It was inevitable that the Library’s conversion from a Subscription Library to a free library system would have a significant influence on the collective nature of those using the Library. Whereas the Subscription Library required its members to pay for the privileges they received, the free library system was open to any ratepayer or permanent resident of the City of Kimberley provided that the applicant for membership completed a registration form, undertook to obey the rules of the service and pay compensation for the loss of or damage to material for which he/she was responsible. In the case of minors, the registration form had to be countersigned by a parent or guardian. On registration therefore any individual was entitled to all the benefits and privileges the Library offered free of charge. No longer could it be described as a library for the use of the city’s elite only.
An entirely new reading public developed many of whom had to be instructed on the most beneficial manner in which to use the Library and its facilities. The Library was also obliged to satisfy the diverse needs of readers and to make every effort to expand its educational role (KPL Annual Report, 1962).
Membership was also available to bona fide students, any visitor to the City and non-residents such as persons living on nearby farms in which case a deposit was required of the borrower.
5.4.2 Membership
Membership almost tripled once the Kimberley Public Library switched from a Subscription to a free library system, increasing from 1 716 in December 1960 to 5 837 in December 1961 (KPL Annual Report, 1961). However, the number of actual library users seldom corresponded with the official membership reflected in the Annual Reports of the Kimberley Libraries.
Table 3 reflects the membership of the Kimberley Public Library for the period 1959 – 1985 with statistics given at approximately ten year intervals.
The Library Committee divided the Library users into four categories
(a) Those users who lived in the Kimberley municipal area
(b) Country members who were paid for by the Divisional Council (c) Visitors from other Cape municipal areas
(d) Members from the Orange Free State
After the initial boost given to the Kimberley Public Library as a consequence of its affiliation to the Provincial Library Service, it was noted in the Annual Report of 1963 that a certain degree of retrogression had occurred. This negative trend was attributed to the numerous staff changes during the year, the marked decline in the number and type of books received from the Provincial Library Service as well as the severe overcrowding of the library shelves so that it was difficult to display the books to advantage. It was also reported that many of the original members were no longer
active users and there was a tendency among initial members to leave Kimberley without cancelling their membership. Another problem experienced from time to time concerned the fact that an inadequate number of books in Afrikaans was allocated to the Library which, in turn, affected the number of Afrikaans-speaking members who used the Public Library (KPL Annual Report, 1963).
The 1976 re-registration of members, an exercise which took place approximately every three years, reflected another downward trend with the membership comparing unfavourably with that of the previous year. As happened in many spheres of social life in South Africa at that time, it is fair to suggest that the advent of television in South Africa in 1975 had a great deal to do with subsequent reading patterns.
Circulation dropped by 43 116 which represented 10% of the circulation figure for the previous year (KPL Annual Report, 1976).
However, in time as the city developed, membership of the libraries for whites increased. This was due primarily to the new service points established and the diverse services provided by the Public Library. The library depot at the Hadison Park Shopping Centre was a particularly successful venture and, after ten years, reflected a remarkable increase in membership notwithstanding the fact that it was open for only twenty-two hours per week, with 47 052 books having been issued during 1979. The bookstock at this depot had increased from 4 000 in January 1979 to 6 000 in December of that year; membership from 98 in January to 680 in December and monthly circulation from 1 539 to 3 917. This experiment in decentralisation had proved immensely successful although it did result in the reduction of the membership of the Kimberley Public Library itself (KPL Annual Report, 1979). However, the Africana and Special Collections ensured that the Kimberley Public Library in Dutoitspan Road remained the focal point for all research.
5.4.2.1 Membership: African, Coloured and Indian members of the community
In accordance with existing national legislation the Kimberley Public Library remained an institution for the use of whites only. Prior to the official opening of the
institution as a free library, the matter of the use of this institution by non-Europeans was discussed at a meeting of the Library Committee which recommended that
As no ruling has yet been given by the Provincial authorities regarding library services to the Indian and Chinese communities, these sections of the community [should] be allowed to avail themselves of the free library services to be provided at the Kimberley Public Library and the Beaconsfield Branch (KCC Report on meeting of the Library Committee, 08.12.1960).
