work together to do amazing things for LIASA.
Wishing you all a wonderful end-of-year break and for those of you celebrating Christmas, may your celebrations be blessed; to all members, have a fabulous festive season and I wish everyone all the best for the upcoming year 2017. Please travel safely and return well rested in the New Year. God bless you all!
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LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
If I thought that winning the title for KZN Librarian of the Year for 2016 was awesome,
then nothing had prepared me for being announced as a joint winner for the national title of LiASA Librarian of the year 2016!
During the announcements as Mercia Sias was placed first runner-up, followed by Ina Smith as a tie for first place, I looked around the table and thought as I looked at the group con-sisting of many worthy winners, that although I felt very proud to represent KZN, the title was not to be mine. When Mandla Ntombela announced my name as joint winner I just stared. While slowly walking to the podium I had to take a few deep breaths to stabilise myself, recalling in my mind what brought me there.
As part of the interview, Branch finalists had to prepare and present a poster to the judges epitomising their journey and contribution to LiASA and the LIS sector. Considering the brief I realised that as a mother and a grandmother, my family are central to everything that I do professionally. I recalled my two daughters, Zara and Raisa work-ing alongside me at conferences, assisting with odd jobs and tasks. I remembered them crouched on our lounge floor folding and stuffing envelopes with the first newsletter that LiASA produced which I composed, edited, printed and mailed to thousands of LIS workers. Doing voluntary work for an organisation such as LiASA has to involve your family so that you can keep the balance. Coming full circle, it was my eldest granddaughter, Kiara who
Overwhelming, but so gratifying
accompanied me to the LiASA conference in 2014 and found herself cutting and stapling vot-ing papers.
The elections in 2014 and this year, has of course epitomised my latest role within LiASA, with many only knowing me as the Electoral Officer. This was the first time that I took the ballot completely online, signified on
the poster by the smashed ballot box with the online voting form on the screen of the laptop.
My day job of course is that of being the head of Library and Information Services at the Uni-versity of Zululand. Public service was reputed to be the most chal-lenging library sector to manage in, but in recent years academia is competing very strongly for
that title! Coping under normal circumstances is trying enough, couple that with 2015 and 2016 #FeesMustFall activities, makes for trials and tribulations of a different complexity. It’s a case of roll over and die or face the challenges head on, so as to do the best that one can under very trying circumstances. Not enough money, and budget that shrinks in your hands as the Rand goes into freefall, just adds to the difficulties.
My other huge professional involvement is as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the South African Library and infor-mation Consortium (SANLiC). In an attempt to manage costs for electronic resources pre-dominantly in the academic and research sector, the Consortium negotiates sector wide discounts. Tough economic environments internationally naturally makes this an extremely arduous task as we try to balance South African needs against profit margins of the big guns in the world of aca-demic electronic publishing.
In a nutshell, winning an award such as this does not come over-night and does not come without hard work, long days and nights and loads of private time com-mitment. It also does not come without mentoring, and for that I will always be extremely grateful to two people who played a huge role in my grooming, in whose shadow I walked as a young librarian, as a small fish in a very large pond. Haffy Haffajee and Nora Buchanan, I say thank you!
Laila VahedDirector, LIS
University of Zululand
Laila’s poster for the 2016 LoY Adjudication With Laila are Tasneem, Raisa, Zara, Kiara and Amarah in front
The 2016 LIASA Librarian of the Year (LoY) event was particularly memorable. Not only was the standard of the competitors the highest ever, it made the adjudication so challenging that the only reasonable outcome was the joint sharing of this sought after accolade.
The award committee was made up from members of the LIASA Exco: LIASA President, Ms Segametsi Molawa; President-elect, Mr Mandla Ntombela; PRO, Ms Nikki Crowster; and, the LoY sponsors: UKS, Ms Neesha Ramsumar (1st prize); SAPNET, Ms Freda van Wyk (2nd prize) and SABINET, Ms Rosalind Hattingh (3rd prize).
Nine candidates participated in the LoY interviews – one branch did not participate. Each contender presented a poster that marketed their activities in the profession but which also told the story of themselves. It became evident during the day that as LIS workers, we are composites of our profes-sional practice, our social interaction and our
personal lives. Besides engagement in and contribution to the library and information services, the interview questions examined how the candidates would match the position of role model within LIASA and the broader LIS world.
While all the participants clearly were deserving of their Branch award, some can-didates stood out as national contenders and this caused a bit of a dilemma as there were more of them than there were prizes. The decision matrix compiled in advance of the interview day could not assist with separating the potential awardees. After robust discus-sion in the committee and, the heroic action of all the sponsors, the surprising decision was reached unanimously to share the LoY title.
Ina Smith (Gauteng North) and Laila Vahed (KwaZulu Natal) were announced as joint recipients of the 2016 LIASA Librarian of the Year. They are deemed to have displayed in practice, the qualities needed in LIS role
models. Their contributions to the profession, to the development of LIS staff and to the Association; and, their influence on the LIS sector were recognized not only symbolically with the presentation of a trophy but also with a monetary award for each equivalent to the first prize, courtesy of UKS and SAPNET respectively. In recognition of her strong showing in this competition, Mercia Sias (Western Cape) was accorded First runner up and received among the accolades, the monetary prize from SABINET.
LIASA extends its deep appreciation to the sponsors who increased their financial contributions to the sponsorships in response to the above circumstances. Sincere thanks are expressed to Neesha Ramsumar, Freda van Wyk and Rosalind Hattingh for your con-tinued passionate support of LIASA; we are proud to have you as LIASA Librarian of the Year partners.
LIASA Gauteng North proudly congratulates Ms Ina Smith (the Gauteng North Branch Librarian of the Year), for being awarded the 2016 LIASA Librarian of the Year. Ina shares this prestigious award with Ms Laila Vahed, from KwaZulu-Natal.
Ina Smith holds a Masters’ Degree in Computer-Integrated Education, a Higher Education Teaching Diploma, and an Honours Degree in Library and Information Science, all obtained from the University of Pretoria.
Prior to her current position as SciELO Planning Manager at the Academy of Science of South Africa, she was responsible for implementing and managing the institutional repository at Stellen-bosch University (SUNScholar), the open journal hosting service (SUNJournals), as well as the open conference managing sys-tem (SUNConferences).
While appointed at the University of Pretoria Library Services, she was responsible for the implementation and manage-ment of the UPSpace institu-tional repository, social media, a federated search engine solution, and the library web page. She has also 14 years of experience in cataloguing and classification.
Ina served on the 2014-2016
LIASA EXCO as ICT Development Convenor. During her term of office she made an outstanding contribution to the develop-ment of the LIASA Website in promoting the association, the profession and librarianship in general. She contributed to the building of a document library to assist good governance within branches and the Association, and promoted the Website as a means of keeping members informed on national and interna-tional professional events.
Other initiatives under her leadership include the LIASA Academy (an online learning management system to present online courses in library and information science), an online directory of all SA libraries, LIASA Webinar (for virtual presenta-tions and workshops), LIASA Events (managing the workflow involved when organising events, conferences), and LIASAOnline advertisements as a prospective income stream for the association.
As the 2014-2016 Chair for the Higher Education Library Interest Group (HELIG) she demonstrated her passion for the profession and the empowerment of library professionals through self-learning. She initiated a number of webinars and online
workshops to assist branches and individuals in mastering new library technologies.
Ina is also a passionate advo-cate for Open Access resource sharing; she is involved in the strategic management of Open Access scholarly publications; project management of Digital Preservation, Digital Object Iden-tifiers, Online Journal Manage-ment and Metrics.
In addition, Ina also serves in the following capacities:• LIASA Representative Coun-
cil member (2014-2016)• Ambassador for the Direc-
tory of Open Access Jour-nal (DOAJ) (2016-2017)
• SPARC Open Access
Week Advisory Committee member (2015-2016)
• Journal Manager (Techni-cal): South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science (2011- February 2016)In 2014 she was awarded the
LIASA President’s Acknowledge-ment for Exceptional Contribu-tion and she was a Runner-up in the 2011 International EPT Award for Open Access. In addition to workshops (both nationally and internationally), she frequently presents papers at conferences, and also contributes in terms of scholarly publications.
In her spare time Ina is in-volved in training teachers and librarians and developing media literacy manuals for primary school learners – assisting all to become digital citizens.
Ina is known as a hardworking and dedicated library profession-al with unique leadership skills, but she is also a friendly and love-able person with a positive out-look on life and her profession.
Ina Smith is certainly a worthy winner of the 2016 LIASA Librari-an of the Year Award and we wish her well in her future endeavours in representing the Gauteng North Branch and LIASA.
