The City of Cape Town is participating in two major literary events this month: National Book Week and the Open Book Cape Town Festival.
Many of the City’s 100 libraries will be hosting events and displays ahead of and during these two annual celebrations of reading and literature.
National Book Week: 2 – 7 September 2013
National Book Week seeks to promote and embrace the value of reading. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Arts and Culture and the South African Book Development Council and features a number of events, reading promotion projects, and corporate social investment programmes designed to instill a love of books and reading.
“During National Book Week we want to take the opportunity to highlight the value of reading. Through reading, we have the opportunity both to learn something new and escape the pressures of the world around us; to travel through time and space through our imaginations. Our City libraries offer a huge range of reading material to local communities, as well as access to online resources. I would like to encourage people to become involved in the activities on offer this week,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Special Projects, Alderman Belinda Walker.
Open Book Cape Town Festival: 7 – 11 September 2013
This literary festival showcases the best of South African writing and has grown from humble beginnings in 2011 to feature over 100 authors and more than 100 events. It is an initiative of The Book Lounge and involves the East City precinct’s ‘The Fringe’ venues, including the Central Library, the Fugard Theatre and The Book Lounge – where most of the events take place. Members of the public who attend Open Book events are encouraged to bring along books to donate to the festival’s library project, which is organised in partnership with Equal Education. This year an entire stocked library, including computers and the services of a librarian, will be donated to Westridge High School in Mitchells Plain.
The City partnered with Open Book in the build-up to the festival last week to host an event to that sought to draw attention to the festival and the importance of books and reading. A large crowd gathered to witness a book domino Guinness World Record attempt at the Cape Town Central Library. Event organisers managed to knock down 2 528 painstakingly-placed books in order to break the current record of 2 131 books which is held by the Seattle Public Library in the United States. The team behind the successful book domino chain devoted many hours to practising and spent five hours setting up the books on the library floor. The first attempt had to be halted when, about halfway through the domino chain, one book failed to knock over the next one. The second attempt however, started by poet Toni Stuart, proved successful. The City is now awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records that its book domino chain has officially broken the world record (this could take up to two months).
“This record-setting book domino chain was a source of great fun for the staff, friends and members of the Central Library – especially as libraries are often seen as serious places. We are working hard to break the mould and develop libraries as welcoming spaces where communities can come together to exchange ideas and experiences. The Central Library is certainly a pioneer in this regard,” said Alderman Walker.
How to join in
Cape Town boasts 100 libraries as well as three satellite libraries and a mobile library service. Over 11,4 million people visited the City’s libraries during 2012 and took out 12,3 million of the 4,4 billion items available. Nearly 100 000 new members joined the City’s libraries during this time and 856 420 people attended 20 528 library programmes during 2012 – which included reading, literacy, gender, and HIV/Aids programmes as well as storytelling sessions and DVD screenings.
The City’s Library Services also have comprehensive online resources including World Book Online and Britannica Online at all libraries. There are 668 computers available for the public to use as part of the SmartCape initiative, which provides access to the internet and word processing functions free of charge. Wireless access is also available at the Central, Harare, Fish Hoek and Bellville libraries.
The following main events will take place at City libraries during National Book Week:
Library
Activity
Goodwood Library
National Book Week display
Mowbray Library
National Book Week display
Lansdowne Library
Lansdowne Library will be inviting a local crèche to attend a special storytelling session. The children will come dressed as a character from their favourite story.
Brackenfell Library
Brackenfell Library will celebrate SA National Book Week with:
- Displays in the different sections of the library;
- Story hour for pre-schoolers at 10:30 on Wednesday 4 September;
- A book discussion for and by primary school children at 15:00 on Wednesday 4 September.
The Adult Reading Circle will celebrate the following week at 10:00 on Tuesday 10 September.
Bellville Library
On the Friday 13 September, Carla van der Spuy will talk about her book Mens of monster:die psige van ‘n misdadiger. The library will also collect books in that week that will be donated to the prisoners discussed in the book.
Scottsdene Library
9 September: Name that Book game
10 September: Music Books activity
11 September: Storytelling
12 September: Story-writing
13 September: DVD screening
Mamre Library
3 September – Elderly outreach event, food garden demonstration, and refreshments.
4 September – Story time at Moravion Nursery school and church soup kitchen outreach.
For more information, please visit the City’s Library and Information Services website:http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/
Library/Pages/default.aspx
For more information on the Open Book Cape Town Festival, please visit: http://www.openbookfestival.
co.za/