The days when the likes of Wilbur Smith and Stephen King ruled the book shelves in public libraries are over. So says June Moshoeshoe, the director for Provincial Library, Information and Archives Services in the Eastern Cape.
Our focus is on education and development, she says. The recreational side of our libraries has to take a back seat. And we do not apologise for that.
This attitude has not gone down well with the traditional users of the public libraries in the province, like the woman in Aliwal North who feels Moshoeshoe should be fired because ever since she assumed her position, the library in this small Karoo town cannot keep up with the bestseller lists.
If people feel strongly about bestsellers, retorts Moshoeshoe, I tell them the CNA is open. I cant be bothered with their complaints when resources at libraries in East London, Cradock and Uitenhage are collapsing under the strain of thousands of children who are forced to travel from townships.
As a result, the priority has been in establishing services in the black areas. Now that several of these are up and running, the department has turned its focus to the vast rural areas of the former homeland of Transkei where none of the schools had libraries.
We are not looking at libraries as buildings anymore, says Moshoeshoe. It would not make sense to build libraries when most of the schools are not even suitable to be called schools anyway.
The idea is to cluster schools around service delivery points. We have identified the teacher training colleges, because they have the space, as the locations for these points. From there boxes and bags of books can circulate around schools. Librarians are being retrained as education officers.
The departments work is helped profoundly by its partnership with literacy organisation Read and the Institute of Training and Education for Capacity Building (Itec) that not only supply materials but train teacher librarians on how to manage the available resources. As a result of the work of these two non- governmental organisations, resource centres are already available at 19 districts around the province.
The Eastern Cape Provincial Library and Information Services is also engaged in discussions with district councils to convert disused buildings like the closed prisons in Tsolo, Mqanduli and Libode into community education and information centres. These will not just house books but will provide information and advice on anything from seeds to immunisation.
Moshoeshoe says her difficulties are mainly financial. And when the only van that is used by the eastern region breaks down as it has for weeks now, things come to a standstill.