Martha de WaalGauteng North Branch
In honour of Ms Ina Smith, 2016 LIASA LoY
President Elect M Ntombela, President S Molawa with the Sponsors: Ros Hattingh – Sabinet (far left), Neesha Ramsumar – UKS and Freda van Wyk – SAPNet
Ina Smith in from of her poster
LIASA Librarian of the Year Second Place to Mercia Sias (centre) with Ros Hattingh from Sabinet on the left and Segametsi Molawa
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
Every school I have attended in my life had a library. Most of these were modest, one-roomed collections of books. They were managed by teach-ers who encouraged us to read, knowing the world we lived in devalued our minds as it brutalised our bodies.
I don’t recall the location of the library of my first school, but I vividly recall visits to the unim-posing community library with older siblings. At the time, being five years old, it seemed impossi-bly large. In our mapping of the neighbourhood from the house my father had built with his own hands through the 1950s and 1960s, the library was one of the beacons by which distance was marked. Things were beyond the library, or next to it, or between it and the post office.
These libraries, I was later to learn, were little more than book depositories. They were the dumping grounds of apartheid’s surplus materials. No doubt, given the dominance of Christian nationalist fascism, they con-tained material I would now find deeply troubling, if only for in-culcating in young minds tropes of inferiority and superiority, of the dangers of foreign-ness (I recall one book, which re-told an
old Chinese fable about greed in xenophobic terms which dis-turbed even my seven year old sensibilities), and of the glories of the Republic of South Africa.
The librarians in the apartheid public libraries serving Black subjects like us, made exception-al from others by the dehuman-ising racist logic of division and hierarchy, and the day-to-day work of its uncivil servants, were professionals accorded respect by the communities they served. They lived in the same segre-gated neighbourhoods as our teachers, the nurses, bus drivers, plumbers, clothing factory work-ers, and shop assistants. Despite the odds stacked against them, and us, they ran efficient centres where children could find refuge from the increasingly violent world outside, and immerse themselves in books. And occa-sionally, they smuggled in items to counter the dominant false story of our own ‘inferiority’.
In 1990, a week after Nelson Mandela’s fateful walk from the prison gates of Victor Verster, I encountered the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town. Its organisation on several levels remains etched in memory. You entered at Level 2, directly from University Avenue opposite the
Arts Block, or from a door next to the horrific memorial to colonial violence, Jameson Hall. I spent four years exploring the library – its other entrances at Level 5 and Leslie Commerce, as well as at Yellow Level into the Students’ Union and next to the Molly Blackburn Hall – from its general holdings to its journals in the stacks, and more.
Campus libraries, once inac-cessible to many because of the racist laws which governed South Africa, have been made newly inaccessible except for those who could pay. The sites of joy were once again barred, and now even to me. A private library be-came increasingly crucial. I was inspired by the personal libraries of teachers, some of whom later became colleagues, and on occasion, friends. As techno-logical shift changed the ways libraries were organised, many of us dedicated to the paper book began to gather materials into our personal spaces. This, I was to learn, later, had been the habit of many Black men and women in South Africa, who filled their homes with books, many illegal and banned, and welcomed young people to read materials otherwise unavailable because of administrative control.
Over the last few years I have taken a child to the public library. In 2014 I came across a first edition of Nadine Gordimer’s A Soldier’s Embrace (1980). It had been scuppered from the Springs Public Library. It had last been checked out in 1987. I bought the copy for R50. It seemed tragic for a little girl growing up in Springs not to discover the town had produced a Nobel Prize winner. It seemed doubly tragic that this first edition of a daugh-ter of the town could be scup-pered. So taking the eight-year old with too many books to the public library functions as a way to keep checking out little-read but important books.
Imagine what dreams could be inspired in a child who real-ises she stands on ground trod by a Nobel laureate, because of a visit to the municipal public library. Life is not only elsewhere, the library would tell that child; life is also here, and elsewhere. In a place like this, even those of us who have retreated to private book collections, owe our fellow citizens the duty of continuing to support public libraries.
Angelo FickResident current affairs and
news analyst at eNCA
The recent Libraries and Informa-tion Association of South Africa (LIASA) Conference offered in-valuable insights and refreshing perspectives on the theory and practice of knowledge man-agement as well as information literacy. The need to master infor-mation skills in the 21st century cannot be overemphasised.
The theme of the Conference, Libraries in Action: Transformation and Development towards 2030, was relevant to both the current global and local challenges. It es-sentially placed libraries in a proper context. Most importantly, probing the role of the library as a model for transformation and as a tool to en-force democratic culture in society was an enriching experience for us.
As universities of the poor, libraries enable us to widely open the doors of learning and culture to all at affordable costs. The govern-ment is therefore able to accelerate the consolidation of our domestic knowledge economy, a factor which is integral to the achieve-ments of the objectives set by the National Development Plan 2030.
Among these are the discovery, development and encouragement of national talent for the advance-ment of our cultural life and the opening of all cultural treasures of
mankind to all by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands. As Tata Rolihlahla Mandela, one of the founding fathers of our democratic nation once said about the potency of reading and its ability to broaden one’s view of the world:
“I was reading and I discovered that there is a world which I did not know, whose doors opened to me and the influence of these men (and women- my emphasis) must be reckoned as against that background.”
Undoubtedly, libraries are facilities which demonstrate the transversal nature of knowledge and information. No society can survive and gain competitive advantage without knowledge and information. And these reside predominantly in libraries.
We also need to emphasise the aspect of the free exchange of books and ideas, as this is the firm basis upon which the necessity of building and equipping our librar-ies with state-of-the art gadgets is based as we enter the trajectory of digitalisation during this Infor-mation Age that is driven by high technology.
In the past the majority of our people had next to nothing in terms of these facilities. Most could
hardly access such empowering in-formation and knowledge resource centres. This is why it boggles the mind that that we are now burning libraries and reducing these infor-mation resource centres to rubble during our protest for better servic-es delivery precisely because the presence of these facilities in our communities epitomise the delivery of services and the provision of tools for inculcating self-reliance.
Another facet of the contri-butions of libraries towards our transformation and development vision articulated in the NDP is how these facilities can serve as sites to promote the decolonisation of knowledge management and infor-mation literacy while simultaneous-ly promoting lifelong learning.
In our quest to embrace lifelong learning, we must read all genres of literature voraciously. This is pos-sible if we ensure that our libraries acquire diverse texts on a broad range of disciplines. Works on clas-sical civilisations and influences of different cultures on the creation of knowledge such as Confucianism and other Oriental philosophies which inspired those behind the economic miracles of the Peo-ple’s Republic of China (PRC) and the so-called Asian tigers should find places of prominence on the
shelves of our libraries. In addition, it needs to be
stressed that in our exploration of knowledge and information, we will benefit immensely by reading works on Indigenous Knowledge Systems by prominent African scholars including Cheik Anta Diop, Kwesi Prah, Mamhood Mamdani, Tlou Setumo, Walter Rodney, Molefi Asante, Martin Bernal and many others.
Let us ensure that these works are available in our libraries in order to add impetus to the drive for African Renaissance, for there can be no African century if many among us are not well-versed with works that seek to record the ster-ling contributions of our continent to the current moment.
Moreover, the obvious ben-efits of broadening our reading to encompass a wide range of disciplines is that we develop the requisite tools of analysis to grap-ple with the daunting challenge of contextualising knowledge and information literacy.
Limpopo Department Of Agriculture & Rural Development
Libraries past and present, public and personal
Appreciating the critical role of libraries in the transformation and development of our communities and society
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OPINIONS
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 48
I know an information superhero! An information superhero for student engineers!
Meet my special colleague, Ms Cora Bezuidenhout (Information Specialist: Civil Engineering; Industrial and Systems Engineering; and Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering), from the University of Pretoria’s Department of Library Services – as well as 2014-2016 LIASA Gauteng North Branch Executive Committee Member …with her poster as presented at the 17th Annual LIASA Conference in Durban:
The Engineering Librarian – do you have the knack?
Superhero skills are needed to assist student engineers in finding the correct and relevant resources they need.
In Cora’s own words: I was given those skills when I became a librarian more than 20 years ago.
‘Student engineers seem to have a preference for channels that require the least effort or seem to require the least effort, such as the Internet.’
Cora’s strategy is to practice
embedded librarianship. Cora is reaching out to her students by arranging compulsory hands-on training sessions; by creating up-to-date Libguides; and by having her own office within the School of Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology, where she can be easily reached for any library, information and research related inquiries.
In other words, Cora go to the student engineers and practice and share her skills with them, in their own environment.
