Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s Valhalla Park Library celebrates a milestone this month when it turns 20.
The City Libraries Annual Reading Competition was started by the Valhalla Park Public Library in 2003, and its senior librarian was recognised as the best in the country.
This project is now run city-wide and includes 58 libraries, 258 schools and about 1000 pupils. A Valhalla Library book club was started in 2012 and now has a membership of 38 children. In 2012, the library established a teen zone, with programmes presented by library staff and community organisations.
The library also boasts a chess club and a variety of games enjoyed by young and old on a daily basis.
The library and staff have won several awards for their hard work. This includes the ATKV Woordveertjie Prize in 2013 for the successful promotion of reading and the provincial award for best medium-sized public library 2013/2014.
Team members have also been nominated for the City’s staff member of the year award.
Senior librarian Theresa Denton has several awards under her belt, including being named national librarian of the year in 2012 and receiving a ministerial award at the Cultural Affairs Awards in 2013. She has been nominated for the manager of the year award as part of the City’s annual Library and Information Services Awards.
“I enjoy adding value to the lives of those who’ve accepted poverty as a norm, unemployment as a way of living, and gangsterism as a choice of career. Ignorance is the enemy of knowledge and poverty limits the access children have to educational opportunities. I believe that libraries have a huge role to play in people-centred and sustainable development.
“People should realise that they are instrumental in changing their own circumstances. We used to say ‘liberation before education’. Today I would say ‘liberation through education’,” said Denton.