Spotted on MediaUpdate.    The Rhodes University Cory Library will be celebrating its vast accumulation of genealogical records and illustrations concerning all aspects of Eastern Cape Heritage (including official documents and private papers, politics and literature, isiXhosa and English, churches and schools, colonialism and apartheid, protest and resistance, maps, photographs and genealogies) through the commemoration of a historic conversation between Sir George Cory, the founder of the Library, and Regent King Manxiwa, the ruler of the amaXhosa.

The commemoration, on 31 January, will be graced by the presence of the Manxiwa family and of Mrs Joan Cory Teeton, the grand-daughter of Sir George, as well as Zolani Mkiva, imbongi Yesizwe. Advocate Sonwabile Mancotywa, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Heritage Council, will deliver the keynote address.

South Africa is officially handing over a new building to house the Mali Manuscripts to the Malian government.  

The ceremony will take place in Timbuktu, where the building will be handed over to the Malian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Madam Siby Ginette Bellegarde.

The building, located in the ancient city of Timbuktu, was constructed following a visit by former President Thabo Mbeki in 2001, to properly house the manuscripts collected across the city and surrounding regions with the effort to preserve Africa's heritage and intellectual property said the presidency in a statement.

Here's the rest of the story from AllAfrica.com. 

Libraries and archive services will get the biggest chunk of the Cultural Affairs and Sport Department's budget, but not a single library is to be built in the province during the financial year (Cape Argus, 20th June - online story only available to subscribers).  Update:  Story on IOL.

Read the full budget speech of the Western Cape Minister for Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation, Sakkie Jenner, here. 

"The total budget of R296 Million 445 thousand in real terms, when taking CPIX into account, represents a minor increase over last years budget.   

Hierdie begroting sal egter as volg toegeken word:
• R38 miljoen 010 duisend na Administrasie  [Administration]

• R58 miljoen 267 duisend na Kultuursake  [Cultural Affairs]

• R115 miljoen 290 duisend na Biblioteek- en Argiefdienste  [Libraries and Archives]

• R84 miljoen 878 duisend na Sport en Ontspanning. [Sport and Recreation]

I do however have to indicate that R79 million 213 thousand of the total amount is conditional grant funding received from national government for the provision of library services and mass participation in the fields of sport and recreation."

  and further on ... 

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport is at the centre of information provision through its library and archives services. An enormous contribution was made in the last financial year through the provision of library material where more than 372 thousand items were processed and added for the 335 library centres in the Western Cape.

The Department’s contribution to the educational needs of learners to assist them with information resources, resulted in purchasing of library material to the value of R37 million, translating to 260 thousand library materials during the last financial year. The emphasis on the purchasing of appropriate reference material will continue this year with the purchasing of copies of a new Afrikaans children’s encyclopaedia, for which there is a dire need in the Western Cape.

The Library Service contributes toward the promotion of indigenous languages. n 2008/09, library services procured 13 thousand 770 copies of indigenous language material and during the current financial year 17 000 copies of 10 indigenous language material will be purchased and the budget will be increased to R634 thousand.

The extension of library facilities in the Western Cape remains a challenge due to inadequate funding. The Department’s key focus is the provision of library facilities in rural areas.

Die afgelope jaar is ‘n bedrag van R2 miljoen oorgedra aan die Drakenstein Munisipaliteit vir die bou van ‘n biblioteek vir die Gouda gemeenskap. Hierdie projek sal binnekort tot voordeel van die Gouda gemeenskap voltooi word. Nogtans moet ons daarop wys dat, gegewe die begrotingsbeperkings, die Departement nie in die MTUR –periode (Mediumtermyn Uitgawe Raamwerk) befondsing beskikbaar het om munisipaliteite te ondersteun in die bou van nuwe biblioteke of die opgradeer van bestaande biblioteekfasiliteite nie.  (For those who don't read Afrikaans, a rough translation says that R2 million was handed over to the Drakenstein Municipality for the building of a library in Gouda.  This project will be completed shortly.  He then says, that given budgetary constraints, the Department does not have funds to support municipalities in the building or upgrading of library facilities).

The flagship project of the Department for the past five years has been the Wheelie Wagon service. Through this project, library services are extended to remote rural areas. To date, 27 communities have benefited from this service and several more will benefit this year.

The Department will receive R40 million 976 thousand as a conditional grant from the national Department of Arts and Culture for the enhancement of library services in the Western Cape Province. About 74% of the grant funding will be transferred to municipalities to continue with the employment of additional staff at libraries.

The Department’s emphasis towards rural development continues with our rural library connectivity project which is making strong progress. Twenty sites at public libraries are currently being rolled out.

In her State of the Province Address, the honourable Premier, stated that we need to ensure “the extension of rural library services (wheelie wagons), and the improvement of library IT systems, especially increased internet access to facilitate IT skills among young people.”

In order to meet this challenge my department will be rolling out ICT projects in 14 rural areas. Each site will provide for access to a computerized library system as well as public internet access.

The Library of Parliament in Cape Town is planning on digitizing every debate or speech recorded in its halls since 1857 -  but this is dependent on securing funding, according to a story in TheTimes.     The costs of the conversion has not yet been calculated but could run into "millions" for infrastructure, hardware and software, according to  Albert Ntunja, the Head of the Library.  

 The library aims to follow examples from Britain, the US and Scandinavian countries where parliamentary archives can be accessed on websites. 

Story spotted in today's The Times.

A library dedicated to Nelson Mandela is to be set up in the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha.  The museum is housed in the former Transkei's parliament building with three rooms allocated to the library.    Foreign embasses and agencies have been approached to offer material for the collections, and South Africans asked to donate anything with a bearing on Madiba's life. 

The Rivonia Trial Papers were listed on the UNESCO Memory of World Archives earlier this week, making it the fourth South African collection to be so listed.  

 As Dr Z Pallo Jordan said on the occasion of the listing on Thursday 19th February:-

"A trial of this magnitude generated a lot of documentation in the form of photographs, files, written reports, leaflets, pamphlets, notebooks, dictabelts, sound recordings etc. The mandate of the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa is to collect, preserve and make accessible public and non-public records under its custody. Because of the interest created, at home and abroad, during and after this trial, it has not been possible to have a complete set of the Rivonia Trial papers here at the National Archives.

The records are scattered all over our country. Some are universities; others are in libraries and collections in other parts of the world. During the recent years the National Archives embarked on a drive to locate all these records, with a view to repatriating them to South Africa, or at the very least, obtaining copies of them to be deposited at the National Archives. According to the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act No 43 of 1996 (as amended), the Rivonia Trial papers are public records, and therefore have to be preserved at the National Archives of South Africa."

The process of tracing and repatriation has been slow and arduous. During 2000, for example, Mr. Mandela handed the microfilm copies of these papers to my predecessor, the then Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST), Dr Ben Ngubane, for onward transmission to the National Archives of South Africa for preservation. We thank you, Madiba, for that public spirited gesture. On 28th November 2008, the Oppenheimer Family, who had acquired a sizeable collection of the papers from the leader of the prosecution team, Percy Yutar, handed that collection to the National Archives of South Africa. Let me once again thank the Oppenheimer family for that gesture. All these original documents are now preserved at the National Archives of South Africa where they rightly belong."

This is the fourth South African collection listed on the UNESCO Memory of World Archives.  The other three are the DOXA Collection,  the Bleek Collection and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Collection.