When a civil engineering student needed information on PMS … Cora soon learned that the actual need is for information on Pavement Management Systems!
Cora had no clue what laser shock peering was, but while pretending to know exactly what it was, Cora’s superhero searching skills and tools allowed her to find all the correct and relevant resources, to impress and assist an information seeking student engineer!
The lesson: Never stop
An engineering librarian with special skills
learning – become an information superhero for Engineers!
Congratulations with your poster and presentation at Conference Cora!
Martha de Waal Gauteng North Branch Chair
Cataloguing Co-ordinator University of Pretoria
Dept of Library Services
LIASA CONFERENCE
The Gauteng North Branch was privileged to welcome Ms Julia Paris as the guest speaker during the Branch AGM, held on August 5, 2016 in the Research Commons Auditorium of the University of Pretoria’s Education Library.
Ms Julia Paris had her audience in silence as she inducted them into the mysteries of ‘mindfulness.’ She began by telling her audience to ‘open their minds’, reminding them that general fatigue was a problem the world over, and that feminine power, was perhaps the possible answer. We need to reclaim our ‘best self’ and to do this, we must bring ourselves back to our centre, regain our balance, our joy of life and work.
We need to find our original curiosity. Our life programming has changed us. Our environ-ment is fast paced. There is fierce competition. Fast changing tech-nologies. The Internet leaves us continually connected. We work in open plan spaces, leaving little or no privacy. There is societal struggle. Generally, there is just too much to do, so we are con-stantly in a hurry and as such, we become ‘mindless.’
We must go back to being mindful!
Conditions of mindlessness• high stress levels; • low productivity; • high absenteeism; • high risk work environments;• low output; • shadow leadership;• defeminisation of women; • emasculation of men; • general disrespect.
Mindfulness is an ancient spiritual teaching, which has its roots in Buddhism. It refers to consciously noticing things in life. It is not difficult or complicated. We have forgotten the simplicity of life. We need to consciously live in the moment, and look at things with fresh eyes. Mindful-ness is about living because you are full of Joie de vivre!
To be mindful we need to empty ourselves every day. Tomorrow is a new day. We start again afresh, with new challeng-es, new possibilities, new solu-tions, and new experiences.
We need to create a winning experience at work. We need to surrender our egos and be aware of our energy vibration. Everything emits energy. As such, we receive both positive and negative energy. If one emits positive energy, it will flow to you, and vice versa.Becoming mindful: • Meditate: Think consciously
about what you are do-ing, who you are, what you want to be, what effect you want to have on others.
• Exercise: Get those feet moving and that heart rate up!
• Sing and chant: Yes, in the shower, in the car; wherev-er, sing your heart out.
• Yoga: Yes, remember, even Jennifer Anis-ton swears by this.
• Play: Suspend ‘adulthood’ and become a child again, immerse yourself in fun.
• Practice simplicity: Do not over complicate your life. Keep things simple.
• Practice completion: Finish what you start. NO! Not the bottle of wine! Tasks you began!
• Listen to music: Albert Schweitzer stated that ‘There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life. Cats and music.’
• Laugh: Yes, out loud, and right from the bottom of your tummy. Enjoy your-self, it’s infectious.
• Have a grateful attitude: Be mindful of what you have, who you are, what you have achieved, what you will still achieve, your effect on others, and be grateful.
Nicola Potgieter LIASA Gauteng North
Branch Secretary
Creating Mindful Winners in our Workspaces
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
The Children’s Department of Central Library is taking the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to information for the blind and visually impaired pretty seriously.
Since education is at the fore-front of our tasks as Librarians, we thought it imperative to start teaching our little ones about the visually impaired persons in the community.
Linda Nielsen and her guide-
dog Fiela, from the South African Guide-dog Association partic-ipated in our Spring Holiday Programme. Linda addressed the children on the training and reliance of visually impaired people on guide-dogs. Both the adults and children listened in awe as she shared interesting facts about guide-dogs follow-ing commands to take them to places like the pharmacy and supermarket, crossing at the
robot and climbing up and down steps. The children gained a new understanding of working dogs and the plight of the visually impaired. This is one of our few awareness programmes we have planned to integrate our visually impaired library users at Central Library.
Glorine HannahChildren’s Librarian
Central Library
Central Library’s Children’s DepartmentHoliday programme attendees with Linda Nielsen and her guidedog Fiela
The annual City of Cape Town Service Awards was held on Thursday, 20 October. The awards celebrates the achieve-ments of libraries and librarians in 5 award categories namely Best Display, Amaboekies Reading Team, Customer Care, Staff Member of the Year and Manager of the Year.
Best Display of the Year went to Durbanville Library with last year’s winner Heideveld Library declared the runners-up. The award invites libraries to create a display based on the SALW theme and is then judged according to predetermined criteria.
This Amaboekies Reading Team of the Year went to the team from our District 1 libraries. Runners up were the team from District 4, last year’s winning team. Each of our 6 districts puts forward a team to compete in our annual staff reading competition. A booklist is compiled each year and teams read these titles for a chance to be crowned the Ama-boekies Reading Team.
Tyger Valley Library won the Customer Care Award, their second win in this category. Each library receives 500 postcards and library users complete these answering questions related to the library, its staff, its collections and its service. The winner is based on the responses to these questions.
Rochelle de Beer, an Admin-istrative Officer in the HR unit of our Support Services section, was named the Staff Member of the Year award. Staff are nominated for this award and the final voting is done by the Library Management Team to determine the winner. This year’s contest proved a tough one and had to go through 2 rounds of voting to determine the eventual winner. Rochelle, a firm believer in doing things right, is a great ambassador for the HR unit by assisting many a staff member in doing just that. Her patience and knowledge of her subject makes her a firm favourite with both librarians-in-charge and other staff members when guidance and reassurance is needed.
Tracey Muir-Rix, Senior Librarian at Ottery Library was named Manager of the Year. Each Librarian-in-Charge is assessed via a template and the winner is the highest scorer. The template assesses the management of staff, the library, the achievement of business targets, the marketing of the library as well as participa-tion in LIASA. Tracey has in her
time at Ottery Library, has strived to make the library a haven in a community plagued by gangster-ism and unemployment. Despite
these conditions she managed to increase both the membership and the circulation of the library and has made reading and the
benefits thereof a key element of the library.
Nazeem HardyLibrary Marketing & Research Officer
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CITY OF CAPE TOWN
Tracey Muir-Rix, Senior Librarian at Ottery Library was named Manager of the Year
Cape Town LIS celebrates its libraries and librarians
Amaboekies winners, District 1. Back: Lubabalo Lunika (Kensington), Kaylene Amon (Central), Carmen Holtzman (District Manager), Emmerentia Heydenrycht (Maitland). Front): Babalwa Gqomfa (Kensington) and Tania Blignault (Central)
Staff from the Durbanville Library (Best Display of the Year)
Staff Member of the Year, Rochelle de Beer with the Manager: Support, Tania Alcock-Smith
Tracey Muir-Rix, Senior Librarian at Ottery Library was named Manager of the Year
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 410
The addition of new SDBIP indicators is not necessarily the “best of times” for most libraries.
That creative well that we keep dipping into sometimes comes up empty and even past inspirations turn out to be lame ducks. The idea of an adult outreach for libraries whose traditional focus is on younger library users requires digging a whole new creative well and challenging long held assumptions.
Scrabble has been around since 1938 in some iteration or another and chances are that there is an old Scrabble set in a cupboard somewhere at work or an app on a cell phone that only gets used once or twice a month. Its common occurrence - it is assumed - keeps it popular and people playing in their homes (or on cell phones). Yet at Southfield we kept getting queries for Scrabble sessions at the library. Most of the time it was working people who just wanted a quick game as a recreational distraction.
Initially the idea seemed too obvious. Surely people were playing Scrabble in their own time, we thought. As with most things that are assumed, we were dead wrong – our borrowers did not have time for Scrabble at home but a trip to the library however could serve the dual
purpose of being a Scrabble playing trip.
We realised that sticking a Scrabble set out and expecting people to show up despite the interest, felt static, a bit of structure was needed. A chance meeting with a player from the Retreat Scrabble Club revealed a thriving if under represented community in the Western Cape and Cape Town. Scrabble Club Chairpersons were looking for partners and we had ample space and Scrabble boards – the match made sense. So the Scrabble @ Southfield Library session was born.
Scrabble @ Southfield Library is a dedicated two hour bloc on Wednesday mornings at Southfield Library that has novices and enthusiasts play Scrabble under the watchful eye of local Western Cape Scrabble Association players Duncan Keet and Ralph Sultanie.
