From “outreach” to new library model?
Date
2010
Authors
Hart, Genevieve
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
Paper presented at the Stellenbosch University Library 2010 Symposium / IFLA Presidential Meeting. Knowing is not enough: Engaging in the knowledge economy, 18 to 19 February 2010. South Africa is aligned with other emerging economies, like Brazil and India, whose voice is
growing stronger and who might in future improve their position in the global knowledge
economy. But surely the biggest hurdle must be the huge gap in South Africa between rich
and poor – claimed by some to be the biggest in the world. More than 48% of South Africans
live below the poverty line. Other speakers at the symposium will provide evidence of the role
of information in the sustainable development required to narrow the poverty gap. The
developed countries of the so-called “North” have systems for easy and wide access to
information – by means of e-government, e-medicine, e-education, and, so on. However, less
than 10% of South Africans have access to the Internet. This paper will examine the contribution,
real and potential, of public libraries to sustainable development.
The point of departure is the developmental model of library services proposed in the recent
Library & Information Services (LIS) Transformation Charter, a vision document emanating
from the National Council of Library and Information Services. The Charter suggests that
UNESCO’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) might provide a framework for
developmental library services. However, the Charter’s country-wide investigations, as well as
the speaker’s own research since the late 1990s, have uncovered some of the daunting
challenges ahead. The paper will report on two ongoing case studies, which might throw light
on how the Charter’s vision could become a reality. One is of a group of dual use school
community libraries in a remote rural region and the other focuses on two sister libraries in
Cape Town. The argument is that what are often viewed as “outreach” programmes point the
way to new models of library service which will be meaningful to far more than the present
tiny minority of South African library users.
Description
37 slides created with MSWord 2003 and migrated to pdf using Adobe PDF.
Keywords
Library and Information Services Transformation Charter, Public libraries, School libraries
Citation
Hart, G. 2010. From “outreach” to new library model?. Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University.