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Unisa assists school in establishing a library
The Unisa SDG team
In celebration of Mandela Day, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) team from Unisa brought hope and inspiration to Northridge Primary School in Eersterust, Tshwane, by helping establish a school library aimed at fostering a culture of reading among learners. The initiative was a collaborative effort between Unisa’s Library and Information Services (LIS) and the Department of Information Science.
Staff members volunteered their time and expertise to contribute meaningfully to this year’s Mandela Day theme of making a difference in one’s community.
The teachers were incredibly welcoming, and the environment was pleasant, full of life and positively energising. One of the teachers welcomed the team at the reception area and assisted them in getting all the cleaning supplies. The team began by transforming the space by sweeping the floors, wiping down the shelves and removing excess dust from the books.
The Unisa SDG team at work
The media room was not in a good state, and the team had to start by transforming the space. This was witnessed by learners who were excited to see professionals doing housekeeping work on putting their library together, and they surely cannot wait to start accessing and using the information resources.
Taking inspiration from their interaction with the learners, the SDG team decided that they would resuscitate what was used as the media room to be repurposed as a school library. The team partnered with Northridge Primary School to establish a library for the learners, aiming to inspire a reading culture within the school. This project is a result of a 2024 SDG initiative on Read Aloud Day, when they visited the Northridge Primary School.
The team consisted of Unisa staff who brought different expertise to make the project a success. Prof Samuel Mojapelo of the Department of Information Science supported the project by bringing his expertise in languages. He helped with sorting out the Afrikaans books by interpreting the titles, with the assistance of Sylro Pearce and Dr Janice de Wee from Unisa LIS.
The work done in the library consisted of sorting all the books according to subject classification, which was mentally and physically quite tiring. Teamwork was the order of the day. All the sorted books were then put back on the clean shelves and temporarily classified. Kgaogelo Moeka, Tryphina Mufamadi and Sylro Pearce applied their shelving experience to make the shelves compatible.
This project was only the first phase, which means the team will return to the school to complete the final touches, such as branding and labelling of the library, to educate teachers and learners on how to use and care for their library, and to finalise the book classification on the shelves.
"Engaged scholarship should be at the centre of what we do as information specialists and academics, as it speaks to our mandate of providing access to information," said Dr Modiehi Rammutloa of the Department of Information Science. "There is a lot that needs to be done at the school once the library is up and running. It is therefore important that we maintain the library through frequent visits and capacity development. It was a humbling and yet refreshing experience to be part of the cohort that visited the Northridge Park Primary School on this project."
* By Kgaogelo Sarah Moeka, Marketing Administrator, Department of Library and Information Services
Publish date: 2025-10-14 00:00:00.0
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