MPs’ library not going by the book
IN the old days, when libraries were places of silent contemplation, where books were catalogued on ruled rectangles of cardboard housed in tiny drawers, Albert Ntunja would probably have been called parliament’s chief librarian.
In fact, when he started the job 15 years ago, that is what he was called. Back then, the library, housed in the National Council of Provinces building, had only two computers, and the books really were catalogued using the card system.
But in the age of computers, gizmos and e-books, he is manager: parliamentary information centre. And the cataloguers prefer to go by the title “metadata specialists”.
And far be it for him to hold his finger to his lips to shush rowdy visitors — Ntunja welcomes the noise, and is requesting a coffee machine so that MPs can enjoy a cup amid the towering teak shelves that house more than 120 000 books.
“A gentleman’s library”, established in 1885, the blue-carpeted upstairs section now houses copies of the Hansard — the verbatim report of all the parliamentary proceedings — and periodicals that range from newspapers to Men’s Health magazines, and which somehow don’t seem out of place sharing a shelf with the cracked, yellowleather spines of law reports dating from 1909.
Upstairs, kept at a constant 23ºC to 28ºC, feels almost subtropical compared to downstairs.
A trip down the spiral staircase reveals the Mendelssohn Africana collection — thousands of books, paintings and maps collected by mining magnate Sidney Mendelssohn and donated to the library on his death in 1917. The library also
WEIGHTY KNOWLEDGE: The parliamentary library and information centre houses explorer William Jardine’s collections, which parliament bought.
Downstairs, the temperature is kept between 20ºC and 25ºC.
Ntunja said the age of the paper in the books, a vast display of fat, leather-bound volumes, made them a fire hazard. This explains the massive red tanks spaced throughout the room, filled with gases that will immediately deploy when a smoke alarm sounds.
But, he said, there had been no fires. And with paintings valued from R30 000, and some of the books able to fetch upwards of R20 000 each, this is definitely a good thing.
The security is state of the art, but, if Ntunja gets his way, it will pale in comparison to some of the technology he plans to introduce to drag the library into the 21st century.
He tells of a speech he made in France recently, in which he described the library of the 22nd century, the shelves empty but for some tablets and e-readers.
And while his plan for the parliamentary space isn’t quite so drastic, it is futuristic. Plans are under way to start digitising the Hansards. Hand-held scanners have been bought so that librarians can point at the shelves to find any book. Next will be a system that allows users to scan QR (quick reference) codes with their cellphones to access not only information, but whole e-books.
Already, some of the library’s 46 staff members have business cards bearing QR codes that reveal their info when scanned with a smartphone.
And for those who still want to feel paper in their hands, there will be electronic drop-off points in the precinct where they can return books; these will print out a receipt as proof of return.
Not bad ideas for someone who hadn’t planned on becoming a librarian in the first place.
“I was never meant to be a librarian,” Ntunja said.
He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town but was expelled after spilling acid on a student who had made a racist remark. He later returned to university to study clinical psychology.
“There were 900 students in the class and the lecturer said only the square root of you will pass Psych 1. So I took my bag and I left,” he said.
In a bid to hold onto his bursary, he visited the university’s administration, where someone suggested he take a couple of courses in library science.
And the rest, as they say, is history. But for Ntunja, the information specialist, it’s also the future.
A library of the 22nd century, shelves empty but for tablets and e-readers