President’s Report for the period
18 November 1998 - 22 September 1999
Introduction

This report gives an overview of the major activities that LIASA undertook during the first 10 months of office of the first elected Representative Council. The main task of the Representative Council was to build on the foundation that was laid by the Transitional Executive Committee during the first year of LIASA’s existence from July 1997 - 1998.

  1. Representative Council


    2. The membership of the Representative Council was as follows:

    Ellen Tise    President

    Laila Vahed   Deputy President

    Nico Ferreira    Secretary

    Tommy Matthee Treasurer

    Lulama Makhubela Public Relations Officer

    Qondi Malotana Eastern Cape

    Philip Clarke    Eastern Cape

    Mercia Coetzee Free State 

    Ivan Qwelane Free State - until July 1999

    Gugu Maseko    Gauteng South 

    Refiloe Mabaso Gauteng South - from April 1999

    Peter Lor    Gauteng North

    Segametsi Molawa Gauteng North - from April 1999

    Doors Serfontein KwaZulu-Natal

    Haffy Haffajee KwaZulu-Natal

    Fritz van Dyk   Northern Cape

    Ellen Phuti    Northern Cape

    Emelang Leteane Northern Province 

    Philip Magoma Northern Province

    Naomi Haasbroek Western Cape - from February 1999

    Julian Massawe Western Cape - from February 1999

    A decision was taken that the editor-in-chief may also attend meetings of the Representative Council. Mpumalanga and North West Province did not hold elections and therefore had no representatives on the Representative Council. A decision was taken later to invite one person from each of these provinces to attend Representative Council meetings and report on the progress with establishing branches.

    The Representative Council met four times during the report period. One meeting took place on 18 November immediately after the 1998 conference and was a joint meeting with the Transitional Executive Committee. Meetings were held on 5 - 6 March 1999 in Bellville and 18 - 19 June in East London, and the last one on 20 September immediately before the 1999 conference .
     
     

  2. Executive Committee


    3. In terms of the Constitution of LIASA at the first sitting of the Representative Council an Executive Committee was appointed as follows:

    Ellen Tise    President

    Laila Vahed    Deputy President

    Tommy Matthee Treasurer

    Nico Ferreira    Secretary

    Lulama Makhubela Public Relations Officer

    Peter Lor    Member

    Emelang Leteane Member

    Ivan Qwelane    Member - until July 1999

    Because most of the Executive Committee Meetings would take place in Gauteng, one position was kept open until branches in Mpumalanga and the North West Province were formed in order to cut down on costs. The Executive Committee met three times during the report period on the following dates and at the following places:

    22 January 1999 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

    7 May 1999 Unisa, Pretoria

    7 August 1999 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
     
     

  3. Membership


    4. There has been an increase in the total membership over the last 10 months. 359 new members joined, most of these in the last few months. This shows a positive sign, but much more needs to be done to recruit new members. The Representative Council will be taking steps to co-ordinate a membership drive over the next few months. These will include rewards for bringing in new members, linking the membership drive with the advocacy campaign, setting targets for 2000, and approaching heads of libraries to assist in recruiting members for LIASA in their organisations. 

    The total membership as at 7 September 1999 was 1427, of which 327 have not paid for 1999.

See table 1. 
 

TABLE 1

     

    BRANCH

    		Individual Institute Total:1999 Total:1998
    Eastern Cape 120 9 129 77
    Free State 62 5 67 50
    Gauteng North 262 19 281 237
    Gauteng South 288 27 315 237
    KwaZulu-Natal 171 12 183 131
    Mpumalanga 35 8 43 28
    North West  30 9 39 24
    Northern Cape 24 3 27 26
    Northern Province 98 8 106 63
    Western Cape 211 18 229 190
    Foreign countries 5 1 6 5
    Total 1308 119 1427 1068
  1. Administrative Office


    2. The LIASA office moved from the State Library to Unisa Library in June 1999, to enable better coordination and supervision of the work of the Administrative Assistant. For quite a while the organisation was without an assistance and the affairs were managed by the LIASA Secretary. A new part-time Administrative Assistant, Mariette van Dyk, was appointed from 1 August 1999 to 31 July 2000 on a contract basis. The office is fast approaching the level of functionality, which is expected of a professional association. The data contained in the database is now up-to-date and reliable. For this thanks are due to Mrs van Dyk.
     
