Message from the LIASA President

NIKKI CROWSTER - LIASA PRESIDENT 2018-2021

The slogan “Libraries Matter!” provides the conversation starter for 2021 South African Library Week (SALW) celebrations. This annual event – a LIASA flagship project - highlights the value and impact of the services provided within the library and information services (LIS) sector and their practitioners to advance sustainable development agendas. The 2021 theme is a rallying cry defiant in a global pandemic where the norm has been ravished by economic downturns, a dominant virus that has exacerbated loss of human lives and a requisite defensive response to lock ourselves away until it is safer.

The 2021 theme is a clarion call, an exhortation and reminder rolled into one that “Libraries Matter!”. It is a prompt to the national funders that notwithstanding its influence on the nation and the development agenda, libraries remain vulnerable to the vagaries of budget allocations and the immediate consequence is a loss of information services and of opportunity. Traditionally, libraries provide for that child who has nowhere else to study or the student who obtains project resources or those seeking leisure and social interaction. At this time, physical distancing is necessarily enforced so services have transformed accordingly to mitigate against this by mediating loans services with “drop off and collect” options; substituting physical browsing which is a potential vector for virus transmission and face-to-face advising with telephone or online consultations or online discoverability services. Online storytelling has become ubiquitous; but the creativity applied retains the sense of wonder and delight as we are plied with stories of all types. It is another form of learning supported by libraries during the current lockdown and curtailed services.

Libraries, information centres and suchlike, and library and information practitioners colloquially lumped into the name “librarians” are playing a core role in supporting the provision of information services designed to contribute to the uplifting of the human condition. The core role of the LIS sector and their practitioners and their contributions to achieving goals of societal advancement, of restoring the dignity of each person and providing opportunities to elevate each person in our society academically,economically and socially are clearly enunciated in past SALW themes as well:

• Free your Mind - Read!

• Your Right to Read

• Develop @ your library

• Libraries: your key to the future

• Libraries in a Decade of Democracy

• Access for all @ your library

• #libraries4lifelonglearning

• Libraries: Heart of the Community

A Rallying Cry: “Why Libraries Matter!” Partners in learning, nation building and development

The 2021 SALW rationale lists further why “Libraries Matter!” and reinforces the worth and influence of library and information services. It explains in part the ultimate truth why libraries and various forms of information services have been an intrinsic part of society since time immemorial. We have been adjusting to the changing needs of society along the ages to remain relevant. The staying power is in part due to the resilience of the practitioners – librarians etc – who continue to align services with the changing needs of society.