Welcome Message by the CEO, Dr Pateka Ntshuntshe-Matshaya
On behalf of the South African library for the blind, let me take this opportunity to welcome the new and the returning members of our library. Ensuring equal access to information for all, which is indispensable to the establishment of the information society, is a democratic right that is also enshrined into our South African Transformation charter (2010). As the South African library for the blind, we strive to ensure through various technological devices and braille that library and information needs of our blind and visually impaired people are met.
As a newly appointed, Chief Executive Officer, I commit and promise you, a “client centred 21s century library model- a library that value the views of its users in its design. To operationalize this vision, we have developed a service evaluation survey aimed at finding out from the users and from provincial library services, how our library services to the blind are performing. Our blind and visually impaired people have been catered for on this study by a survey instrument in audio format that they will be guided and assisted by the mini library coordinators to complete. Additional to my mission of “ claiming back, SALB as the national library for the blind, we are busy working in conjunction with various stakeholders in collecting the blind and visually impaired statistics so that we can be guided by a data driven approach in reaching out to our untapped potential library users. The design and make of our libraries are more user friendly to both learned and illiterate library users. Our books that are in braille and others in English are translated into audio format in the language of your choice. The online newspapers and magazine platform we have (Newsreader), on uploading to our devices, blind and visually impaired users can listen to the audio news in the languages of their preference. Consider our library is a mixed blended combination of (public, school, and community) library for the blind, help us to help you by sharing with our library workers your reading lists so that they can be uploaded on the device, you receive from our library for free.
As I am joining this library with number of years from the higher education library leadership environment, there is a series of exciting dimensions of the role, I am bringing to strengthen the library of the blind’s role in research and innovation. There is plenty of research articles about blind people and by blind people that needs to be harvested to showcase the role of blind people in research and scholarly communication. Watch the space your articles that were submitted in secluded journals and or thesis and dissertations in braille that will be translated to print for them to be cited by other authors. Watch the space as we are in the process of revitalization of library physical space at Makhanda with the state of the art, studios upcoming, the library website also revitalized as a gateway to information to showcase our new and exciting revelation