     

  2. Communication


    3. The Representative Council decided at an early stage that the posts of PRO and Editor of the newsletter should be separated. Robert Pearce was appointed as Editor-in-Chief, Alida Nel as Editor, and Brian Brink as Advertising Editor. Four issues per year will be published, and only paid-up members will receive the newsletter. After a few delays and other logistical problems, the 1st issue of the newsletter has just been launched. 

    A competition was held for a name for the newsletter and the name decided upon was LIASA in touch. Some branches have continued with their own local newsletters. An information sheet was distributed in January 1999 and a special issue of The LIASA Letter was published in June 1999. 

    In addition to the newsletter, we are pleased to announce that a LIASA web-site is being generously sponsored, developed, and hosted by NISC South Africa in Grahamstown. A coordinator, who can supply NISC with information from the branches, interest groups, etc. will be appointed by the Representative Council. The address of the web site is: http://www.liasa.org.za
     
     

  3. Branches

     

    It was reported at the last AGM that 7 out of the 9 provinces had established branches. These were Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, and Northern Province. A motion was accepted at the AGM that the Gauteng Branch could sub-divide because of its size and other factors. The resolution was adopted by the branch and led to the formation of the Gauteng South and a Gauteng North branches from 1 April 1999. 

A Mpumalanga Branch was formally launched on 26 August 1999 in Secunda. This was a major achievement and a historic event for this province where there had never been professional involvement before. A meeting to establish a branch in the North West Province took place on 31 August 1999 at Potchefstroom University. An interim Branch Committee was elected at this meeting to be mainly responsible for the establishment of branch structures and to arrange an election for next year. The branch appointed Ms N B Nomnga, as a Patron for the branch. Mrs Nomnga is Acting Director of the North West Provincial Library Services.

 

Five of the branches have finalised and submitted their constitutions to the Representative Council for approval. A wide range of activities took place in all the branches, with many participating and hosting the Library Advocacy workshops conducted by Mary Somerville, former President of the American Library Association. 

Some of these activities included:  
  • workshops on Managing Change, conducted by Maurice Line
  • library advocacy training
  • pre-election strategies, lobbying of politicians
  • participation in Advisory Committees of Library and Information Studies at Technikons and evaluation of Technikon Libraries
  • presenting LIASA certificates during Readathon Week at Public Libraries
  • meetings with interest groups
  • branch meetings on professional topics, such as the proposed National Council for Library and Information Services, South African National Qualifications Framework, etc.
  • branch annual meetings 
  1. Interest Groups


    2. A meeting with Interest Group conveners was organised by the Executive Committee in May 1999, where LIASA explained its position and Interest Groups were asked to raise their concerns. The meeting was attended by SLIS, SASIG, OSALL, MEDLIG, ILL and School Libraries. As a result of this meeting, it was recommended that the Rules be changed to be more accommodating towards interest groups. 

    There was a general consensus that LIASA would not like to set up parallel interest groups and that LIASA should make it possible for existing groups to become LIASA groups. In terms of LIASA’s Rules the membership of an interest group should be restricted to members of LIASA. However, to cater for the cases where pre-existing interest groups are brought on board, the Representative Council agreed that for a period of three years starting with the formal admission of the interest group by LIASA’s business meeting, all LIASA interest groups may have members who are not LIASA members. After three years this concession will be withdrawn, and from then onwards all interest group members must be LIASA members. A detailed copy of the guidelines on how to form an interest group within LIASA is available in the 1st issue of the Newsletter and on the LIASA web site. However, this proposal will be subject to adoption at this AGM. 
     
     

  2. Committees


    3. In terms of LIASA’s Constitution the following committees were established. 

    Membership Committee GH Haffajee Chairperson 

    Publications Committee Lulama Makhubela Chairperson 

    Education & Training Committee Emelang Leteane Convenor 

    Committee on Freedom of Expression Andries Kekana Convenor 

    and Access to Information 

    Constitution & Rules Committee Laila Vahed Chairperson

    Finance Committee    Tommy Matthee Chairperson

    Conference Programme Committee Laila Vahed Convenor 

    Some committees had meetings and were active during the period under review, but others were not. It will be important for all LIASA’s committees to work actively in their areas, to facilitate the work of the Representative Council effectively. 
       

