5 days ago
Johannesburg library to fully reopen in a few days
The Joburg metro's main library, the Johannesburg City Library, has been closed since the Covid pandemic started. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Renovations at the
The library was partially reopened in
The 90-year-old building at the corner of Albertina Sisulu Road and Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street in central Johannesburg houses more than 1.5 million books, newspaper archives and special collections, and is a national heritage site.
The
In March, the city said the costs to repair the library was R37 million, which included the cost of the contractors, engineers and consultants. The city had not provided information on the costs to repair the library ahead of its full reopening.
The public will have access to digital resources through the Johannesburg Public Library system, such as local, national and international newspapers and magazines as well as journal archives.
'The world is going digital. There is still space for physical, especially because you cannot get a lot of the physical formats online,' Elton May, the library's archivist told the
Mail & Guardian
at the March reopening.
'No one, as far as I know has digitised The Star [newspaper] from 1880, and if they want to digitise it, they are going to have to come here to get the physical copy of it, because we are the only one in South Africa that has it.'
The
'The consultation process has been largely positive. We were consistently invited to the engagement sessions, which were conducted openly,' said the foundation's chairperson, David Fleminger.
'Since the partial reopening, the library has been attracting a good number of visitors and we are looking forward to the full reopening of all the facilities so that the library can once again serve the city and live up to its full potential.
'While we celebrate the reopening, and congratulate the city on doing the necessary work, we still want to see action on reopening some of the
The City of Johannesburg had not responded to queries from the M&G at the time of publication.
