LIBRARY. She provides chances to read

There are so many occupations that give practitioners a lot of joy and contentment. Often, these occupations are perceived as boring. Take librarianship for instance. Not many learners aspire to be one, let alone be aware of this exciting occupation. But according to LOUISE VOS, a librarian of somegood standing, this is a career to die for. She has been a book worm forever in her lifetime, and she relishes everything about it. Here she speaks to Thembi Masser about her love for reading and her passion to foster a reading culture into the hearts of the communities that live near the libraries she supervises in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Council.

Vos (nee Du Plooy) says librarians build people, build careers, communities and nations.  Librarians are public servants that are at the centre of knowledge. They make sure that publications with the correct and right information are available at any given time in the library. Therefore, they not only dispense books and issue fines when books are returned late, but they promote reading and organises out reach programmes. They are also good in dealing with difficult customers.

She is a coordinator of libraries in the west of Ekurhuleni region: these libraries are in Eden Park, Thokoza, Palmridge, Zonkezizwe, Bracken, Alberton, Germiston and Leondale. She makes sure that budgets are adhered to and that enough books are stocked and the libraries are well-run. But she has been a librarian for most of her life. She was at the Boksburg library for most of the 20 years and, in fact, helped plan its foundations after being hauled out her maternity break.

She is well-experienced librarian; she has done no other job since leaving the campus of the University of the Orange Free State, where she did her B.Bibl. for four years at that time. It is a four year course at universities across South Africa. In the fourth year students are required to do practical work at libraries to prepare them for their arduous but enjoyable work to nurture communities, she says. When they have qualified then they can work as librarians of , teachers, IT specialists and lecturers. They can also work at centres of knowledge.

 Vos, who is now 56, says this is the nicest occupation in the world. No other day is the replica of the other. “You are challenged in this job,” she remarks. “You can never rest on your laurels because readers have different demands and as such, you must always be willing to help them out and solve their perceived concerns.” If you though librarians are desk bound, then think again. “There you are wrong. They must have their fingers on the pulses of the readers and the communities they serve. You must understand their culture so that when you plan out reach programmes and awareness campaigns then you speak to their emotions.” Librarians have a huge task to teach communities how to use books and libraries. “If you don’t like people then well, don’t be a librarian.”

In addition, librarians organises book exhibitions apart from making books and publications accessible. “One of the most rewarding experiences is that of going out to encourage teenagers to read. You know how that lot is during that period. It is a pity, she points out, that libraries and the education sector have no SLA- standard level agreement-  with schools. “That is really unfortunate because school media centres are depleted; they have no books at all. We really would like to work with media centres and schools.”

Librarians work in municipal libraries,  but they can also work at museums, specialised libraries and at universities and school libraries. Specialised libraries are those found at private companies like , the CSSIR  and other big companies, like the one Harry Oppenheimer has  . South Africa has four national libraries. they  are holding libraries. These are in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg. Everything that is printed in the country is kept at these libraries.

She went to be a Kovsie after matriculating at Orange Meisie Skool in Bloemfontein. Even before she arrived at school to do sub A she always loved reading, staring at books whenever she was within reach of them. She remembers that her father, a teacher, wanted to be the only one to teach her to read before she went to school. But she was in a hurry and asked for the services of the illiterate domestic help, Masnuque, to guide her. When a book salesman passed bytheir farm selling an eight volume encyclopaedia called  Children of the World, she ordered it on the spot,  her father bought  it for her and she has since read every word in the 8 volumes before she was in grade 5

Mmakgosi, as she is known in the district of Theunissen and Brandfort in the Free State where she was born and bred, is driven up to this age by the words of her former principal at Orange Meisie Skool, where she used her maiden name, Du Plooy. The late Ms Spies taugh her to always reach higher than she thought was possible. Ms spies said:  ‘Reach for the stars, you might  reach the tree tops’.