A historic function to mark the official opening of the South African Library Week was held in the Univen Library Foyer on Monday. The University of Venda Library joined the country in the annual celebrations, starting on Monday and ending today (13 – 17 March). The theme of this year’s celebration is “Libraries, partners in learning, nation building and development…”

The theme focuses on the various ways in which libraries, as the repositories of knowledge and information for the future generations, contribute to learning, nation building and development. It is also a continuation of previous years’ theme when the celebrations focused on the role that libraries can play in a democratic South Africa.

The function was attended by learners from local high schools, Univen students and staff members. In her opening address, Univen Library’s Acting Director, Mushoni Mulaudzi, said it is important for the Univen Library to take part in this celebration because the event is aimed at educating communities about the significance of Libraries.

She continued: “In partnership with other sectors in society such as education, government, business and NGOs, libraries contribute to nation building and development. Whereas knowledge may be acquired in universities, libraries provide the impetus for good acquisition, processing and use of such knowledge. Libraries are therefore the main sources of information for educational development worldwide. We can all assist libraries in their efforts to act as repositories of knowledge for future generations by being responsible users of their services and resources. Responsible users of the library handle library materials such as books, journals and video tapes with great care, refraining from tearing pages and stealing books.”

The guest speaker, Mr Isaiah Ndhambi, a retired librarian and former Head of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture in Polokwane, stressed the importance of libraries and said it was important for them to establish a broad partnership, working in various communities for shared purposes and values to open learning opportunities for all community members.

“The ultimate aim of any worthwhile system of education is to prepare, coordinate and harmonize common continuous training, coaching and restructuring programmes to adapt and reconcile them to development needs with a purpose of progressively ascertaining selfreliant performance. Libraries should be transformed into magnetizing structures for information and be partners in the learning process. For any learner, a library should be a place to drink deep waters of knowledge, not a noisy joy house characterized by irritating cell phone rings, meaningless gossip and other unbecoming behaviour…” Ndhambi said it is vital to handle library material with care. “A learner, information seeker or any library user should therefore handle these materials with dignity and respect, with no noise in the library. A successful learner is a disciplined one who abides by regulations, who shares these materials with others and does not vandalize them by tearing some pages off, hiding them from others, stealing them, writing abusive language in them and intentionally soiling them with intolerable substances.”