GEORGE NEWS - A flood of mostly negative comments was received in an opinion poll on George Herald's Facebook page regarding service at the George Library. Most of the complaints were about the "unfriendly" and "unhelpful" staff.
Library members are also unhappy about the book offering and the small number of books that one is allowed to borrow at a time, the general cleanliness of the library, the length of time that systems are down, and the fact that the library is closed during load-shedding.
The newspaper asked comment from George Municipality, managing authority of the library and staff, and the provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport under whose umbrella library services resort.
According to the municipality's corporate services deputy director Edward Ganza, George libraries have been impacted by technical issues affecting all non-metro libraries throughout the entire Western Cape.
"The Sita Library and Information Management System (Slims) has been unavailable since 15 November 2022. This had a tremendous effect on staff as they are unable to do online searches with regard to new titles, authors, subject and classification fields as well as interlibrary loans. The impact on service delivery to library users is highly regrettable."
He said although a decision was taken that all public libraries will remain open and implement manual procedures for the issue and return of books, library users are bearing the brunt of a severely crippled service.
"This is because the number of books issued to patrons has been reduced and no new books were obtained for the last three months. Block loans to schools and the issuing of extra books for our homeschoolers are other services that have been affected because of Slims. Visitors and district membership are also not possible until Slims is up and running again."
Availability of audio and e-books, Wi-Fi as well as internet at libraries
He said though, that internet and Wi-Fi facilities and the in-house use of the libraries have remained available. Audio and e-books are also available for free through the Libby app that can be downloaded.
Events
Ganza said the library does organise events for members. Yesterday, Wednesday 1 February, the focus was on World Read-Aloud Day, and Library Week will be celebrated from 20-26 March around the theme of 'Telling powerful stories'. A Mini Library for the Blind will be opened at Thembalethu Library on 24 March.
"As libraries are central to communities, we urge all our users to visit a library close to them and see what is on offer. For the last six months, George libraries have rolled out over 200 programmes to address the recreational, educational, cultural and information needs of our society. We want all our communities to take ownership of their libraries by becoming actively involved in all our activities, whether it is storytelling, craft, read-aloud sessions, book discussions, special events and programmes, everybody has a part to play.
Renovations and cleanliness
The George Library has been freshly painted and the municipality is in the process of fixing the roof, doors, windows, gates and gutters. Security cameras will also be installed.
"The problem with vagrants has been taken up with the Law Enforcement Department which does regular inspections of the premises. Two security guards are on duty on a 24/7 basis. Two staff members have been appointed to clean the library."
Staff friendliness
He said the staff at George Library always try to render a professional and satisfactory service.
"They take positive action to address all communication barriers that may exist between the staff and the public. Management will be monitoring the situation to ensure that there are no further complaints."
Province
Tania Colyn, head of communications at the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, said the department has not received any formal complaints. "As the funding department, we will engage with the municipality on this."
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