Vryheid Library – Your window to the world

Elaine Rodway

ACCLAIMED writer and producer, the late Sidney Sheldon, once wrote, “Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life.”

Nestled beneath a lush green covering of ivy over facebrick, at the corner of High and Market Streets, lies Vryheid’s very own ‘window to the world,’ the Vryheid Library.

In the well-known words of Dr Seuss, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” With these words in mind, Vryheid Library is certainly a place worth going. Shelves of books for young and old fill the library, neatly lined up, just waiting for you, the avid reader to explore.

American author, Libba Bray, said it best, “The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of all human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance.”

As is the case with most things in life, survival is based on the ability to adapt and Vryheid Library has done just that by rolling with the times, as it were, and offering much more than just books to a community with a hunger for knowledge.

By providing the community with a place to study, as well as introducing magazines, games, DVDs, a place to relax, a computer section, internet access and, more recently, computer classes, the library is a hub of knowledge for students as well as bookworms.

“Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities,” says Dr R David Lankes, who served as a professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

To apply for a library card, all you need is your ID document, proof of residence and R5-00. Children can apply for a library card using their birth certificate, parent’s ID and proof of residence.

Librarian, Vuyisile Mtshali, encourages the community to join Vryheid Library for a wealth of knowledge and information under one roof.

“Be safe and responsible this festive season,” she urges. “Enjoy the holidays but also focus on the coming year. Make sure your children’s preparations for the 2017 school year have been made. And, above all, don’t forget to take your books on holiday with you…”

“Everything you need for a better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.” – Henri Frédéric Amiel (September 27, 1821 – May 11, 1881), a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic.