Innovation and awareness for local libraries

A meeting of literary minds was held on Wednesday March 16 at the Weltevreden Park Library. The purpose was to create awareness for the library, meet with new people and share ideas.

Senior librarian, Gwyneth Perry said while some people visit the library, they need to get the word out that there is a library available in the community. “So many people don’t even know that the library exists because we are tucked away a bit.”

She said the best way to make people aware of the library is through word of mouth as well as writing Google reviews to increase their rankings. “We are still doing digital story times every week on our Facebook page and we have e-books available as well as physical books. We’ve have to try and be relevant because people still don’t know that we are open.” Gwyneth said they would also like to attract children and schools, and offer library orientations.

Jeff Nyoka, e-learning manager of the City of Joburg Libraries explained that their department worked to introduce ICT-based library activities. “Anything that uses technology, whether it’s using Wi-Fi, computers or tablets; we even encourage people to bring their own devices and we provide training and advice on what content to access. In some libraries we do provide tablets.”

Nyoka said they have organised activities planned to celebrate Library Week, including a readathon for Grade 8 learners. “We have been doing that programme with a few schools but going forward we want to expand to include more schools so that children read, regardless of which grade they are in. This is based on an app, the fundza.mobi app. It is free and they can read different types of books. You don’t need data to access or use the app.”

He added that users can also learn how to write their own stories on the Fundza app. Young writers can write their stories and publish them on the app as well find stories in all the official languages. “We want to do a reading development program using that app because kids spend a lot of time on their phones,” Nyoka explained.

Another program they plan to introduce this month is a coding program. Nyoka shared his excitement to introduce kids to computer science. “We’ve been taught how to use technology but not how to create it. Coding will break down that barrier and teach kids how websites are created, for instance how does the robot work.” He said introducing coding will transform libraries, and people in society can understand and interact with technology. “These are things we need to know. You don’t have to be a young person to understand them because they affect us. I used Uber coming here, how was it designed? Coding allows you to understand how these technologies are designed.”