  3. Relations with other library associations
  • Special Library Association: Global 2000. LIASA will act as co-sponsor at no cost.
  • IFLA - Peter Lor represented LIASA at the IFLA conference in Bangkok, Thailand in August 1999.
  • SCECSAL - 2000 Conference will be held in Namibia in 2000.
  • COMLA (Commonwealth Library Association) - in the process of making an application for membership to COMLA, after a reasonable offer to join at a special payment rate. LIASA’s membership will be on the basis that for the first year, it will pay for R500, the second year R750, the third R1000 and the full amount in the fourth year.
  1. Strategies for a LIS Renaissance in South Africa 

A report on LIS strategies was compiled by Carol Mafa based on discussions held at the 1998 conference on the LIS situation in the country. The report was revised by Peter Lor in January 1999 and then sent to branches to use in their different strategies. One of the strategies that the Representative Council decided to embark on was the lobbying of political parties before the ‘99 General Election. It was called Pre-Election Strategies and a plan of action was devised by a small steering committee, consisting of the President, Secretary, PRO and Peter Lor.

A statement on LIS policy which LIASA wanted the elected government to adopt, was sent to all political parties taking part in the election on a national level, with a covering letter from LIASA’s President. Branches were asked to do the same on a provincial level. They were further asked to organise a meeting in each province, and to invite representatives of political parties to the meeting asking them to respond to our policy issues and to issue press releases on these. 

The Western Cape Branch held a meeting in Bellville in March, which was also attended by members of the Representative Council. The meeting highlighted a general lack of understanding of the role of libraries in society by the political party representatives present who admitted to not having a policy for libraries.

 

Statement on LIS policy issues: 

  • Ensure that, by the year 2004, every community and school in South Africa has access to a well-stocked library or information resource centre.
  • Ensure that, by the year 2004, all community and school libraries have access to information through appropriate utilisation of technology, including links to the Internet.
  • Zero-rating on books, magazines and other information media of educational value, for purposes of VAT.
  • Ensure that the library community and, specifically LIASA as its representative body, is fully consulted by the government in all discussions and initiatives relating to the provision of information, including the national virtual library, multipurpose community centres, etc.
  • Put in place without further delay the proposed National Advisory Council on Libraries and Information Services.

     

    A report on the Library Advocacy Programme will be tabled separately.     

  1. Representation
LIASA participated in various library and information related activities and committees. These included:    
  • South African Library and Information Trust (John Tsebe and Ellen Tise)
  • SAUVCA Copyright Task Group (Marietjie Marais and Nico Ferreira)
  • Multi-purpose Community resource and information centre conference (Gugu Maseko)
  • PLCC Working Group (Ellen Tise)
  • President served on a Review Panel on the future of the Centre for the Book 
  • President attended a Breakfast for professional associations hosted by the Premier of Gauteng
  • Discussions held with DACST regarding cooperation and projects
  • Library Fellows Conference, May 1999, Cape Technikon. Ellen Tise presented a paper on LIS strategies for SA in the new millennium
  • Workshop on the Provision of Library services under the new Constitution (Tommy Matthee)
  • Conference on Study Facilities in Community Libraries attended by Ellen Tise
  • President served on a Selection Panel for the Board of the National Library of South Africa.
  • Zimbabwe International Book Fair - a number of LIASA members were able to attend the Book Fair in Harare through sponsorship of the South African agent.
  • SchoolNet SA (Qondi Molatana)
  • Participation in the evaluation of Technikon Libraries by SERTEC   
  1. Finance
One of the first tasks undertaken by the Finance Committee was the development of a financial policy, which was adopted by the Representative Council. In terms of the Constitution of LIASA, the Representative Council is fully responsible and accountable for the finances of the Association. The same control mechanisms applicable to the Representative Council are applicable to Branches, Committees and Interest Groups. The financial report and auditor’s report will be tabled separately.  
  1. LIASA Logo and Colours


    2. After noting that the logo being used by LIASA belonged to ULIS, and on request by some branches, the Representative Council decided to investigate the design of a new logo, colours, slogans and possibly posters, to create a corporate image for LIASA.

    Ideas were requested from members via their representatives on the Council. Two samples were approved by the Council, which will be presented to the AGM for final choice and approval.
     
     

  2. Future conferences


    3. If approved by the AGM, these will be as follows:- 

    2000 conference will be held in Durban, hosted by KwaZulu-Natal Branch

    2001 conference in Johannesburg, hosted by Gauteng South Branch
     
     

  3. Thanks
Sincere thanks and appreciation are extended to everyone who supported and contributed in so many ways to LIASA’s activities during the past year. 
  • Representative Council members
  • Branch Committee members
  • The employers of Council and Committee members
  • Donors and sponsors (NISC South Africa, SABINET Online, USIA/ALA)
  • Other individuals who assisted
  • LIASA members for their commitment and belief in LIASA

Ellen Tise
President
20 September 1999
 


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