The Goldfields Library of the Vaal University of Technology re-opened recently at the Vanderbijlpark Campus.
The refurbished library sports state-of-the-art computer facilities with internet access for learning and database research, such as faculty-specific journals and e-books, that can be accessed from outside the campus. The library also has ample open and enclosed study areas for its students as well as departmental specific librarians on hand to assist them in whatever queries that they may have.
At the opening ceremony, Prof Louw, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Research explained why it was necessary for VUT to engage in such a project. He alluded to the fact that Higher Education Sector focuses more on seeking solutions and generating new knowledge from all-ready existing epistemology.
This in turn has impact on the ability of an institution to create a conducive learning environment for students to acquire knowledge and do research. These are mainly the forces that compelled VUT to consider improving the library as a primary point of service. The university spent approximately R20 million on the renovations.
Prof Moutlana, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, expressed appreciation for the generosity of Goldfields Limited for being such a loyal patron of the VUT library at the Vanderbijlpark Campus. She also thanked the library staff for putting up with the inconvenience of the renovations. “I am relieved that it is all over and that we have an occasion to celebrate our almost brand-new facility,” said Prof Moutlana.
Prof Moutlana made reference to the special milestones the university has had with the Goldfields Foundation over the years of funding the building. These include the structural changes to the building in 1992; introduction of technology in the administration services of the library in 1996; the first electronic classroom in 1997; extensions and renovations which became necessary to improve the efficiency and productivity of the library as a service point.
She further mentioned that Libraries have shown remarkable capacity over the years to adapt and adopt to change while hewing to enduring values. Accompanying the growth of universities, was the development of university libraries, which in some cases, were founded on the basis of a personal donation such as what we have been receiving from Goldfields Foundation over the past 25 years.
“The last point that I would like to make is that “libraries are about intellectual freedom”. They are the anti-thesis of censorship. Their role is to make the recorded knowledge and information of humankind freely available to everyone, regardless of faith or lack of it, ethnicity, gender, age or any other of the categories that divide us one from another.
Libraries stand above all, for the enlightened and rational notion that human beings are improved by the acquisition of knowledge and information and that no bar should be placed in their way. Libraries are the bastions that provide the materials, instruction and assistance that enable individuals – me and you – and societies throughout the world to grow and thrive intellectually. Without such capacity, how can we build a better world?” said Prof Moutlana.
Moitheki Patience Ntuli: Head of Department at Educity Library. “In today’s information age, it is important that our students are equipped with the best and latest facilities to become independent in their learning endevours,” she concluded.
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement