Community libraries: the concept and its application bythe Pinetown Public Library

Abstract

Public libraries in South Africa have largely failed to address the information needs of developing communities. As a result the establishment of alternative library services, notably resource centres and community libraries, have gathered momentum since the 1980s. The concept of community libraries, currently embraced by an increasing number of public libraries, is explored, and the community library system implemented by the Pinetown Public Library is evaluated against norms derived from the literature on the development of public libraries in Africa and South Africa.Openbare biblioteke in Suid-Afrika het nie noemenswaardig daarin geslaag om dienste te voorsien wat die wesentlike behoeftes van ontwikkelende gemeenskappe aanspreek nie. Gevolglik het alternatiewe dienste soos byvoorbeeld bronnesentrums en gemeenskapsbiblioteke ontstaan, veral vanaf die vroee tagtiger jare. Die konsep van gemeenskapsbiblioteke wat besig is om in openbare biblioteke veld te wen, word ontleed en die stelsel wat deur Pinetown se Open bare Biblioteek in werking gestel is, word geevalueer aan die hand van norme gebaseer op die literatuur oor die ontwikkeling van open bare biblioteke in Afrika en Suid-Afrika.

Libros Para Pueblos: An Exploratory Case Study

“…They take their shape and purpose from the communities they serve, which also makes them cultural institutions. When those communities do not enjoy the high levels of literacy and education that have been historically associated with the (usually urban) public library, the need for a new library paradigm emerges (Mostert & Vermeulen, 1998). Examples of this new paradigm can be readily adduced in the category of "alternative library models" (Shrestha & Krolak, 2015, p. 5), a category in which the "community library" or "rural community library" is the most frequently studied, and the alternative library model that describes those that are served by LPP.…”

“…Variously termed "rural libraries," "village libraries," "reading rooms," "community information centres," and "community resource centres," community libraries originated in Africa in the 1960s (Stranger-Johannessen, 2014), giving rise to a body of literature that has only recently transitioned from the conceptual to the empirical. Most of that work comes out of Africa (Dent, 2006;Mostert, 1998), but there are also studies about Asia and Australia (Abu, 2014;Islam, 2009), Eastern Europe or Latin America (Civallero, 2007;Lipeikaite & Oyarzun, 2013), although nothing about Mexico. Mostert and Vermeulen (1998) provide a definition of community libraries based on literature about the situation in South Africa and describe them as a type of library that has moved "away from the passive traditional Western public library model towards active service-oriented systems, based on the needs of the community as a whole" (p. 71).…”

“…Our article begins to fill this gap. We do this by using Mostert and Vermeulen's (1998) nine areas of evaluation in the analysis of LPP: 1) establishment; 2) aims; 3) government; 4) finance; 5) users; 6) information; 7) services; 8) staff; and 9) cooperation, paying particular attention to the work that the staff and volunteers do to support reading promotion in the state of Oaxaca.…”

Parliamentary information sources, systems and services in South Africa

“…in Africa indicates that widespread problems with access, bibliographic control and the orderly dissemination of information through information providers render information inaccessible to users (Faye 1995;Mchombu 1993;Mostert 1997;Otike 1989;Sturges and Neill 1990). …”

Developing a GIS-based inventory of South Africa's public libraries: The Public and Community Libraries Inventory of South Africa (PaCLlSA) project

“…It was clear to the committed that libraries are not value free or ideologically neutral. In the struggle against apartheid, community resource centres were part of the struggle (Stillwell, 1994(Stillwell, , 1997Mostert ,1998, 1999, Mostert & Vermeulen, 1998, Leach, Stillwell and Verbeek, 1994.…”