GEORGE NEWS - John Ambraal, a community leader whose passion is to ensure that the youth have computer access as a study aid, is furious that the Conville library, which has been closed for 15 months, is still non-operational.
"The library was supposed to be closed for renovations from May to November last year, but it is now almost August and the doors are still closed. What is going on?" asks Ambraal.
He says he has been sent from pillar to post by officials, with the municipality blaming province for the delay. "Where must the school children go to access information? The Conville library serves Conville, Rosemoor, Parkdene, Protea Park, Lawaaikamp and Borchards."
Libraries are a provincial government competency and the upgrade was financed from a provincial grant.
Tania Colyn, head of communications of the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, said the department funded a major upgrade of the Conville Library, which was completed in April. "During the upgrade the hub box and related equipment, which allows connectivity to the provincial broadband network, had to be disconnected in order to be installed in a different section of the upgraded library."
The department requested State Information Technology Agency (Sita) to do the re-installation of the necessary equipment in order for the broadband to be connected again, but is still waiting for this to be completed. "We are wholly dependent on Sita to get connectivity for the library.
Earlier in the year it was proposed that the library could be opened in April using the manual card system with no internet facility, but we were informed that the George Municipality had decided to wait until the IT system is operational before re-opening the library."
The department has made an interim arrangement to provide a Long Term Evolution (LTE) router to the library which would make both the Sita Library Information Management System (Slims) and internet connectivity live, but the data costs will be very high. The plan was to have the LTE device installed at the library on Friday 21 July.
Since the George Herald's media enquiry the George Municipality has confirmed that the installation of the electronic equipment is underway and the Conville Library will be operational soon.
Municipal spokesperson Athane Scholtz said, "As a large part of the Conville Library services are related to the availability of computers to the community, and to avoid related frustrations, a decision was taken to wait until the ICT services were completely operational before opening the library. This decision was taken in consultation with several role players including library staff and the Provincial Library Service."
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
