Twenty years of Friends of the Library

By GEMMA RITCHIE

Over the past twenty years, the Makana Friends of the Library (FOL) have raised a total of almost R500 000 for the seven libraries in the Municipality. Unlike some other models, where the money raised is used for an exclusive book club, the Makana FOL has used this funding to create opportunities for all residents in Makana to have access to quality library materials.

The funding has gone towards books on the wish lists of library users, isiXhosa readers, large print Afrikaans novels and literature for young adults, as well as audiobooks for younger children. Funds from the Henderson Bequest (R130 000) – administered by FOL – also supported the establishment of school libraries for local Makana schools.

FOL, currently chaired by Cathy Gush, is a committee of enthusiastic Makhanda (Grahamstown) residents eager to uplift the libraries in Makana. All of the committee members volunteer their time to raise money for the seven libraries through their annual fete and weekly lecture series.

In addition to its 20th anniversary, the FOL are also celebrating the 15th anniversary of its iconic Monday night lecture series organised by FOL stalwart Rosemary Van Wyk Smith. The lecture series began as an exercise in intellectual stimulation to utilise the wealth of human resources in Makhanda.

The local FOL was established in 1999, when then head librarian Meg Hartzenberg approached her former colleague Liz de Wet to set up a committee to help fund the Makana libraries at the time: Duna Library in Joza, the Community Library in Currie Street and the Main Library in Hill Street. They modelled their committee on the Port Alfred Friends of the Library after they learnt how the group had held a successful fundraising campaign to provide their library with new books, in order to make up for the lack of new library reading material arriving from the Department.

The work of FOL

Over the years, the three libraries that FOL supported became seven as the Makana Municipality itself grew and its borders changed.

Gush said it has been tough for several years with the libraries losing more funding from both the province and the municipality.

Libraries, De Wet said, “were low on the priority list” in the face of service delivery issues. From a municipal, governmental point of view, things seemed to have gone backwards in terms of provision. “So actually, we [FOL] are relied on more heavily than ever before,” said Gush.

“When it first started, it [FOL] was a top-up, providing the nice-to-haves; the wishlists. It is now an almost essential part, where libraries would be getting very little new stock if it was not for our limited annual contributions (about R2 500 per library),” explained Gush.

FOL at times has had to fund basic items such as book scanners, and even a rubbish bin. An air conditioner was installed in the Library Hall with FOL funding. The committee has also become a lobby group for change in the Makana libraries, leading the organisation to take on an advocacy role for issues such as the opening hours at Makana libraries and the lack of publicly accessible Internet at many of the libraries.

“It is generally important for strong civil society bodies to be involved in issues like this, because it is about creating equitable access to reading material, study material and research material for as many people as possible,” said Gush.

With libraries needing the Makana Friends of the Library more than ever, Gush believes the committee is more than capable of handling the problems that come its way. With the recent addition of school and academic librarians to the committee, it brings years of experience as well as innovation to the table.