Read up on all the libraries in the city
Today, 21 March, marks the last day of Library Week, which was commemorated from 11 March
POLOKWANE – In commemoration of Library Week, here is some insight into libraries in the city.
Polokwane Municipal libraries have grown over the past 20 years from one central library with two branch libraries to seven libraries.
The city library was founded as a subscription library on 13 May, 1904 and was situated in a single rented room in Market Street. In 1990, the library moved into the current building, known as the Library Gardens, on the corner of Jorissen and Schoeman Streets.
• Nirvana Library was the first branch library, which was opened in 1980. It consisted of the library, a study area, and an activity room which can be rented for functions, meetings and seminars.
• In 1985, the Westenburg library was opened with an activity room used for meetings, seminars, holiday programs and study purposes.
• The Seshego library was opened in February 1998 in the renovated community hall and consists of the main study area, a junior section and a children’s section.
• The Moletjie library was opened in April 2005,with a separate study area, while the Mankweng library was built during 2007 and opened to the public in 2009 with a separate study section.
• In the Molepo area, the department of sport, arts and culture built a library and it is run as a partnership between the department and the municipality. The library was official opened in February 2014.
Services offered
According to the Polokwane Municipality, libraries are open to everyone from tertiary students, secondary learners doing research for school projects, small children and parents, recreational readers to the elderly.
All libraries offer books which can be borrowed, reference books for use in the libraries, a junior reference section, an information section where especially learners can find information on most topics, large print books for the sight impaired persons, and a huge collection of popular non-fiction books.
There are also books for toddlers and these books are arranged in a user friendly manner which makes it easy for a child or parent to find. All libraries have free internet access for the public, but each user is time restricted because of the high demand.
Free wi-fi is also available in some libraries and photocopies can be made.
