The Library and Information Association is celebrating Library Week 14-20 March 2022 with the theme of Re-Imagine, Re-Purpose, Re-discover…Libraries! https://www.liasa.org.za/.
Libraries continue to be affected by COVID and many are still unable to provide services to the communities they serve. With this in mind, the theme for Library Week 2022 will look at the ways in which libraries are having to reimagine and repurpose their services and spaces so that communities will rediscover and see the benefit of their libraries.
The traditional hard-copy book library at Cosmo City Primary 1 school (where we are conducting our trial), was refurbished and re-opened in 2015 with funding and support from (the now closed) School Aid charity and the Peter Cundill Foundation. The Bookery NPO catalogued and covered the books that can be accessed in the library, as well as contributed towards the librarian’s livelihood for 3 years. The library was a thriving and much loved part of the school from 2015 until the beginning of 2020, when it was closed for book lending due to COVID. The book lending service of the library remains closed, and this has probably been the fate of many libraries across South Africa.
But the Cosmo City Primary library has been re-imagined! It is still a busy, thriving space and it’s still devoted to books and reading. In one corner the government’s Reading Champions take small groups of grade 2 and 3 learners and help them catch up on some of the learning time that’s been lost due to COVID. We work in another corner of the library, surrounded by lovely books, which sadly cannot be borrowed anymore, but the children often get a story read to them which they enjoy. All children and teachers at the school are able to borrow books from the Book Village digital library at any time – and they’ve been loving it. We’ve been focusing on the grade 1s this term, and they have become wizards at logging in, navigating around the library and borrowing their own books. We’ve been amazed by their progress in interacting with technology.
The Cosmo City Primary community really values books, reading and their library space, even though the library has gone digital. And for this, we think the children there are lucky to be surrounded by individuals who will encourage a safe space for learning and furthering the education of these young students.
