SOUTHERN AFRICA: Feature - Save our libraries!

MBABANE, 22 May (IRIN) - Challenging the technocratic vision of "virtual libraries" linking people to knowledge, librarians in Southern Africa say their "brick and book" buildings will remain the primary information centres for communities for some time to come.

"Information and knowledge are the catalysts that will empower Africa in her quest for development. By pursuing information for all, African library professionals are key actors in the attainment of the African Renaissance: the vision of a prosperous and peaceful continent," said Penny Birangi, co-chairperson for the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern African Libraries (SCECSAL) at its most recent biennial meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Last week, at an information summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), southern African libraries made an impressive case amid the high-tech glitter of the Internet, geo-information and other computer-generated data providers. Old-fashioned libraries, they argued, remain the information source for a vast majority of Africans. Libraries are also the most cost-effective means of knowledge dissemination.

In their presentation, the librarians noted that in a time of limited government resources, libraries are a bargain. "Research has produced hard facts that libraries pay fully for their existence, and even produce positive returns on the investments made from them. Benefits derived from library services outweigh the cost of providing them," the librarians said.

A library could save the community double the amount of money spent on running it. The calculation includes the cost of a library user's time seeking to duplicate library services, the expense the users would incur if they had to purchase library materials on their own, and the cost to a community of finding alternative venues for events from art shows to conferences usually held on library premises.

For technical libraries, where specialised and hard-to-obtain material provides vital information to scholars and business professionals, the return on investment can be up to 515 percent, studies have shown.

"From an African perspective, the value is even higher, because it is not a matter of choosing between going to a library or sourcing material from other places. Books are hard to come by here, the Internet is in its infancy, and private computer ownership is rare, so it is the library or nothing for millions of students and adult users," Victoria Khumalo, head librarian at the Manzini City Library in Manzini, Swaziland, told IRIN.

"Western-style universal access to the internet is not a practical reality in African countries when so much of the population cannot afford individual access," said information technology development specialist, Carlos Gamboa. Therefore, he proposed at the ECA meeting, even those who advocate the internet as a means to spread knowledge should focus on providing access through pre-existing community facilities like libraries.

SCECSAL, the library association that describes itself as "possibly the largest and fastest growing professional association in Africa", is seeking to pool librarians' resources, particularly shared experiences that can provide ways out of the fiscal doldrums many libraries are experiencing.

"African libraries depend on local and national government sponsorship, rather than private subscriptions," explained Dorothy Khumalo, the head of Swaziland's national library syndicate. "Government tries its best to provide funds, but they have so many competing needs, there is only so much that can be done."

At last week's meeting of the Committee on Development Information sponsored by the ECA, delegates were told that most African libraries were in a state of crisis. A study by library management specialist Justin Chisenga was cited to show the historic decline of libraries since independence.

"Between 1960 and 1980, libraries in Southern Africa were built and resourced with determination in the hope that they would support the rapid development of their communities. National governments, organisations and donors funded libraries as basic needs," the report said.

However, since the 1980s, when the euphoria of post-independence development encountered numerous crises, libraries across the region experienced a cut in resources and services, characterised by library professionals as "the great African library decline".

Today, that decline is evident in dusty library shelves stocked with old and irrelevant books, little or no physical development to keep pace with user growth, a lack of current journals and periodicals, and little or no application of modern library management and information technologies.

A recent study shows that the student to book ratio for most libraries in Africa is as high as 30 to one, which is considered extremely high. Library management tends to be demoralised, and professional skills among library staff are low.

Even politics can play a corrupting role, when library boards are staffed with unqualified cronies of city officials who are more interested in their own welfare than in the development of library services.

Southern Africa's libraries range from simple block buildings in rural areas to world-renowned institutions such as the Pretoria-based National Library of South Africa, dating from 1818.

"Only four years after democratisation, South Africa passed a National Library Act to show its commitment to knowledge dissemination to uplift the masses," South African librarian Mary DeSousa told IRIN. "But the battle for resources is on-going."

Until cheap and widely accessible Internet services are available to South Africans, DeSousa says libraries will remain key depots of knowledge as well as community centres. "Students depend on us to provide quiet and warm environments, in contrast to homes that are crowded and may not have electricity. All manner of meetings are held in our rooms. African libraries exemplify African community values."

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