The session also doubles as an incubator – a term borrowed from the technology sector that describes a safe environment to grow skill and talent under the seasoned eye of skilled persons. The talent created in the incubator is then free to take their skill on to the Scrabble Clubs or home to beat the tail feathers off an annoying relative who had been crowing their about Scrabble supremacy ever since they married into the family.
Scrabble @ Southfield LibraryA Test of Assumptions
This partnership allows Southfield Library to assist in incubating Scrabble players so that they can become members of Scrabble Clubs – who knows perhaps the next World Champion could come from our incubator and to provide a space where people could come to the library and have some fun that doesn’t involve books.
We are hoping that this session at Southfield changes the perception of our library from a Drop and Go book space to more of a Come and Stay #PlaySpace.
Scrabble @ Southfield Library happens Wednesdays from 10h00 to 12h00.
Rudi WicombLibrarian at Southfield Library
Mrs Doreen Jackson, Southfield Library User and novice Scrabble Player taking on all challengers.
Layla Swart (Senior Librarian), Rudi Wicomb (Librarian and Scrabble @ Southfield Co-Ordinator, Carol Parker (Chair: Retreat Scrabble Club) and Ralph Sultanie (Chair: Lansdowne Scrabble Club)
CITY OF CAPE TOWN
Memories! That was the main objective of the Special
Programmes Committee when embarking on a rather ambitious event for our Committee to date, the very first Spring Storytelling Festival to be hosted at Grassy Park Library. The team spent weeks crafting ways to ensure that the Grade R and 1 learners from Kannemeyer, E.C. Primary and Sid. G. Rule would walk away with memories of an experience of a lifetime. Most of the groundwork had been laid. All we
needed were passionate teachers and their passionate readers.
We reached out to storytellers far and wide, and were excited to have a host of skilful storytellers jump on board, including our Children’s Librarians from Ottery Library, Wynberg Library, Muizenberg Library, Meadowridge Library, Strandfontein Library and Kuyasa Library joined in on the spring fun.
The highlights to the festival were an interactive reading by the author of The
Lemon Tree, Katherine Graham who included our little audience members into her creative retelling. The Western Cape Library Services mascot Bhuki, was a hit with the crowd.
The festival serves as a platform for us to engage with educators and learners by promoting the importance of reading, and the magical use of the imagination through the art of STORYTELLING!
Luke JafthaAssistant Librarian, Grassy Park Library
Grassy Park Storytelling Festival
Bhuki with storytelling Marshalls Suraya Davids, Kim Beukes, Tim Godfrey (Sports and Recreation), Gadija Stuurman-Cozyn and Luke Jaftha
Bhuki welcoming Sid G Rule Primary Author of ‘The Lemon Tree’, Katherine Graham reads to E C Primary School
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LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
Mamre library 20th birthday celebration
LIASA NC AGM for 2016 was held at the Kimberley Africana Research Library on 9 June 2016.
Training on Information Communication Development was held. Amongst the topics discussed were: 1. The do’s and don’ts of electronic mail2. The use of cloud computing in libraries
3. The processes involved in digitisation.The main aim of the Information Commu-
nication Development Training was to high-light the importance of the use of computer resources in libraries and also to review the challenges the library staff face due to lack of skills.
Most libraries in the Northern Cape have
been equipped with computers. Therefore it is vital that they have the necessary skills to assist communities with their Informational needs. Training will be ongoing.
A light lunch was served which was followed by the AGM.
Bernice Nagel Secretary LIASA NC
This 4 day course is an introduction to the conservation of flat paper objects such as fine art on paper, maps, documents and posters.
All institutions such as Archives, Libraries and Museums have flat paper objects in their holdings. Very often these books contain fold-ed maps, diagrams or pull-out illustrations that requires specific handling and treatment.
This workshop dealt with the various tech-niques like engraving, etching, and lithograph including the aspects of hand-coloured works.
Flat paper objects are often glued to sec-ondary support. The removal of these acidic boards were also dealt with.
Float washing was included as wells as the lining and stretching of paper. De-acidification was also discussed.
This workshop was held at the Kimberley Africana Research Library’s Paper Conser-vation, Bookbinding and Training Centre in Kimberley on 3-6 October 2016. Facilitator: Johann Maree.
Bernice Nagel Secretary LIASA NC
Librarian Africana Research Library
Training on the different steps in the digitisation processDiscussion about migrating from one device to another
LIASA NC AGM and ICT Development Workshop
LIASA NC Workshop: Introduction to the Conservation of flat paper objects
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Nizam Bray, Jerome Fisher, Paulina Adams, Rosaline Coert, Elizabeth Mitchell Mamre staff posing with their birthday cake
Librarians in charge (LIC) over the years: Charmaine Petersen (first LIC), Nizam (current acting LIC), Carmen Holtzman (DM), Lormarcia Zwaan, Dairmaid Wessels
Librarian Henriët van Loggeren-berg from Coligny Community Library also participated in this year’s Poster presentation. She was so privileged to attend the 17th LIASA Conference this year and very proud to present her Library on this poster.
Coligny Community Library @ LIASA 2016
Mamre Library celebrated its birthday on Friday, 21 October with a gathering of community members, library staff and pro-fessionals as well as councillors.
The library officially opened its doors on 23 October 1996 in the old Moravian settlement of Mamre on a day described by Una Pick, Western Cape Ambassador for Afrikaans, as one that people cried because of this gift granted to them. At a time when libraries are under pressure and even burned, it is stories like these that makes one believe that all is not lost. That some wonderment that seems to have been experienced on that day still carries through in the sentiments expressed at the birthday celebrations. Words like warm welcome, great staff and centre of the community threaded through the speeches and for those of us in the audience it made us feel like we were really at the heart of the Mamre community on that morning.
Nazeem HardyLibrary Marketing & Research Officer
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
In celebration of Mandela Day on 18 July 2016, City of Johannesburg librarians gave of themselves to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged. Accumulatively one thousand one hundred and eighty one (1181) community members between the ages 3 to 83 benefitted from activities delivered. Some of the highlights were:• A special tea was organised
for the senior citizens of
the Donovan MacDonald Centre. Buffet tables were laden with delicacies. Staff members joined the senior citizens to engage in conversation over a cuppa. The second treat of the tea was a magic show delivered by professional magician, Norman Gibson aka Mr. Dilly Dally. There was much fun and laughter and oohs and awes, especially when as
tradition dictates, real white doves appeared magically.
• Senior residents of the Jan Hofmeyer Old Age Home each received a packet of adorable daintiest biscuits that epitomized Madiba-caring and were a delight to each of its recipients.
• Children of the Loveness Crèche in Ivory Park celebrat-ed Madiba’s birthday with birthday cake, face painting,
interactive storytelling and po-etry. Each child received a col-ouring book, wax crayons and a snack pack to take home.
• 2500 Children’s books that were generously donated by City of Johannesburg communities were donated to two primary schools and a crèche.
Maryna MoolmanOps Manager
City of Johannesburg Public Libraries
Mandela Day @ City of Johannesburg Public Libraries
Play is a fun way to learn and that is exactly what the Wordathon Word Pay card game is all about.
Wordathon is a word-building card game that is suitable for groups of 4 to 6 players. The game develops vocabulary, spell-ing and dictionary skills, and can be played in any language.
The card game was launched in the City of Johannesburg Public Libraries on 5 September 2016.
Librarians representative of the 87 libraries in the City of Johan-nesburg received thirty eight sets of the game on behalf of their Regions to be played at social cohesion activities and especially school holiday programmes. Pri-mary school learners were invited to the launch and had huge fun demonstrating for the first time how the game works.
The game was introduced to children participating in the
October school holiday pro-grammes and already feedback is very positive.
On 8 September 2016 one hundred and seventy primary school learners hugely enjoyed an entertaining programme. Professional storyteller, author, and singer Sindiswa Seakhoa delivered a performance on the importance of storytelling in SA indigenous languages. Mr. Dilly Dally’s delightful magic show had
the children in awe. Well-known puppeteer Antoinette Snyman’s “puppets” inviting children on stage to dance with them, created an extremely energetic activity.
Throughout these fun activities the core message was the value of reading and the importance of reading for lifelong learning.
Maryna MoolmanOps Manager: SERD
CAS Library and Information Services
National Book Week and Literacy Day Celebrations
October School Holiday Programme During the October 2016 school holiday period seventy five City of Johannesburg Public Libraries delivered one hundred and five activities. 3338 children benefitted from the holiday programmes.
