The Heritage and Information Awareness Programme

promotes South Africa's documentary heritage.

The Centre for the Book

The Centre for the Book was established to develop a culture of reading in South Africa. It lobbies government on national book policy and acts as a broker between sectors of the book industry while also representing libraries, educational institutions and, most importantly, readers. The Centre helps to co-ordinate, promote and encourage all book-related activities in South Africa.

Donations

The National Library (Cape Town campus) had redundant shelves in storage for 18 months. The contract for storage was due for renewal, and it was decided to rather donate the shelves to libraries than keep it with no intended future use in storage at high cost. The City of Cape Town’s Directorate: Community Development assisted in liaison with municipal libraries, such as Mamre, Woodstock, Leonsdale, Lwandle and Eerste River in need of shelving material.

By the end of March 2008, many libraries benefited from this project, including Dr. Uys in Betty’s Bay who started a community library at his home. Another beneficiary was the Zonnebloem Primary School in Woodstock. The school had no library, and the National Library assisted them by donating approximately 100 shelves for their beautifully renovated new library.

Click here to see pictures of the project