Yesterday I went on a photo safari in Pilanesberg National Park and saw an amazing number of African animals as we drove through the park – rhinos, elephants, wilderbeest, springbok, a hare, zebras, a giraffe and many more. My hosts, Charmaine who is on the SAOIM committee and her 6 year old daughter,  were the best guides I could have had. Photos forthcoming when uploaded. (I am so excited by the shots I took that I think I could easily post a photo a day for the rest of #blogjune and not bore anyone).

I was using Charmaine’s fabulous Nikon, so I do not have any of the images yet… I took about 5 photos with my iPhone, so here is a very ordinary one of a giraffe.. (In the wild. In Africa! OMG!!!)

The trip was equivalent to arriving in Perth at 5am and then being in Margaret River by 10:30am. During the drive, Charmaine filled me in beautifully on libraries and librarianship in South Africa. She mentioned the funding the country had received from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, aimed at improving public libraries in South Africa.  Part of this is a programme to refurbish 27 libraries and provide them with ICT equipment to allow free access to the internet as part of the Mzansi Libraries Online project. (Another project is to provide access to over 600 “online libraries”).

The list of equipment that was planned for supply to each library in the pilot project is impressive. There is a focus on disability access in each library.

” Each library will receive equipment estimated at R470 000. The equipment will include a variation of the following lists determined in order of priority and based on the needs identified by the respective library and/or provincial library authority: 20 computers (10 public, 3 games, 2 visually impaired and 5 office); 2 printers; 1 document scanner; software; 10 Tablets; 10 e-Readers; gaming room set up, including 3 computers, 3 X-Box console kits, 2 Play stations and gaming headsets”.

What really struck me, however, is the way that the purpose of the project reinforces my personal biases and core beliefs about what libraries are really about:

” It is to position the public libraries as agents of democracy through nation-building and centres for development to be used for the improvement of the citizens’ quality of life through access to information”.