Rapportryers tour SALB

In October 2010 the Rapportryer, of Grahamstown, kindly donated the profits of their annual Fun Run to the South Africa Library for the Blind. Months later on Monday 9 May, the Library was happy to have members of the Rapportryers visit and tour of the Library builds, able to see the fruit of their funding and the contribution their efforts made to the Library’s service.
The SALB would like to thank the Rapportryers for their generous contribution and interest in their Library, we are truly grateful.

new tactile titles

As phase two of the SALB Tactile project now draws to a close, 20 tactile titles illustrating the alphabet, emotions, shapes, sounds and touch, have been completed and are available in various languages to be circulated to schools. To view the SALB’s tactile book collections please visit the SALB facebook page.
Phase three of this project will soon get underway, with the production of a further 18 tactile titles. These new titles will include a number of familiar nursery rhymes for teachers and children to enjoy together.

south african library week celebrations

The SALB visited Arthur Blaxall School for the Blind (ABS) in Pietermaritzburg on Friday 25 March 2011, as part of the South African Library Week initiative, which ran from 19 – 26 March. In an effort to encourage reading and making use of their local libraries, the SALB designed two fun games for the Grade 11’s and 12’s of ABS to enjoy and to remind them how much fun can be had reading books. The Library was unfortunately only able to visit one of the twenty-one schools that cater for the print handicapped in South Africa, but all twenty-one schools received a National Library Week pack containing three braille titles for the schools to keep and the two games with instructions on how to play. The SALB team and learners of ABS had great fun celebrating South African Library Week and look forward to celebrating again next year!

new titles added to SALB collection
SALB always seeks to add value to the Library’s collection and this has been made a little bit easier by a generous anonymous donation, which made it possible for Library to add a number of new Daisy and Braille titles to the collection. The Daisy titles are on MP3 Format but can still be navigated easily using a Victor Reader.
These are some of the new DAISY titles in:

A Marriage made in heaven … by Emra Bombeck – Romance (DA4851)
Keep travelin’ rider, by Louis L’Amour – Western (DA4752)
Green hell, by Steve Milloy – Environmental Science (DA4737)
Nightmare at 20,000 feet, Richard Matteson – Horror Stories (DA4735)
Rapunrel and other classic stories, by various artists – FairyTales (DA4854)
Why your Health Matters, by Andrew Weil – Health (DA4887)
The Reagan I know, by William Buckley – Biographies (DA4892)
The global deal, by Nicholas Stern – Nature (DA4893)
Healing and preventing autism, Jenny MacCarthy – Psychology (DA4886)
The next 100 years, by George Friedman and Dick Chase – Politics (DA4745)
Ending war on drugs, by Eldredge – Psychology (DA4760)
New braille titles:
Social networking and you, by Anna Dresner – Technology (B5120)
Menopause guidebook, by The North America Menopause Society – Health (B5121)
Keeping your child safe in the world – Psychology (B5112)
Keep your ear on the ball, by Genevieve Petallo – Juvenile fiction (B5106)
Have you filled a bucket, By Carol McCloud – Juvenile fiction (B4342)
Hellen Keller, by Lesa Cline-Ransome – Juvenile non-fiction (B4143)

25 years long service
Congratulations to Karen Marechal, Michael Moodie and Helen Samuel who were awarded with SALB Long Service Awards.
Thank you very much, to each of you, for your 25 years of loyal service to the Library and its members. Your contributions to the Library are greatly appreciated!

congratulations Jane Osborne
Congratulations to Jane Osborne, our latest narrator to reach the impressive milestone of having completed 100 audio titles.
Jane Osborne has been a dedicated volunteer narrator for 10 years and the SALB is very grateful for her inspiring contribution to the SALB audio collection.
For the full story see the March edition of the Makwenzeke.

provincial mini lib launch.
After months of hard work and many miles travelled by Project Co-ordinator Pumla Mahanjana, the SALB, in conjunction with the Eastern Cape Department of Arts and Culture, are able to celebrate the launch of the Provincial Mini Lib Project. The launch, attended by MEC Xoliswa Tom, was held at the Humansdorp Culture Centre on 10 February to showcase how members of the Humansdorp Public Library, as well as several other libraries around the Eastern Cape, will benefit from this project in years to come.
For the highlights of the launch and details on Provincial Mini Lib Project watch out for the March edition of the Makwenzeke.

Please find the latest Makwenzeke under “Latest News”, or if you would like a copy delivered to you, in your preferred format, please contact Louise on 046 622 7226 or e-mail: marketing {at} salb.org(.)za

12th annual LIASA conference

“Libraries driving access to Knowledge” is the theme for the 12^thAnnual LIASA Conference, held at St Georges Hotel and Conference Center in Centurian from 27 September to 1 October 2010.

The SALB might be a regular to this event but this year we attend the event bursting with pride.  SALB’s very own Busi Mbiyo, Section Head of Cataloguing and Collection Development, represents the Eastern Cape Branch, as the newly elected Chairperson for the period 2010 – 2012.

Best of luck Busi!