Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Library beans
Overdue books and DVDs are costing the City R1.8m
THE City of Cape Town has made a plea for more than 20 000 books, study guides and DVDs long overdue at its libraries.
Users with overdue books were encouraged to return them during South African Library Week, which ends today, and all penalties for the overdue material are being waived.
This year’s theme is “Libraries: heart of the community”.
All libraries in the city hosted events and put up colourful displays.
The top 20 list of overdue items includes children’s books like The Three Little Pigs and Frozen.
The mobile library services are most affected, with nearly 2 500 items that have not been returned.
The City’s mayoral committee member for safety and security and for social services, JP Smith, said: “Our library service receives and manages material on behalf of the province. When patrons do not return the material, the City is held liable. At this stage it appears that more than 20 000 items with a value of about R1.8 million have not been returned.”
He said staff had spent many hours trying to track down people with checked-out items.
“Aside from the fact that this is time that could have been spent more productively on direct service delivery, the items not returned deprive others from their benefit and enjoyment.”
He said it posed a huge challenge to the department.
“The dedicated librarians play a crucial role in shaping young minds and opening new worlds to all who enter.
“Given the fast-paced digital world today, there might be some who think that libraries have become redundant.”
But the city’s libraries have more than a million members, Smith said.
“We are doing everything we can to make libraries a valued resource. The recent launch of PressReader, which allows people to take full advantage of the digital realm and access thousands of local and international publications, is just one such initiative aimed at boosting our offering,” he added.