The National Library of South Africa is the agency of the government of South Africa which maintains a national library of all published materials relating to the country.
The National Library of South Africa (NLSA) is a statutory body whose objects are to contribute to the socio-economic, cultural, educational, scientific and innovative development of South Africa by collecting, recording, preserving and making available the national documentary heritage and promoting an awareness and appreciation there of, by fostering information literacy, and by facilitating access to the world's information resources. The NLSA is a Schedule 3A public entity that came into existence through the National Library of South Africa Act, 1998 (Act 92 of 1998), there by amalgamating the former State Library in Pretoria and the former South African Library in Cape Town. The NLSA has two sites, the Pretoria and Cape Town Campuses. The Centre for the Book in Cape Town is the outreach unit of the NLSA, and as such contributes to promoting a culture of reading and writing in South Africa.
History In 1818, Lord Charles Somerset, the Cape Colony's first civil Governor, issued a proclamation to control the wine trade, imposing a tax on wine brought into Cape Town for sale. The net proceeds would be used to form a Public Library which should "lay the foundation of a system, which shall place the means of knowledge within reach of the youth of this remote corner of the Globe," (presuming a globe hath corners) "and bring within their reach what the most eloquent of ancient writers has considered to be one of the first blessings of life, 'Home Education'." Since that time, South Africa's library development was bifurcated although the library in Cape Town was the original establishment.The most likely model for Cape Town's "Public Library" was the London Institution (established in 1805 in the style of an Athenaeum). The Library's first significant acquisition was the collection of Joachim Nicolaus von Dessin, who bequeathed his books to the Dutch Reformed Church in 1761 to serve as the foundation of a public library. In 1820 the board of trustees decided to donate the Dessinian Collection to the new library. Other notable donations followed over the years, among others Sir George Grey who when he left South Africa in 1861 presented the Library with his remarkable personal collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and rare books. In 1873 the South African Public Library became a legal deposit library for the Cape Colony, and from 1916 it received all printed items published throughout the country. The Library continued as a legal deposit library until 1954, when this function was taken over by the City of Cape Town. From then on it began to develop its unique character as a national reference library devoted to research based on its extensive stock, with a concurrent name change in 1967 to the South African Library. Diplomat Edmund Roberts visited the library, then called the South African Library around 1833 and described it as "once the pride and boast of the colony." He noted that the library had approximately 10,000 volumes and called it a "highly creditable place."
The State Library The "Staats-Bibliotheek der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek" (State Library of the South African Republic) came into being thanks to a donation of books from the Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde. These books consisted of a complete library of Dutch works, mainly Dutch literature and language, to the Transvaal Republic's government. The first consignment of eight chests of books arrived in 1883, including a chest from the Dutch Bible Society. On 21 September 1887 the Transvaal government approved the constitution of the Staats-Bibliotheek. As Pretoria began to grow in size, there arose a need for a public library. The first Pretoria Public Library had opened its doors in 1878, but because of ongoing financial problems was closed down in 1890. In 1893 strong public support and a collection of 700 saw another public library arise, this time under the wing of the Staats-Bibliotheek and with the bookstock of the former Public Library. From that time onward until 1964, the State Library performed a dual role as public library and national library. The first national librarian, the Afrikaans poet Jan Celliers, saw exchange agreements as a means of enriching the State Library's collections. The first exchange agreement was entered into in 1898 with the Smithsonian Institution of Washington in the United States. In terms of the agreement the State Library would receive all American official publications in exchange for two copies of each official publication of the South African republic. From the early thirties under the guidance of the visionary national librarian Matthew Stirling, the State Library began to develop the character of a central library for South Africa, taking on functions such as striving for a national library lending system and a centre for bibliographical information.
