Eight years after the formation of the South African Library Association, the handful of qualified librarians in and around Cape Town decided to form a branch of the
Library Association to promote library interests throughout the Cape Province.
Subsequently a public meeting was called in June of that year to discuss ways and means by which the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Committee on Libraries could be implemented. Although the Foundation Members were limited in number, the enthusiasm and dedication of those at the forefront of the movement made up for the numerical deficiency. However in the course of time, membership grew substantially notwithstanding the logistical problems such as distance, transport and not long after the establishment of the Branch, the limitations placed on movement by World War II.
Varley (1943) gave a detailed list of these logistical problems in his Presidential address on Cape Libraries Today and Tomorrow delivered at the 4th Triennial Conference of Library Association held in Johannesburg on 26 January 1943 when he pointed out that the Cape Province had logistical problems which handicapped their work, problems which were not experienced in other provinces. The Cape, he said, was not a province but a country; a country with well-defined natural boundaries;
enormous in size being one and a half times bigger than the other three provinces put together, bigger than England and France combined with the largest town 800 miles from its furthest boundary. As far as the population and the wealth of the province was concerned, Varley stated that these were not evenly distributed and that the population of the Cape was only very slightly larger than that of the Transvaal and that for every square mile in the Cape there were two Europeans to nine Europeans compared with seven Europeans in the Transvaal to twenty-two non-Europeans. These two factors, i.e. low density and great distances between the many small towns and villages, a situation aggravated by a poor rail and road system, increased the cost of administration.
The handicaps to which Varley referred were indeed akin to the problems experienced by the Kimberley Public Library which was situated almost almost 650 miles (1000 km) from the focus of library activity in the Cape Province.
Varley went on to say that
the social and geographic background was important because national library policy depends largely on the proper appreciation of the differences that exist in the various provinces (Varley 1943).
To a great extent and as would be expected, the focal point of the Cape Branch and its activities was Cape Town and its environs. The South African Public Library was the hub from which emanated the administration of the association with due support from the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Worthy initiatives such as the Society for Book Distribution were administered by the South African Public Library.
Presumably by virtue of its geographical position the Cape Branch also controlled the Books for Troops and Ships, a nation-wide project which started in 1940 and which ceased operations in 1945. Many tens of thousands of books and magazines were collected for distribution to the men and women of the armed forces. According to numerous records of the Kimberley Public Library of that time, the Library having been selected as one of several collection points established for this purpose was well supported by the people in the town and its environs who appear to have done their share in contributing reading matter for the troops and seamen as they had also done for the troops station in South West Africa during World War I (KPL AGM Chairman’s address, 1915).
In 1949, the Financial Relationship Act was promulgated in the Union Parliament enabling Provincial Administrations to provide financial support for public libraries.
This too was the year in which the President of the Library Association reminded his colleagues that ‘so much needed to be done to convince Government authorities and the public alike of the basic nature of our work’ (Varley 1949: 16) and that the formulation of an agreed philosophy on South African librarianship was necessary if this was ever to be accomplished. He suggested the following statement of aims for public libraries -
That the public library is pre-eminently a means for promoting the whole development of the individual in society, through the best use of the recorded word in all its forms; and that such a public library should be democratically controlled, mainly supported by public funds and open free to all users (Varley 1949: 16).
The President of the Library Association went on to say that the South African library movement could not ignore the fact that it was being ‘swept willy-nilly into the mainstream of library development in the western world and must sooner or later face its implications’ (Varley 1949: 17). The South African Library Association had in fact become a member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) which had at that time been acknowledged by UNESCO as the world association of members of the library profession.
Insignificant as the event might appear, the transfer of library affairs from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Education was indeed tacit recognition by Government of the role of libraries in the field of education in South Africa (Varley 1949: 17).
Although the South African Library Association continued to direct library affairs and communicate on behalf of the library movement with government and international bodies, the Cape Branch became increasingly active and because geographically Kimberley lay within the orbit of the Cape Branch, it was inevitable that the Kimberley Public Library would become affiliated to the Cape Branch and, where distances would permit, engage itself more keenly in the activities of the Cape Branch of the Library Association. As two of the leading libraries in the Cape Province it is not surprising therefore to see that Douglas Varley, Librarian of the South African Public Library and Olive McIntyre, Librarian of the Kimberley Public Library were appointed the representatives of the Cape Branch at the South African Library Association’s Triennial Conference in 1942 (SAL Annual Report, 1944: 54).
It was during this period that the Cape Branch continued relentlessly to nudge the Provincial authorities into acknowledging their responsibility in regard to the establishment and maintenance of public libraries. The Cape Provincial Advisory Library Committee was a body appointed by the Province, the existence of which was essential for the Treasury to be allowed to give financial support to public libraries in rural areas. This defectively structured body existed from 1940 until 1949 when it was succeeded by a Provincial Library Board. The Cape Branch of the Library Association contributed substantially to the report of the survey the Advisory Library Committee had undertaken of libraries in the Cape Province, correlating the data and making informed recommendations particularly in regard to the establishment of
a free library service throughout the Cape Province, a mobile bookstock, the appointment of a Provincial Library Organiser and the need for more trained librarians if any of the schemes for library reform were to be brought into operation successfully (Immelman 1963: 38).
This report suffered a fate similar to that of many other official reports in that it was published several years after it had been compiled in 1944, by which time much of the data contained in it had become outdated (Immelman 1963: 37).
In December 1943, the Cape Branch of the Library Association in co-operation with the Society for Book Distribution and the Trustees of the South African Public Library arranged a large public meeting in Cape Town ‘to initiate a drive for better libraries in South Africa’ (Immelman 1963:38). To this gathering a representative array of influential members of the public were invited: ‘Cabinet ministers, political leaders of all parties, town councillors, provincial councillors and others representing a large number of public organizations’ (Immelman 1963: 38) all of which had been primed with selected extracts from the 1944 Report which had yet to be published.
Immelman (1963: 38) describes this well organised meeting as one of the most important ever arranged by the Cape Branch or the Society for Book Distribution.
Although this gathering did not result in a major change of heart in regard to public libraries by the Provincial authorities, an influential Continuation Committee was
appointed to continue the campaign. A Provincial Library Organiser was appointed, while conversely the Advisory Library Committee became increasingly redundant.
In due course, it became evident that library legislation was essential if a provincial library service was to come into operation. Members of the Continuation Committee and two members of the Cape Branch Committee finally drafted the necessary legislation, notwithstanding the fact that essential provisions submitted by the professional librarians were omitted from the legislation. This Provincial Library Ordinance (No 10 of 1949) the purpose of which was
to make provision for the establishment of a free library service for the province and for matters incidental thereto
was eventually passed in 1949 (Friis 1962: 283).
In 1949, the Cape Branch suggested to the public libraries of Port Elizabeth, East London and Kimberley that they become free libraries in terms of this Ordinance, but none of them was prepared at that stage to abandon its existing status. However, in 1957 those of the Subscription Libraries that remained were informed that the Province would no longer contribute to their funds unless they were members of the Provincial Library Service (KPL Annual Report, 1957).
The remainder of the decade Immelman (1963: 39) describes as a very difficult period in respect of library affairs.