libraries
William Pretorius
The Greater Johannesburg Library is in a crisis. Display cases in the foyer are full of book covers, ranging from non- fiction to African novels and literacy readers, a piquant selection.
But these are not coming attractions. They are books the library wants to buy but can’t afford. There just isn’t any money available for the book quota. As Joan Bevan, metro librarian, puts it, “the life blood of any library had dried up”.
Library budgets have been slashed countrywide, and those most affected are in the disadvantaged areas. The Greater Johannesburg Library Service, and others in advantaged areas, is able to get help through friends of the library organisations – the one to help the Greater Johannesburg was launched on August 29 with a book sale. But not everyone has access to organisations like these.
When the city council cut library budgets, the choice Bevan faced was to either close the doors or buy new books. She choose to keep “the library functioning”. Library staff salaries had to be paid and the building maintained. This left nothing over for books, and very little for magazines.
“This is especially sad,” says Bevan, “in a library like this with such a long history. We opened in 1890, so we have long periodical runs that no other library in the country has.”
What are the long-term effects? “What you don’t buy now, you are going to miss for ever,” says Bevan. “South African material often has short print runs, and once out of print, books are difficult to get.”
Already the gaps in stock, of local and imported books, is becoming noticeable. “New books are no longer available,” says Bevan, “and those we have are wearing out all the time.”
For example, the easy-read material, used for literacy training, is heavily in demand and has to be replaced often. “We see our role as maintaining that literacy through easy-reading material, through light reading like newspapers and magazines as people gain skills.”
The bias of users in a library, according to Bevan, is towards young people. “Because of the big resource our reference library is, you get students coming from all over Gauteng, and other provinces.”
Specialist and general reference books have to be continually kept up to date. “We get a lot of business inquiries, especially from small business who want to know about legal and labour law, say, and who can’t afford to keep large resource centres at their companies.”
There is little comfort for the ordinary borrowers who can’t afford to buy books. “One gets less and less for the rand,” says Bevan, “and the exchange rate has pushed up the price of books.” Libraries now need larger budgets to ensure a full selection of current books. There is a ripple effect: the libraries have stopped buying books from book traders and this affects their profits, which in turn affects the price of books.
“I think we’re going to have to look to the private sector,” says Bevan. “We are going to get proactive and do some very creative thinking. I believe a library is not a luxury, but an essential service, particularly in our current period of transformation in which the education of adults and children is important.”
A library is part of a “university of the people”. Books, Bevan suggests, won’t be replaced by the Internet or virtual simulation methods of teaching – in fact, cyber-schoolrooms in Scotland, for example, are built around libraries as the students are continually referred to books. “Books complement the Internet.”