Modern Consolidation Until 1 November 1999, for historical reasons, South Africa had two national libraries, the South African Library, founded in 1818, in Cape Town, and the State Library, founded in 1887, in Pretoria. In terms of South African legal deposit legislation, each of the national libraries was a legal deposit library, entitled to receive from the publishers a gratis copy of every book, serial, newspaper, government publication or other printed item published in South Africa. In South Africa legal deposit, in some form or another, dates back to 1842. As a result, extensive collections of material of great scholarly value have been built up in the former national libraries. During the 1990s the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology began a review of all legislation under its jurisdiction, including the National Libraries Act, No 56 of 1985. The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in 1996 appointed a Working Group on the National Libraries of South Africa to advise him on the future of the two national libraries. The most important recommendation of the Working Group was that the two national libraries be amalgamated to form a dual-site (Cape Town and Pretoria) national library, to be known as the National Library of South Africa
Creation under the National Library Act The National Library of South Africa's core national library functions are described in Section 4 subsection 1 of the National Library Act, No 92 of 1998, and cover the following broad areas:
to build up a complete collection of published documents emanating from or relating to South Africa;
to maintain and extend any other collections of published and unpublished documents with the emphasis on documents emanating from or relating to Southern Africa;
to promote the optimal management of collections of published documents held in South African libraries as a national resource; and to render a national bibliographic service and to act as the national bibliographic agency;
to promote optimal access to published documents, nationally and internationally;
to provide reference and information services, nationally and internationally;
to act as the national preservation library and to provide conservation services on a national basis;
to promote awareness and appreciation of the national published documentary heritage; and
to promote information awareness and information literacy.
Bibliographic Services and Collections ManagementBibliographic Services and Collections Management, a core programme of the NLSA, serves to:
Build a complete collection of South African publications through the Legal Deposit Act by receiving all materials acquired through legal deposit.
Extend and supplement the NLSA’s collections by purchasing material and receiving gifts and donations to fill identified gaps in collections on or about South Africa and southern Africa.
Create bibliographic records of all new acquisitions and ensure that all records created are accessible.
Facilitate library standards training to ensure compliance with international bibliographic standards in South Africa. The SANB plays an active role in the development, maintenance and propagation of standards used in cataloguing. Standardisation facilitates the training in the international standards used in cataloguing including cataloguing, Authority Control, Subject Access (LSCH) and Machine Readable Cataloguing (MARC).
The programme is composed of the following units:
South African National Bibliography (SANB)
Periodicals
Index to South African periodicals (ISAP)
Acquisitions
International Standard Agency (ISN)
Collections Management – this unit, situated at the Cape Town campus, develops, stores, and preserves collections and cultural heritage. Collections Management meets the needs of the individual collector or collecting institution while ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector’s care. Collections Management assumes the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development and is closely related to SANB.
Legal Deposit is the legal requirement of a person or group to submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is extended to all formats and types of material. By law, one copy of every South African print/on-line publication must be deposited to the NLSA by its publishers and to the four other designated legal deposit libraries depending on the size of the print run.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa
National Archives and Records Service - institutional network, operating on a centralized and decentralized provincial basis under central government control. The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa was established by passing of the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act in 1996. Provincial Archives Servises
Eastern Cape Provincial Archives (includes Mthatha Archives Repository, Port Elizabeth Archives Repository)
North West Provincial Archives and Records Services
Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service
VISION, MISSION AND FUNCTIONS
Vision: The NLSA is the leading national library and information centre of excellence in Africa and in the world. Mission: The NLSA, as the primary resource and custodian of South Africa’s documentary heritage, promotes creative, effective and efficient universal access to information.
Functions The following are the functions of the NLSA that are derived from section 4 of the National Library of South Africa Act, 1998 (Act 92 of 1998): (a) (i) to build up a complete collection of published documents emanating from or relating to South Africa;
(ii) to maintain and extend any other collections of published and unpublished documents with the emphasis on documents emanating from and relating to Southern Africa;
(iii) to promote the optimal management of collections of published documents held in South African libraries as a national resource; and
(iv) to supplement the national resource contemplated in subparagraph (iii) with selected documents;
(b) (i) to record the documents contemplated in paragraph (a); and
(ii) to render a national bibliographic service and to act as the national bibliographic agency;
(c) to promote optimal access to published documents, nationally and internationally;
(d) to provide reference and information services, nationally and internationally;
(e) to act as the national preservation library and to provide conservation services on a national basis;
(f) to promote awareness and appreciation of the national published documentary heritage; and
(g) to promote information awareness and information literacy.