Library Week will be celebrated in South Africa from 17-21 March. The theme this year is ‘From local to global @ your library’.

To mark the occasion, Iziko Museums is opening its three research libraries to the public. The Art History Library, housed in the Iziko South African National Gallery, contains a wealth of books, journals, catalogues, newspaper clippings, DVDs, CDs and art boxes for scholars and students.

The social history library and Natural History libraries are located at the Iziko South African Museum. The social history library has a huge collection of books on art, architecture, archaeology, Cape history, ceramics, decorative arts, furniture, glass, jewellery, textiles, philately and numismatics (coins). The Natural History Library specialises in the natural sciences, including archaeology, palaeontology and marine biology.

Apart from ‘just browsing’, the public is also invited to a free lecture on Wednesday 19 March at 13:00 at the South African Museum, when Prof. Genevieve Hart of the Department of Library and Information Science at UWC discusses the week’s theme.

Sadeck Casoojee, Iziko’s librarian for natural history collections, says that the aim of Library Week is to communicate and promote the tremendous contribution to educating and informing all South Africans made by libraries and information services. “Libraries link people with ideas. A vital part of our commitment is to promote the free flow of information and to share expertise with the public. Iziko’s libraries will celebrate the week by focussing not only on their respective collections, but also on how information can be gathered quickly and efficiently on a global scale.”

For further information, call 021 481 3800.

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