At this meeting the Town Clerk reported that plans were in progress for a Coloured Library to be built in the Floors Township and the Committee therefore recommended
that until separate library services to Coloureds and the Bantu are provided, non-European students and teachers be allowed to use the facilities provided at the Kimberley Public Library and the Beaconsfield Branch (KCC Report on meeting of the Library Committee, 08.12.1960).
Four months later, the Library Committee reported that although Coloured teachers and others studying for degrees were permitted the use of the facilities provided by the Kimberley and Beaconsfield libraries, there was a great deal of dissatisfaction amongst the Coloured community debarred as they were from making use of the existing free library service. The use of a church hall or a similar building in the Floors Township was suggested as a temporary measure but it was agreed that this would not be a satisfactory solution due to the decentralised distribution of the Coloured community in Kimberley. It was eventually decided to recommend a travelling library to serve the Coloured community prior to the building of their new central library (KCC Report on meeting of Library Committee, 07.04.1961). No further mention is made of this scheme which would indicate that this idea was neither accepted nor implemented.
The following month the Senior Librarian informed the Library Committee that Library facilities for the Africans were apparently no longer under the control of the
Cape Provincial Library Service and that consequently it would not be necessary for the Council to provide the facilities as stipulated in the Report of the Provincial Library Service. The meeting then decided to recommend to the City Council that an African be appointed to take charge of the Library at the Bantu Social Centre in Galeshewe and that the Senior Librarian assist in the establishment of a more adequate library for the African community. It was also recommended that the Senior Librarian be allocated R480 per annum for the purchase of appropriate magazines, newspapers and magazine racks for this facility for Africans (KCC Report on meeting of Library Committee, 07.05.1961).
In view of Government policy statements made in 1965, the Senior Librarian in a letter to the Town Clerk requested that a ruling be given in regard to ‘non-European’
members of the Kimberley Public Library. She stated that at that time the Library had a membership which included 102 Coloureds, 19 Indians, 34 Chinese and 2 Bantu (African) adults as well as 33 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 1 Coloured and 1 Indian under the age of 21. She went on to state that many of these members were studying for degrees and that it would be disastrous for them were they suddenly to be deprived of the Library’s facilities, particularly as there had never been complaints in this regard from other library users (KPL Letter from Senior Librarian to Town Clerk, 10.04.1965).
Despite the fact that the Library in Galeshewe did not fall under the jurisdiction of the City Council and the Kimberley Public Library, channels of communication were created when the City Librarian was co-opted to serve on the Black Library Committee which was established by the Diamantveld Bantu Administration Board.
In addition, the Public Library staff carried out the stocktaking when this Library was moved from the Community Centre in Galeshewe to the RC Elliot Hall in 1980 and gave other assistance on numerous occasions (KPL Annual Report, 1980).
The staff of the Judy Scott Library and the Roodepan Library for the Coloured community as well as those of the Library for the Black community in Galeshewe did sterling work among these communities. The contribution of the Kimberley Public Library and its staff to the success and progress of these institutions cannot be overestimated.
It was not until the advent of the new political dispensation in the early 1990’s that the Kimberley Public Library unreservedly opened its doors to all members of the Kimberley public whereas in the case of its research component, the Kimberley Africana Library had been open to all bona fide researchers from all sections of the community from its start in 1986.
5.5 Role of the Kimberley Public Library in the community
By its very nature a free public library must play a greater role in the life of the public it serves than does a Subscription Library. Within the limits of its resources, the Kimberley Public Library did indeed play a central role in the life of the community.
However, the institution was severely handicapped in four vital respects. In the first instance, the physical limitations of the premises occupied by the Library placed enormous restrictions on the capacity of the staff to serve the public. Secondly, the Kimberley Public Library was reliant on the limited budget allocated to it by the Kimberley Municipality. Thirdly, the shortage of qualified staff and the rapid turnover within the establishment represented a perennial problem at the Library.
There was at that time - and this has continued to the present day - a perception, false as it has proved to be on many occasions, that Kimberley was not a place in which to pursue a career in any sphere. Fourthly, the Library’s ability to serve the community of Kimberley in its entirety was, to a large extent, limited by the constraints placed on it by national ideologically-based legislation.
However, despite these constraints with which it had to cope, the staff of the Kimberley Public Library made every effort to provide a broad service to the public.