Reinventing African Libraries Conference

Reinventing African Libraries was the title of an informative conference hosted by the University of Johannesburg Libraries from 20 – 21 September 2016, on the sixth floor of their newly renovated Kingsway campus library. Tertia Coetsee, Marguerite Nel and Bulelwa Mandubu attended it, while Isak van der Walt delivered a paper on the Makerspace in one of the sessions.

With this conference, the organisers aimed to engage discussions on relevant topics, such as IT in African libraries, coping with shrinking budgets, the library’s role in preserving and facilitating access to indigenous knowledge, as well as new ways to support user needs and providing research support. Clem Sunter, the well-known scenario strategist delivered the opening keynote address, and he is, in spite of the current challenges South Africans are facing, still optimistic about the future of our country. The closing speaker was Robin Banks, a mind power expert, who entertained the audience, while leading them towards positive thinking and providing ways to developing ones’ own abilities through personal mastery.

Dr. Rookaya Bawa (Executive director of UJ Libraries) mentioned in her welcoming address that one of the main goals of the event was to showcase the newly, re-engineered UJ Library to colleagues in the academic library environment. We were therefore fortunate to be taken on a guided tour of the library and were amazed with the carefully planned spaces which address a variety of user needs.

The conference was an excellent experience to learn how problems are addressed from different perspectives and to network with peers from other parts of the country and Africa.