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CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Diepsloot GoJozi Healthly lifestyle
@ Diepsloot
@ Blackheath Library
@ Linden Library
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
On Thursday 22 September 2016, during a function at the President Hotel
Bloemfontein, the Free State De-partment of Education (FSDoE) celebrated the official handover of 15 Start-up Libraries to 15 rural schools – 10 of the schools are in the Motheo District and 5 in the Lejweleputswa District, sponsored by South African Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI), Biblionef, SA Taxi Foundation, Sony Corp and Sumitomo Corp Africa.
Start-Up Libraries are corner li-braries comprising of shelves and books and receive a collection of approximately 500 books each.
The schools had been part of the Mobile Library Service for 3
years, but due to the number of rural schools in the province, the Mobile Library Service has to be extended to other rural schools. However, to sustain the reading culture created, the ‘outgoing’ schools are provided with the Start-Up Libraries.
The Mobile Library Service is jointly operated since 2007 by SAPESI and the FSDoE as part of its literacy programme. SAPESI imported the buses from Japan and the FSDoE provides drivers and library assistants who assist teachers and learners in making full use of library resources. So far, SAPESI has provided the FSDoE with 10 mobile libraries, servicing 337 of the 1087 schools without libraries, the majority of
Start-up Libraries and Mobile Library ServicesFree State Department of Education
14
In celebration of the annual Na-tional Book Week celebrations, the departments of English and
Library Services at the Univer-sity of Pretoria hosted an event titled: ‘Meet your African writers: Yewande Omotoso and Sandile Memela’ on 2 September 2016 held in the Merensky 2 library auditorium. The Department of Library Services also launched a National Book Week competition in collaboration with campus partners Eduloan from 31 August to 25 September 2016.
After the writers had read some of their literary works, they were asked how they struck a bal-ance between their artistic cre-ativity and censorship. Both Ms Omotoso and Mr Memele shared their experiences and advice regarding the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights of the Consti-tution of South Africa. They also reflected on censorship and how it has influenced their freedom of artistic creativity. Essentially, Ms Omotoso considered writing a personal and intimate endeavour. “It is my own project before it is for people. I see my writing as a means of understanding myself,” she said. She added that there
was not much self-censorship involved in her writing because she writes, first and foremost, for her own wellbeing. She conclud-ed by saying that censorship is complex with regard to how our minds work and the society in which we find ourselves. Mr Memela said that the concept of freedom of speech and censor-ship ‘hits a nerve’, and that it was an important pillar of a democrat-ic society. “Freedom of expres-sion is a tightrope. We need to be very vigilant and do what we can to defend it.” Mr Memela believes that despite the fact that there is democracy in South Africa, there is still progress to be made: “After 20 years, people are finally beginning to come for-
ward and speak, yet it is still not enough.” He followed: “Before I am a governmental apparatus and an official of the state, I am a South African citizen and I have the right to express myself. The Sandile who writes is Sandile the citizen.” Even at school Mr Me-mele did not allow others to stop him from writing commentaries. “I would say to my classmates, “I stand by what I wrote, even when I was threatened with violence and forced to apologize.”
During the National Book Week competition students were encouraged to say which book they were planning to buy or read in the near future and why this book was so important to him or her. The most interesting
submissions were shared and acknowledged on the UP Library Services Facebook page each day and solicited much interest from the students. The winners were announced on 30th Sep-tember 2016:• The R500 Eduloan EduX-
tras card winner was Thato Kwanaite (“Chasing Sun-sets” by Karen Kingsbury);
• The two R300 Eduloan EduXtras cards winners were Werner Eksteen (“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell) and Rebbecca Sekokotla (“You Can, You Will” by Joel Osteen);
• The two R200 Eduloan EduXtras cards winners were Charonesse Pretorius (“Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur) and Tebogo Matlala (“Nothing but the truth” by John Kani);
• The Dept of Library Servic-es also offered 3 UP board games as prizes and these were won by Charlo Jacobs (“Make Good Art” by Neil Gaiman), Nonhlanhla Mkhize (“Kunjalo-ke” by M.E. Wanda) and Esna du Plessis (“Elon Musk” by Ashlee Vance).
Mikateko MbamboElsabé Olivier
which are in remote, rural areas.At the same function the
research results of the Mobile Library’s impact on under-ser-viced rural schools were also presented. The participatory action research project was done in the 5 districts of the province by the Resource Coordinators and Media Subject Advisors through the University of the Free State. The non-profit company, Flemish Association for Develop-ment Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB), sponsored the research.
As a token of acknowledge-ment for their part in the research project, the researchers from the FSDoE received certificates from the leader of the research
project, Dr L. Jacobs (UFS).From the research results it is
clear that the English reading and speaking capabilities of the pri-mary school children improved since their schools had been visited by mobile libraries.
At the ceremony learners from Stilte Farm School, one of the rural schools in Virginia (Le-jweleputswa District) read a story to illustrate this impact.
Ms Erna MostertEducation Library, FSDoE
Ms J Mohlodi DCES: ELITS, FSDoE
Ms A JonkerResource Coordinator, Lejweleputswa District) and the Flemish Association
for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance
Children read ResearchersStart-up library Stilte Farm School
National Book Week Celebrating with African writers Yewande Omotoso and Sandile Memela at the University of Pretoria
The South African Library for the Blind opens the
world of literatureto the blind and visually impaired
The South African Library for the Blind provides FREE Braille and Audio Books to registered
members who are print-handicapped. Books are easily accessible from the Library digitally on
our website, deliverable by post, or at Mini-Libraries within certain municipal libraries.
Books newspapers and magazines are available in Audio and Braille formats. Tactile picture
books are availabe for print-handicapped preschool children. Audio books are available on
the Overdrive catalogue and can be downloaded by registered members.
This year’s Heritage day saw three teams from the DUT Library participate in the KPMG relay. The Ama Booka Booka Running team completed the 20 km course in a time of two hours and 29
minutes and the two walking teams completed the 15 km course in almost identical times, around two hours and 45 minutes.
The experience and atmosphere was exciting and the participants were proud to represent their library.
Staff relay team, back: Shirlene Neerputh, Samkelisiwe Dlamini, Lucille Webster, Mandla Ndaba, Sarah Khan; front: Rajen Eswarlal, Brian Reynolds, Mendy Sibisi, Qinisela Chiliza, (Sibusiso Gumede – not in photo)
The Reading festival is cele-brated annually and it is run by Provincial Library Services with the goal of promoting a culture of reading.
This time two categories, the Sesotho Spelling Bee and the Fingerspelling for the Deaf learners, were added. All libraries were registered to participate and users encouraged to join a reading club at their libraries. They then got the opportunity to participate in any of the following exciting programmes in order to choose the champions:
For Grade 3, 4, 5 & 6: Reading Aloud, Reading Quiz and Spell-ing Bee sessions.
For Grade3s: Sesotho Spelling Bee, which appeared on televi-sion. It was amazing to have such
a Spelling Bee in another mother tongue - we are the leading Province!
For Grade 9s: Public Speaking and Reading Quiz
Fingerspelling for Grade 9 Deaf learners: Eight learners, from Thiboloha Special School in Phuthaditjhaba and Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind in Thaba Nchu (four from each school) participated.
The final Reading festival was celebrated at Lourierpark Com-munity Library on 5-9 September 2016, where champions were crowned.
Spelling Bee and Finger-spelling The prizes for the Reading Festi-val were as follows:
• Champion: 10 inch tablet• 1st runner up: 7 inch tablet• 2nd runner up: smart phone• Each child also received a
certificate, a trophy and a bag.• Adults from the Department
also participated in the Spell-ing Bee competition. They had to read various policies of the Department, study the words therein and then spell chosen words at the competition.
Adults Spelling Bee.In the photo above, from left: Queen Sempe (Supply Chain Management), Malebogo Gaet-sewe (Finance) and Kgosietsile Motlhakwana (Language Servic-es) – All are from the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture & Recrea-tion.
• Champion: Queen Sempe • 1st runner up: Kgosi-
etsile Motlhakwana • 2nd runner up: Male-
bogo Gaetsewe On 6 September 2016, as part
of National Book Week, officials from the South African Book Development Council presented storytelling and other activities to the participants of the Reading Festival competition.
Wordathon with the learners. Each learner was given an activity to create words as fast as they could during an event.
“You are the future of tomor-row”, Mr Funda Bala (SABDC – South African Book Development Council) said and gave each learner a book.
Tumi Rammile
The Free State Provincial Reading Festival 2016
Wordathon Fingerspelling Adults Spelling Bee
Ms Jacomien Schimper and some of the winners Books from Funda Bala!
