As a seasoned information specialist, Lubabalo Booi’s job is all about helping people find solutions to the problems they’re facing – and he loves it.

If he’s not watching soccer or occasionally working in his vegetable garden, you’ll find Lubabalo Booi at the Oliver R Tambo Law Library in the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Law Building.

As a seasoned information specialist, Booi’s job is all about helping people find solutions to the problems they’re facing – and he loves it.

“An academic library is fertile ground for the creation of new knowledge, making it stimulating and challenging at the same time,” he says. “I believe it’s what led me to work in higher education libraries. I enjoy supporting people in finding solutions to problems they’re facing, while also learning from them.” 

As someone who believes in life-long learning, Booi has not learnt about law solely through being exposed to the learning material and the clients he’s supported at the various libraries he’s worked at. In addition to a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree, a postgraduate diploma in library and information science and a certificate in copy editing – all from the University of Cape Town (UCT) – Booi also holds an LLB from the University of South Africa and a certificate in legislative drafting from UP.

“In 2014, I was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa,” he says, explaining that he obtained additional law qualifications to offer a better service to law students and scholars.

This is his advice for anyone seeking to get into his profession: “The first thing is to get a librarianship qualification. It is also valuable to have subject knowledge so that you can easily navigate the literature within a faculty or discipline. If possible, try to acquire that while studying towards your librarianship qualification.”

Booi’s love for working in libraries was sparked in 2001 when he volunteered at the National Library of South Africa in Cape Town for a week. This led to a three-year contract as a reference librarian, “due to the great customer service observed and received by a senior government official”.

“In 2003, I joined UCT’s Brand van Zyl Law Library as a law librarian, before being assigned to an internship at Duke University’s School of Law in Durham, North Carolina in the US. While at the Brand van Zyl Library, I was trained as a research librarian, which was financed by a Carnegie Foundation grant.

“I left UCT to become the faculty librarian at the University of the Western Cape’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities. In 2009, I relocated to the Library of Parliament and while there, I also worked as an evening librarian at [branding and marketing institution] Vega School.”

Booi joined UP in 2019. His customer-centric approach and his evident enjoyment in ensuring that his clients are happy and satisfied with the services he provides led to him receiving a personal invitation last year to an inaugural lecture by Professor Stéfan Renke of UP’s Department of Mercantile Law, based on the great customer service that he had received from Booi.

“I have also been invited to be a guest speaker for a webinar in May; it is being hosted by the Organisation of South African Law Libraries to discuss how to obtain legal material in South Africa.” 

When asked about the key life lessons that he has gleaned from his career, Booi said: “Humility, patience, resilience and persistence.” It’s clear from his accomplishments that these are principles he lives by.