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Erica van der Westhuizen
We celebrate the past 20 years of the library’s existence, the years spent in the Sir Arnold Theiler building,
in this issue of Infomania.
The library actually dates back to 1974 when it opened its doors in the building which today is part of the Department of
Production Animal Studies, formerly the Ethology section. From 1920 when the Faculty of Veterinary Science was started
under Sir Arnold as first dean, till 1973, students and staff used the library of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute.
A room was put aside in the Onderstepoort Hostel to be used as a library and books and journals in the veterinary
medicine/clinical field were purchased by the Merensky Library for their use.
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Johannes at the journal collection in the old library.
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The library building was expanded towards the end of 1981 when an upper level was added to house the journal collection.
The books were shelved on the lower level. There were no computers.
Staff comprised the librarian, the library assistant and Johannes Moropotli whose duties were mainly to act as messenger.
By 1986 the library was very crammed as journal and book holdings increased and the need to provide computer facilities grew.
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The Big move !!!
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The Big move !!!
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We were delighted to be able to move into the new Sir Arnold Theiler building in April 1987. Although we were warned
that there was only room for 10 years’ growth, that seemed an awfully long time ahead!
Johannes and I will never forget the Move! We had the help (a few hours per day) of 2 young men and the Faculty’s
lorries, normally used to transport feed to the production animals. Boxes of books and journals, neatly numbered,
were transported from the old library to the new. It took us 3 months thereafter to have them arranged correctly on
the shelves!
We were allowed 3 days, no more, to be closed to clients, thereafter we had to be open, issuing books from
a makeshift counter, while the huge and clumsy lending desk was being assembled. We were finally able to
replace this one with a more streamlined and functional desk earlier this year.
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The amalgamation of the country’s 2 veterinary faculties in 1999 led to an increase in the library’s information sources
collection as we were able to incorporate books and journals that the MEDUNSA library no longer needed.
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Selecting information sources from MEDUNSA's shelves
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The past 20 years have not only seen a growth in veterinary information sources but our staff component expanded too.
A library planned for 4 staff had to accommodate eventually 8. These included 2 cataloguers when it was decided to
decentralize certain tasks such as book and journal orders, cataloguing and classification. We welcomed these members
as they could provide an on site service, sharing their expertise with us and hearing directly from clients about their
information needs.
This has helped us to develop and adapt more easily in the electronic information environment. Today we find we are
able to face challenges of providing more effective services to our clients and develop products for their specific
needs, such as enhancing the use of their unique slide collections through metadata, or helping lecturers with web-based
course material, of supporting their research output by means of reference collection management tools.
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The Library committee is enjoying an end-of-the-year function
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The Library Committee came into being in March 1997. It has been a great help with communication between the library
and the departments of the Faculty as information about services and products is shared and faculty needs are communicated.
Our electronic library newsletter, Infomania, hit faculty computer screens in April 1998, another effective
communication channel for us and our clients.
(http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/infomania/infomani.htm)
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Our project Veterinary Books for Africa enlisted the help of the student community since 1993 when we started it.
In that year 2 students took books and journals by bakkie to the veterinary school libraries in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
In the past decade it has grown to become a full component of the Students’ Outreach Programme, with a trip undertaken
every 2 years by a group of 6 – 8 students. They raise the funds and are responsible for all the logistics. In this way
we are helping to improve the information collections of other veterinary libraries in Africa.
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We have been very fortunate in having opportunities not only to attend and present at international veterinary
librarian conferences, but also to host them. In 1995 we organized the 1st Conference of African Animal Health
Information Specialists and in 2005 we organized and hosted the 5th International Conference of Animal Health
Information Specialists (5ICAHIS). We are active members of the veterinary librarian community worldwide,
also through participation in the listserv, Vetlib-L.
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Delegates of the 1st Conference of African Animal Health Information Specialists
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Special mention must be made of two unique murals created for the library by talented veterinary students.
To record the 75th anniversary of the founding of the faculty, James Lockyear decorated the pillar at the entrance
of the library with a scene of jumping springbuck, in 1995.
A few years later the wall at the entrance was painted by Romain Pizzi with a cheetah and cubs. It is interesting
to note that the cheetah’s gaze is determinedly fixed on the springbuck!
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We have actively supported the creation of a virtual library environment where our clients and others can find
relevant information via their computers.
Our Virtual Veterinary Library, called The Library in your Office is a one-stop information centre that we
introduced in 1999. (http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/virtlib.htm)
Encouraging more lecturers to provide Open Access of their journal publications by placing them on
OpenUP (http://openup.ais.up.ac.za/), is another goal of ours,
thereby making UP research output accessible to the rest of the world.
Our growing digital “Collections” in UPSpace are further examples of our involvement and participation in
the electronic information environment. Sir Arnold Theiler is featured there, as well as the Theiler Memorial
Lectures, Pastures, and Christine Seegers Biomedical Illustrations where we have started with her Elephant sketches.
(https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/handle/2263/78)
Greater challenges lie ahead as we create the National Veterinary Repository, a joint endeavour with the
Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, preserving past information sources in digital format for the future.
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