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LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 4
Adults Spelling Bee
17
Professor Johannes Willemse received the inaugural SALI Trust / LIASA Lifetime
Achievement Award at the LIASA Conference Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony.
In presenting the Award on behalf of the SALI Trust, Rachel More highlighted Prof Willemse’s contribution to the library and information field covering almost 60 years.
After starting at the then State Library in 1958, he moved to the University of South Africa in 1961 as the first Deputy University Librarian. Over the next 38 years, until his retirement as Executive Director in 1999, he was instru-mental in the development of the Unisa Library from a relatively small collection to the massive, leading academic library that we are familiar with. Milestones included the opening of two new library buildings over the years, the establishment of a network of study collections for under-graduates, the computerization of the catalogue and ordering system, the development of a system of subject librarians, the development of performance measures, and appointment as a Unisa Professor with numerous publications.
However, Prof Willemse’s impact stretched far beyond Unisa and he continues to play a role 16 years after retirement. He was a long time member of several library associations,
including SAILIS, LIASA and the American Library Association, and was eventually President of SAILIS and received its Gold Medal for Exceptional Service in 1996. He was international-ly active in IFLA, including as Deputy Chair of its Professional Board, and was Treasurer of the Standing Conference of African National and University Libraries. He served as Chairperson of the National Library Advisory Coun-cil’s Committee for the Comput-erized Network, which resulted in the establishment of Sabinet, and served on the Sabinet Board, eventually as Chairperson. Since his retirement in 1999, he has been a Board member of the S.A. Library and Information Trust, including previously serving as
Chairperson and Administrator.Prof Willemse’s commitment
and endeavour for the profession and the communities it serves has been outstanding and so he was selected as the first recipient of the SALI Trust / LIASA Lifetime Achievement Award.
In accepting the award, Prof Willemse paid tribute to his par-ents for instilling a love of read-ing and libraries. His lecturers and the managers under whom he worked inspired him with the ideal to provide excellent service and the ever-growing Unisa offered many opportunities. He emphasised the supportive role of committed colleagues over the years and also dedicated the award to them, and he congratu-lated the SALI Trust, with special
mention of Clare Walker who came up with the idea of the Trust, and LIASA for the excellent work they are doing in promoting better library and information ser-vices in the country.
The Award arose from the link between the SALI Trust and LIASA going back to the Trust’s establishment in 1998 follow-ing the dissolution of SAILIS. In recent years this cooperation has increased as the two bodies explored areas where they could work together. In addition to its main activity of making funding available for projects in library development and research, the SALI Trust identified a need for an award that acknowledged the contribution of those who have devoted much of their life to the library and information field, but the Trust needed a partner to give the award greater exposure. A proposal was made to LIA-SA, which was accepted, and a Memorandum of Understanding to guide the award was signed in February 2016. A Selection Com-mittee to implement the award was formed with representatives from the SALI Trust and LIASA, a call for nominations went out and the first recipient was selected by the Committee. The selection cri-teria emphasise lifelong service to the profession, notable impact on institutions, communities and the profession, and in general recog-nising an extraordinary career.
John van Niekerk
Johannes Willemse honoured
SALI Trust assists Danville Community LibraryDanville Community Library is a small library located in the heart of Danville Pretoria West, a disadvantage area. The library is located in the school grounds of General Beyer’s.
One of our heart’s desires is to contribute to the education of each and every learner coming through our doors. We also reach
out to the community and do programmes that are uplifting and educating.
Outreach programmeEvery third week of the month I visit the crèche offering edu-cational support to children through puppet shows, storing telling and games. This is to en-
courage a reading culture. One of the crèches is Sunrise Crèche that is situated at Skwata Camp after the tunnel; it is disadvan-taged and poor, the children do not have enough books to read, crayons or the space to play.
Last year in October I applied for a grant from the SALI TRUST FUND, South African Library and
Information Trust, to support this crèche. They awarded a grant of R5,000 to buy educational material for the crèche. With this grant we managed to buy the material and the children were very happy to receive it. Life has now changed at that crèche, thanks to SALI TRUST.Vuyokazi Malebye Librarian
The South African Library and Information Trust now has a logo!
It took considerable discussion by the SALI Trust Board to finalise the winning design by Justice Phukubje, Assistant Librarian at the Reakgona Disability Centre of the University of Limpopo.
The SALI Trust had long wanted a logo and decided that, as the Trust serves the library profession and its communities, it would be appropriate for the profession to be given an opportunity to participate in the design of a logo by means of a competition on Liasaonline.
The winning design is open to individual interpretation, but the
symbol with figures bending over what could be a book, computer or any other information medium could be seen as representing the communities the SALI Trust assists by funding projects in li-brary development and research, namely the library profession and the people the profession serves. The colours are associated with South Africa and the designer, Justice Phukubje, commented, “I believe yellow and green are not only eye catching but optimistic and represent natural life and
prosperity”.Justice, who works on
commission in various styles, mediums and subject matter, was asked about his artistic interests and activities:
“From as far back as I can remember I always loved art... I was still a young child when I discovered my love for drawing and that I had an in-born talent to draw... My eyes were always attracted by pictures – those drawn by artists and those taken by camera. Then one day a friend, Elmarie Pieterse, showed me a new world of art – computer graphics. I soon realised that I wanted to be a graphic design-er... What I loved about digital art... It was never so easy to erase a mistake... I would try to make
my paintings perfect and it was so hard for me to erase mistakes, especially in oil and watercol-our. Another reason is because computer graphics is up to date... Being technically advanced is so important, so why not be ad-vanced in art too... I not only love visual arts, but I also have the mind... I think differently. So that is why I soon realised two things: I wanted to become a graphic artist and thinking differently will help me with my art” ([email protected], Justice Phukubje on Facebook).
Thanks to Justice and the other entrants in the competition for assisting the SALI Trust in its search for a logo.
John van Niekerk Administrative Officer, SALI Trust
SALI TRUST
The SALI Trust – LIASA Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented to Professor Johannes Willemse (centre)
by Rachel More – SALI Trust Board member (left) and Segametsi Molawa
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 418
Mwamba Chikwemba and Christina Nel
Top class artists from Mozambique, Zam-bia, Zimbabwe and SA painted the Tzaneen Library’s façade from 19 – 23 September.
The artists were invited and hosted by the Greater Tzaneen Community Foundation in partnership with the Greater Tzaneen Munici-pality. They were requested to depict the sub-ject of libraries and reading in a multi-cultural environment and the results are dazzling.
Talented art students from local schools Hudson Ntsanwisi-; Sekaba-; Sevengwani- and Mahwahwa High assisted the artists and gained by learning best practice mural art techniques. The artists impressed not only with their talent and perfect interpretation of the subject but also with their high work ethic. They worked non-stop from morning to well after dark with dedication and pride in their work. At a farewell function Owen Shikabeta from Zambia encouraged students: “To be a successful artist you have to work hard, be
disciplined, notice the world around you with keen interest and have a sketchbook with you at all times.”
The mural called READ depicts a man loud hailing the word READ in all four languages mostly spoken in the Greater Tzaneen area: Sepedi; English; Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
The muralists are: Frans Phooko, Titus Hlangwini and Thapelo Mabula from South Africa and Owen Shika-beta and Mwamba Chikwemba from Zambia. Stone sculptors Ernest Nyaga-to and Tonderai Tonyagato from Zim-babwe and Pedro Tucotuco from Mo-zambique contributed ideas for the murals and worked on a magnificent sculpture of a man reading.
Visitors to the library are unani-mous in their praise of the murals. The murals depict the message library staff
Tzaneen Library murals painted during Heritage Monthhoped for: books are a pleasure to read and make you think, and libraries are for everyone.
Mogale City Local Municipality through its social and economic programmes, collaborates with different government entities to contribute to promoting an empowered society. It is for this reason that library services presented an outreach pro-gramme with the Department of Correctional Services.
The Municipality through its Library services held a pub-lic speaking competition at the Krugersdorp Correctional services on 17 August 2016. The competition was between high school learners around Mogale City such as Kingswood Acade-my, Mandisa, Lodirile and Matla High schools and offenders from two correctional centres namely, Krugersdorp and Baviaanspoort.
Mogale City’s Outreach Li-brarian and programme director, Nthabiseng Raduvha explained that the aim of the programme was to boost the self-esteem of the participants and assist them in overcoming the fears and in-securities that accompany public speaking.
“We are here to build good public speakers and to show that Mogale City Libraries are full of valuable resources to be used for researching for the speeches of the Speakers on the motion of today. It is better to learn from your mistakes”, Raduvha said.
Building character through public speaking
The participants were scored on presentation, confidence, creativity, insight and maturity to mention a few.
