Library associations in South Africa, 1930‐2005
| Pages | 26-37 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120610647929 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Author | Clare M. Walker |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Library associations in
South Africa, 1930-2005
Clare M. Walker
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the article is to review the historical development in South Africa of
library and information service associations, and to highlight events in the process that culminated in
the founding in 1997 of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA).
Design/methodology/approach – This is a general review from 1930 to the present, based on
published and unpublished material and personal engagement. Some analysis of the significance of
events from a current perspective is included. The paper covers the founding in 1930 of the South
African Library Association, attempts in the 1960s and 1970s to achieve greater recognition for
libraries by government, the transformation of SALA in 1980 into the graduate South African Institute
for Library and Information Science; and, in the early 1990s and the first years of democratic rule in
South Africa, the emergence of “alternative” “democratic” library and information science (LIS)
associations and initiatives. Participation in the 1991-1992 African National Congress-based National
Education Policy Initiative (NEPI) led to a number of shared LIS events in the mid-1990s that bridged
the apartheid years and prepared the ground for LIASA. The rise of other significant but smaller
specialist associations and their subsequent relationship with LIASA is also described.
Findings – In addition to documenting events, this paper reveals the continuing efforts on the part of
members of the LIS sector over 75 years to exercise influence on government and in the broad
community. Problems identified in 1929 are still reflected in 2005.
Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in its use of unpublished ephemeral records and the
use and consolidation of information in scattered and previously unused published sources.
Keywords Libraries, Information organizations,South Africa, History
Paper type General review
The South African Library Association 1930-1980
In 1928, at the request of Mathew Stirling, the Librarian of Germiston, a small town
near Johannesburg best known as a railway junction, the Carnegie Corporation sent
Pitt from Glasgow and Ferguson from California to investigate and report on library
conditions in South Africa and adjacent territories to the north. Their findings and
recommendations were published in a famous two-part memorandum (Ferguson and
Pitt, 1929) and a conference of South African librarians was held in 1929 to discuss the
recommendations they made (Executive Committee of the Conference, 1929). The
founding in 1930 of the South African Library Association (SALA), modelled closely on
the British Library Association (now CILIP), was one outcome of this conference;
another was the publication in 1933 of the first issue of the journal of the SALA, South
African Libraries, which in 1980 became the Journal of South African Library and
Information Science and now continues as the Journal of South African Libraries and
Information Science.
The SALA soon established branches in the then four Provinces of South Africa, the
Cape, Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal; in later years these branches
increased for logistical regions to seven. In addition to branches, two early interest
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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LM
27,1/2
26
Received 26 July 2005
Accepted 3 October 2005
Library Management
Vol. 27 No. 1/2, 2006
pp. 26-37
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/01435120610647929
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