The Joburg metro’s main library, the Johannesburg City Library, has been closed since the Covid pandemic started. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Renovations at the Johannesburg City Library are in the final stages and it will open next week after being closed for five years because of the Covid-19 pandemic and structural disrepair, said the Johannesburg Development Agency.
The library was partially reopened in March this year, giving the public access to the first floor, including the children’s section, young adult reference library, the reference section and the lending section.
The 90-year-old building at the corner of Albertina Sisulu Road and Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street in central Johannesburg houses more than 1.5 million books, newspaper archives and special collections, and is a national heritage site.
The city’s contractors have upgraded the fire prevention system. This is in addition to the repairs completed during the first phase of the reopening, which included work on the roof and gutters, ventilation and air conditioning systems and electrical systems.
In March, the city said the costs to repair the library was R37 million, which included the cost of the contractors, engineers and consultants. The city had not provided information on the costs to repair the library ahead of its full reopening.
The public will have access to digital resources through the Johannesburg Public Library system, such as local, national and international newspapers and magazines as well as journal archives.
“The world is going digital. There is still space for physical, especially because you cannot get a lot of the physical formats online,” Elton May, the library’s archivist told the Mail & Guardian at the March reopening.
“No one, as far as I know has digitised The Star [newspaper] from 1880, and if they want to digitise it, they are going to have to come here to get the physical copy of it, because we are the only one in South Africa that has it.”
The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance and other civic organisations lobbied for the reopening of the library. They had been in consultation with officials of the library and development agency to track progress, advise on some of the aspects being restored and ensure accountability.
“The consultation process has been largely positive. We were consistently invited to the engagement sessions, which were conducted openly,” said the foundation’s chairperson, David Fleminger.
“Since the partial reopening, the library has been attracting a good number of visitors and we are looking forward to the full reopening of all the facilities so that the library can once again serve the city and live up to its full potential.
“While we celebrate the reopening, and congratulate the city on doing the necessary work, we still want to see action on reopening some of the branch libraries that have been closed for a number of years,” he added.
The City of Johannesburg had not responded to queries from the M&G at the time of publication.