Krugersdorp Correctional Services was awarded 3rd and 2nd place while Baviaanspoort took the trophy for first place. The winning team received a floating trophy, certificates, medals and
gifts comprising of bags, dic-tionaries, Born to Read blankets, book markers and pens. The runners-up also received gifts for their efforts. Educators from the schools received Coaching Certif-icates and promotional Materials.
Raduvha closed the event with these words; “A mistake should be your teacher, not your
attacker. A mistake is a lesson, not a loss. It is a temporary but nec-essary detour, not a dead end. Don’t let your mistakes define who you are, move on in the right direction. I thank you”
Nthabiseng Alina Raduvha Outreach Librarian
Mogale City Local Municipality
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Nathi Mthethwa appointed the Legal Deposit Committee for the period 1 July 2016 – 30 June 2019.
The newly appointed Committee was inaugurated in a meeting which was held on 22 September 2016, at the National Library of South Africa. Mr Francois Hendrikz, CEO of
the South African Library for the Blind is the Chairperson of the Committee and Prof Rocky Ralebipi-Simela, CEO and National Librarian of the National Library of South Africa is the Vice Chairperson.
The role of the Legal Deposit Committee is to ensure that all documents of national documentary heritage
are preserved, catalogued and accessed. All published documents emanating from or adapted for South Africa should be deposited in all places of legal deposit.
There are five places of legal deposit in South Africa, namely, the National Library of South Africa (Pretoria and Cape Town), Bloemfontein Public
Library (Bloemfontein), Bessie Head Library (Pietermartizburg), National Film, Video and South Archives (Pretoria) and the Library of Parliament (Cape Town).
For more information on legal deposit please contact the Legal Deposit Coordinator: Mr Harry Nkadimeng T: 012 401 9716 E: [email protected]
The Legal Deposit Committee inaugurated
LIASA KZN Branch Annual General Meeting was held on 26 August at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard Col-lege, EG Malherebe Library.
More than 100 LIS workers and students attended. The business meeting was chaired by the outgoing chairperson, Siza Radebe who announced the conveners for the Intrest groups that had AGM, i.e. HELIG Dr S Neerputh, PACLIC Ms Shanitha Bhim, IGBIS Mr Mzo Ndlela and
PACLIC Ms Charlotte Mdlalose. He also announced the Librarian of the Year, Ms Laila Vahed. The nomination for the Chair-elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Public Relations Officer was extended beyond the AGM in line with the national nominations. Mr Sibusiso Mbhele, the author and motiva-tional speaker gave a presenta-tion on leadership.
The Chairperson’s involvement continued after the BEC as he was tasked to chair the LIASA 17th
Annual Conference Local Organ-ising Committee. The committee comprised of the KZN LIS HOD’s or their representatives: Siza Radebe (Chairperson), Nonhlan-hla Ngcobo, Mandla Ntombe-la, Laila Vahed, Tebogo Mzizi, Shirlene Neerputh, Nokuthula Ndlovu, Thanda Khumalo, Musa Radebe, Mzo Zuma, Mzo Ndlela and Bongiwe Nyide. The commit-tee’s brief was to assist the LIASA National Office and Scatterlings with the conference logistics,
sponsorships for social functions and school books donations. It is pleasing that the committee achieved its brief and beyond. Six music groups were lined for the opening event and social func-tions, ie Claremont Choir, Sifiso Mtolo (Poet), Shabalala Rhithyms, Qadasi, Soal Seeds and Vinyl En-tertainment. The committee also secured book donations from 8 book sellers.
Siza RadebeOutgoing Chairperson
LIASA KZN AGM
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 420
Mphebatho community library and Legraal community library
(Moretele Library services) celebrating Heritage Day 2016 in order to empower the youth and community of Moretele Local Municipality Maubane Village through history and heritage; to make communities aware about the library services and the importance of our
Indigienous Knowledge System Presentation
Staff and Maubane Youth preparing traditional food
Moretele Library Services celebrates Heritage Day
Heritage and the role played by the libraries in promoting our culture and heritage.
The event was organized by the Moretele Local Municipality Library staff in collaboration with Maubane Youth Developers and North West Department of Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs. Our Special Guests were the Bojanala Programmes Librarian and the Bojanala Mobile
Library Team. The event was attended by
350 people mostly the Maubane Community Members. There were presentations from the Maubane Tribal Authorities talking about Indigenous Knowledge System, Moretele Library Service, and Moretele Department Social development and performances from:• Word on the move
• 412 Movement• Maubane Cultural Group• Apple Seed and many
other artists.The Event was held in
Maubane Agrico Hall on the 23rd of September 2016.
Sandile KhanyeziLibrarian Mphebatho Community Library
Dertig Moretele North West
Library Staff and Bojanala District Programs Librarian
International School Library Month (ISLM) is celebrated every year in October and the theme for this year (2016) is “Learn to Decode Your World”
The International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) President, Ms. Katy Manck is re-questing learners to put on their ‘detective eyeglasses’ as they look at the many ways that infor-mation is presented to them e.g. graphs, charts, pictures, podcasts, news articles, books, websites – and discover connections, old and new.
“Learn to Decode Your World” also applies to readers, from learners just learning to read, to those who can read fluently in more than one language. Wheth-er as an e-book, a road sign, a picture book, a fun novel, or a serious literary work, every reader must decode text and images to make meaning of them in their
world. School libraries and school librarians are essential to this life long process.
“Every child deserves a great school library and a better school librarian,” I say and truly believe. Therefore, I urge parents and community members to call for the provision of improved school library facilities, increased and appropriate school library ma-terials for learners’ reading and research, and further training for school librarians who can assist every learner in every class.
Gauteng Department of Education celebrated the ISLM on Saturday 15 October 2016 at Soweto College by hosting the Provincial School Library Show-case. Schools showcased their library and reading related ac-tivities. The aim of the showcase is to learn from each other and be motivated to start a school library. The following schools
participated: Bathokwa Primary, Ntokozweni Primary, Brakpan Primary, Mdelwa Hlongwane, Emmarentia Primary, Dan Radebe Primary, Greenside Secondary, Waterkloof Primary, EP Bau-mann and General Smuts. It was a knowledge packed day with teachers expressing the value of the presentations. 160 teachers,
learners and education officials attended the showcase.
Anna DitshegoSenior Librarian
On behalf of Busi Dlamini:
Library Services HeadGauteng Department of Education
Engcobo Local Municipal Library held a Literacy Day celebra-tion on the 20th of September 2016 at Clarkebury Library. The following Department of Educa-tion circuits were represented; All Saints, Bojane, Clarkebury, Manzana, Nkondlo and Zabasa. Some of the activities included reading, praise poetry, book discussion and spelling bee; all these activities were presented in both English and IsiXhosa.
Mrs Viva DastileLibrarian, Engcobo Local Library
The Open Access revolution is firmly in motion and has been the growing topic of interest since the Budapest Open Access Initiative called for online access to research literature that was free of charge and free of usage restrictions.
“Open Access” was offered as name for the unified com-ponents, but didn’t address the individual parts. Peter Suber from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University published an article in February 2003 and distinguised between the “removal of price barriers” and the “removal of permission barriers”. (Suber, 2003)
in 2008, together with Steven Harnad they proposed the terms “weak OA” and “strong OA” to address these two components.
As “weak OA” could lead to negative connotations, Peter decided that whilst more neutral are being discussed he would use the term “gratis OA” for the removal of price barriers alone and “libre OA” for the removal of price and some permission barriers. Understanding the distinction is necessary to understand the progress of the
OA movement and measurement thereof. (Suber, 2008)
The definition and measure-ment of OA is complex due to a number of reasons, ranging from the different types, the rights, embargoes and discoverability.
Using Gold OA as an example, we need to distinguish between cover-to-cover Gold Journals and Gold papers published in subscription-based journals (Hybrid Journals). With Green OA the traditional idea is self-archiving. With archiving, different options from institutional repositories, commercial sites such as ResearchGate and individual pages are included. (Archambault, 2016)
Whether it is being defined as Gold or Green it is important that these papers are discoverable. The challenge we find is that the enormous quantity of Open Access articles in full text format and peer-reviewed is already available to use, but so far the uptake has been limited by heterogeneity and challenges in discovery. (Archambault, 2016)
While the existence of OA publishing requires the measurement of of a vast number
of new journals, the challenge in ensuring quality is dependent on the systems used for reporting.
This will change with the technology that 1science has created to help libraries to take full advantage of Open Access. Introducing the world’s largest integrated open access discovery platform: oaFindr allows the easy discovery and accessibility of over 21 million full text Open Access papers, published in peer-reviewed journals. Having a single source of OA publications will make the process of measurement of these publications easier. (1Science, 2016).
Open access is redefining scholarly journal accessibility models. Libraries can play a role in this transformation by ensuring that OA information is being made available by the institution.
In summary, the growth of open access have been supported by two main main aspects: Organic Growth and “Backfilling”. Organic growth is where more publishers, librarians and researchers make published papers increasingly freely available. “Backfilling” refers to the embargoes that are lifted on
already published papers that were locked by the publishers. It’s important for these papers to be discoverable, but it’s equally important to realise that post publication communication strategies are needed as we actively market papers. This is where the librarians are playing a role to help with the diffusion of researchers’s work and it’s therefore important for libraries to adopt a scholarly communications strategy. (Archambault, 2016)
1. Archambault, E. (2016). Measuring Open Access – Current State of the Art [Powerpoint slides].
2. 1Science. (2016, October). Retrieved from http://www.1science.com/oafindr.html
3. Suber, P. (2003). Removing the Barriers to Research: An Intriduction to Open Access for Librarians. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/acrl.htm
4. Suber, P. (2008). Strong and Weak OA. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/04/strong-and-weak-oa.html
5. Suber, P and (2008). Gratis and Libre Open Access. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newslet-ter/08-02-08.htm#gratis-libre
Melissa Badenhorst, Marketing Director
WorldWide Information Services
The Open Access Perspective: Trends and Measurement
Gordons Bay Senior Librarian Gretel Marais with the banner created for their birthday celebrations outside the library
From its first opening 25th May 1956, Gordon’s Bay Library has served the public. The Friends and the staff of the library decided to celebrate our diamond jubilee with a wonderful birthday bash that included as much of the community as possible. The week-long celebration included a visit to the nearby Temperance Town community, a special project close to the library’s heart and one for which the library placed
3rd in the UKS Helping Hands competition a few years ago.
The staff made match box fridge magnets and chocolate goody bags to give out to patrons along with a specially designed bookmark with the opening hours on the back. Special posters were also created to display the history of the library to the community.
Gretel MaraisSenior Librarian, Gordon’s Bay Library
Gordon’s Bay Library celebrates its 60th birthday
WW
IS – OPEN
ACCESS
LIASA-in-touch • December 2016 • Vol 17 • Issue 422
On the MoveSegametsi Molawa, past President of LIASA, has been appointed Director: Information Resources Distribution at UNISA. She was formerly Director of Library and Information Services at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
New appointments at the Dept of Library Services, University of Pretoria are Mercia Moreana has been appointed as a Cataloguer in the Library Technical Services Unit at the Merensky 2 Library. She worked at the National Library of South Africa before joining the Department of Library Services. Christine Nel has been appointed as an Information Specialist in the Faculty Library for Humanities and Theology. She has been working for the University of Pretoria since March 2016 as a contract worker. Jacob Rapitsi has been appointed as a Senior Information Specialist in the Study Collection unit at the Merensky 2 Library. Previously he worked at the OR Tambo Law Library, for 10 years. Nikki Haw has been appointed as the Co-ordinator of Special Collec-tions. Previously she worked at the DITSONG Kruger Museum, for 9 years.
Esther Josias Manuel has been appointed the Senior Professional Officer: Education, Training & Development at the City of Cape Town Libraries.
DUT Library is proud to welcome Nokuthula Charlotte Mdlalose and Romeo Matumba to the team. Both Romeo and Nokuthula have been appointed as Subject Librarians at the Midlands Campus.
Nokuthula’s career spans 18 years, and she brings a wealth of experience gained from working as a subject librarian as well as in the Periodicals section at her previous institution. She feels honored to be part of DUT community and looks forward to building collaboration between the library and the academic departments.
Romeo has more than 10 years’ experience working at academic and special libraries. He welcomes the change and the opportunity for growth as he
transitions from being an Evening Reference Librarian to a Subject Librarian.
Honours/Citations Jenny Raubenheimer (former Director: IR Distribution, Unisa Library) was awarded a certificate of recognition to the LIS profession by the UNISA Department of Information Science and the Alumni Relations Directorate. Her contribution was focussed particularly on document delivery. Jenny said afterwards that she felt privileged to receive this certificate; and that it can also be viewed as a recognition of the importance of resource sharing through document delivery services in the LIS profession. In this regard she would like to thank the Library Executive Team and all Unisa library staff, in particular her colleagues in the Directorate: IR Distribution, for their support throughout her career as her contributions would not have been possible without their input.
Maropene Ramabina, Law Librarian at the University of Venda and PRO for the Limpopo Branch will receive a Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Social Responsibility Award for participating in LIASA activities.
RetiredStoffel Kok, currently Assistant Director at the QwaQwa campus of the UFS of the Free State retires at the end of 2016. He initially started as a teacher at Boshof Secondary School followed with a stint at the Technical High School in Welkom. He was then appointed as a teacher-librarian at the Afrikaans High School in Sasolburg where he had to create a proper catalogue.
In 1988 he was appointed as the first fully qualified librarian for the Qwaqwa Branch of the then University of the North (now University of Limpopo). One of the first things he had to do was to ensure financial stability as there was large over-expenditure before 1988. Other major first decisions ware keeping the library open during lunch time
and extending the night hours to 21:00; he also had to reorganize the main library area (physically with only 5 staff members). He was responsible for the Comput-erisation of the library (Urica- system) and created one of the best organized university ILL sys-tems. He also created an online catalogue, which was successfully transferred when incorporated with the UFS in 2003. He helped the campus to become part of the DoE/EU project which pro-vided training to HUB’s, as well as book collections and IT software and hardware. The Local Knowl-edge Symposium (also known as Indigenous Knowledge) since 2009, is currently one of the flagship events on the QwaQwa campus. The latest event on the QwaQwa campus is titled “Read-ing for fun” and it is growing steadily. He was Project leader of the prestigious 25-year Jubilee event of the Qwaqwa Campus.
Stoffel was a member of SAILIS from 1976; Founding member of LIASA; LIASA Free State Branch member; Exco member for several years; currently member of HELIG; Part of organizing team who organized first LiASA conference in Bloemfontein in 1998 as well as the organizing team who organized the 2010 conference in Bloemfontein; Later chairperson of the TM sub- branch of the Free State branch; Member of the DANIDA group (a project between the University of Pretoria and Denmark); Founding member of the current Pro-Lissa conferences which are still being held bi-annually; In 2011 was a participant in LIASA’s Librarian of the Year from the Free State; was for many years the chairperson of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee, until it was restructured in 2015. Obtained a Samtrac certificate (Cum laude) from NOSA; obtained a Certificate qualifying as a Skills Development Facilitator (was since the introduction of the Act on Skills Development a member of the Skills development); received in 2013 a 25-long service award from the UFS.
Senovia Welman
FS Branch PRO
Johann Pienaar started working at Medunsa in December 1978 as Junior Librarian in the cataloguing department. He then worked for about 6 years as a lecturer in LIS at Pretoria University and moved to Cape Town in 1987. He lectured at Cape Technikon for 7 years after initially spending just over a year in the library as Serials Librarian. He left Cape Technikon in 1997 to start at Sabinet as Portfolio Manager for the Western Cape region. He also then opened the Cape Town branch office for Sabinet.
In 2012 he semi-retired and started at e.tv (Pty) Ltd as Corporate Librarian from where he retired in September this year.
He now lives with his two cats near Cape Agulhas in a small place called Suiderstrand.
PEOPLE IN THE LIS SECTOR
Mercia Moreana (UP) Christine Nel (UP) Jacob Rapitsi (UP) Nikki Haw (UP) Nokhuthula Mdlalose & Romeo Motunda (DUT) Johann Pienaar
In MemoriamAbby Collinson (formerly in Government Publications, UCT Libraries) passed away on 5 October. Emeritus Professor Deon Kesting died peacefully on Wednesday 17 August 2016, in Somerset East. He was the first incumbent of the Chair of Librarianship and Director of the, then, School of Librarianship at the University of Cape Town, serving from the 1970s until his retirement at the end of 1991. Apart from his many contributions to professional education, after his retirement he pursued his interest in botany and photography, surveying and documenting the indigenous flora of South Africa in places such as Silvermine, near to his then home in St James, Cape Town, and Fernwood Nature Reserve near Hermanus. His work resulted in several publications illustrated with his own photographs.Sonwabile Kanzi, who worked as the Coordinator for Outreach and Advocacy Programme at the Centre for the Book from 2008 - 2016, passed away. His memorial service was held 4 August 2016.
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