‘Collaborate @ your Library’ during SA Library Week

Fostering a love of reading and helping communities come together was the goal as the Theewaterskloof Municipality and Western Cape Library Services kicked off a busy South African Library Week programme in Caledon on Monday.

Library Week is an annual event and Collaborate @ your Library has been selected as this year’s theme.

Apart from being a fine-free week, which allows users to return overdue books without incurring any fines, the 11 libraries in the Theewaterskloof Municipality will also host a variety of events.

Anroux Marais, Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport, thanked library staff for their work and urged communities to take ownership of their local libraries.

“The 2019 theme Collaborate @ your library is of personal interest as it takes libraries into the heart of the community and strives to awaken a sense of ownership and active responsibility in each community member," Minister Marais said. “Often we do not realise the important role libraries play in the enrichment of our communities and I would like all present here today to use this week as a platform to raise this important awareness. Caitlin Moran once said, ‘A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind, hospitals of the soul, theme parks of the imagination.”

The Library Week programme in Theewaterskloof Municipality will see activities such as face-painting, board games, story-telling, puppet shows, readathons, spelling competitions and arts and crafts take place at the various libraries.

Sybil Lee, libraries manager for the area, said the aim was to show young people that libraries were about more than just books while also improving their literacy.

“We want to create a love of reading amongst the children, because we have seen that literacy and numeracy for grade four children is low. We want children to come to their library and take part in what’s happening so that they can see that there is more to a library than books,” she said.

Lee added that libraries could also be used to form books clubs, conduct research and complete school projects on the computers there. Lee also aims to form partnerships with early childhood development centres in the area.