Libraries are fighting uphill battle

MBOMBELA – Once upon a time local bookworms would come out of their reading holes to collect more books from their kingdom known as the library.

Now it seems that technological birds such as Twitter have caught the bookworm. People are not reading as often as they used to and the headcount at the local library has dropped.

“There are about 6 000 people who visit the Mbombela Public Library monthly which is a lot less than previous years,” said Griffiths Mshika, head of acquisition for more than a decade.

According to Mshika, numbers began to dwindle after the library was renovated a few years ago. “We temporarily moved to Van Riebeeck Street and when we returned to the renovated building the opposite of what we expected happened and we have been struggling since.”

According to the General Household Survey there were 7,1 million illiterate South Africans in 2012. Some schoolchildren can read and write but lack the ability to write long sentences or construct context to some concepts. One of the main problems in this regard is the reading material that South Africans are exposed to.

Newspapers and magazines are preferred as opposed to fiction and non-fictional books at the local library.

“I have seen that black people read magazines and newspapers or use the library to complete their academic work. White people on the other hand come to the library to read fiction and other books like documentaries and books that cover a wide variety of topics,” said Mshika.

Libraries are critical to instill a reading culture in this country as it is open to the public. Many people also use the Internet as their first resource without knowing the value of the books, encyclopedias and other material on offer.

The library is also not without initiative and has instated four key events to attract new readers and to make it more user-friendly.

“We have a good relationship with the local schools and we regularly host competitions , such as the yearly readathon,to get them involved.This is where contestants read a book and then answer questions based on the book or topic we give. It is a really fun event.”

The library also celebrates World Book Day on April 23 and to continue this theme it also has a library week between March and April to promote the library’s function in society, promote reading awareness as well as taking a retrospective look at the library.

“This year we celebrated 20 years of democracy and showed people how libraries have changed since 1994,” said library assistant, Siphiwe Mathebula.

It is also planning an event for World Literacy Day on September 8. While these events garner once-off interest, it seems that a passion for reading starts at home or at school and not enough youngsters are getting the chance to read story books as they only focus on using books to achieve degrees.

Reading then becomes a compulsory task instead of something that is to be voluntarily enjoyed.
“We update our catalogue on a regular basis, and we take user requests but people have now generally gone for the online option and are downloading books on their tablets,” said library cataloger Winnie Khoza.

“We have our regular readers who visit, but we need to attract more locals especially the youth, she added.

This can only happen if the department of arts and culture takes the step to update our libraries to an international standard.