Libraries and a �Better Life for All�: The politics, processes, and promises of the South African LIS Transformation Charter

dc.contributor.authorHart, Genevieve
dc.contributor.authorNassimbeni, Mary
dc.date.accessioned14/12/2016 10:10
dc.date.available14/12/2016 10:10
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractThe rhetoric of public librarianship includes many ringing claims for the role of libraries in democracy; and, on the twenty-first anniversary of democracy in South Africa, it is an opportune moment to examine the rather confusing fortunes of libraries since 1994. The library and information services (LIS) profession portrays libraries as agents of development and social transformation; yet, since 2009, more than twenty South African libraries have been destroyed in social protests. This paper reports on the work of the authors of the LIS Transformation Charter, which after a start-stop-start process of two phases over six years was delivered to the government in 2014. The paper analyzes the political and professional forces that influenced the charter-writing processes. The two fundamental arguments of the charter are that access to information, and thus to libraries, is a fundamental justiciable human right, both as a so-called freedom right and as an instrument of other economic, social, and cultural rights; and that transformation will depend on �ecosystems� thinking whereby the various subsectors collaborate to ensure seamless services and the equity of provision. The paper argues that the final LIS Transformation Charter maps a path for a transformed and integrated library system that has meaning for all sectors of South African society.en_US
dc.identifier.citationHart, G. and Naassimbeni, M. (2016). Libraries and a �Better Life for All�: The Politics, Processes, and Promises of the South African LIS Transformation Charter. Library Trends, 65(2): 198-216en_US
dc.identifier.issn0024-2594
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/2471
dc.identifier.urihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2016.0031
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherJohns Hopkins University Pressen_US
dc.rightsCopyright Johns Hopkins University Press. Published pdf may be archived in author's repository.
dc.subjectLibrary and information services (LIS)
dc.subjectTransformation
dc.subjectSouth Africa
dc.subjectProfessional practice
dc.subjectProfessionalism
dc.subjectLIS Transformation Charter
dc.titleLibraries and a �Better Life for All�: The politics, processes, and promises of the South African LIS Transformation Charteren_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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