The Malan years, 1962–1967
8.5. Accommodation
was Miss S. Speedy, who had been appointed prior to Campbell’s death884 but was retained at the Howard College Library until the end of October 1965 in deference to Campbell’s wishes. Campbell had written to Malherbe a few months before her death that she thought:
Miss Speedy sounds splendid for the library, but the congestion here – books and exhibits overflowing for lack of space – would make working here impossible for her. I am on the last lap of my long journey, so perhaps you might retain Miss Speedy in some other capacity until she can take over here.885
During the course of 1966 staff were kept extremely busy “with the arrangement of the collection in some order or another so that items could be readily found”886 Although Campbell had employed assistants to help her, none of them were trained librarians and neither was she. The methods she followed to organise her collection were idiosyncratic.
She had devised her own classification scheme which meant that “the success of her library rested on her knowledge of where the material was housed.”887 Her collection was arranged by section, each section being placed in a different room so that, for
example, material on “Bantu history” would be stored in the “Ironing Room.”888 The first task to be undertaken was the sorting of the books “according to a standard classification scheme, namely a simplified form of the Dewey Decimal classification scheme, and to note the classification number inside the books and on the main card of Campbell’s handwritten library cards.”889 However, it proved impossible to re-catalogue the entire collection as speedily as was desired, and the task was expected to take several years.
Sadly, the Campbell collections had a chequered subsequent history.
considerable discussion and negotiation, the site eventually chosen for the new building was “at the top of the plane [tree] avenue,”891 an ideal place “chosen for easy access by staff and students and for its central position”892 and, since there were no other buildings in close proximity, “the possibilities of expansion both behind the building and
lengthways”893 were considered to be almost unlimited. In the Pietermaritzburg Library Bulletin of March 1964, Brown noted that:
Although the destruction of the top of the plane tree avenue will be a sadness to many, we have been told that the days of the planes were numbered as they were in the grip of a fatal disease.894
Brown worked closely with the architect, J.C. Simpson of the Durban firm of Geoffrey le Sueur & Partners, “to ensure that the … Library building ... was practical and flexible.”895 Built at a cost of R225,000, it was “modular”896 in design, a concept which was gradually gaining in popularity amongst library planners and architects worldwide. Unlike the monumental, fixed-function building design which had dominated library architecture for many years and which could not be easily adapted to the demands of the modern library, the modular design was intended to be infinitely flexible. A pioneer modular library building was that of the University of Iowa, opened in 1951.897 University of Iowa Library Director Ralph E. Ellsworth described the difference between the two types of building as follows:
Prior to World War II all academic libraries were planned on a fixed function basis. After World War II the American colleges and universities faced new conditions, specifically the need for extensive expansion, for direct use of the bookstacks, and for new kinds of study facilities. To meet these conditions a new type of library structure – the so-called modular building – came into general use.898
The first South African university library to be designed on a modular basis was the Ferdinand Postma Library at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher
891 University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, Librarian’s report, no. 5, 15th November 1962, p. 2.
892 The opening of the new library, Pietermaritzburg, 1966, unpublished brochure.
893 Ibid.
894 The pleasure of believing what we see, [Library] bulletin, [Pietermaritzburg], no. 1, March 1964, p. 1.
895 Ron Brown (1914-2002), Library bulletin, [Pietermaritzburg], no. 349, Feb. 2003, p. 1.
896 The opening of the new library, Pietermaritzburg, 15th October 1966, unpublished.
897 E.R. Johnson, Ralph E. Ellsworth, in: Leaders in American librarianship, 1925-1975, edited by W.A. Wiegand, Pittsburg, Pa.: Beta Phi Mu, 1983, p. 97.
898 R.E. Ellsworth, Academic library buildings, Boulder, Colo.: Colorado Associated University Press, 1973, p. 7.
Education.899 Pietermaritzburg’s new library building, completed in 1965, was a classic example of the modular design. An article in South African libraries, probably written by Brown, described the design thus:
Structurally the building is a concrete frame with pillars 22 [feet] apart, and all walls are functional and removable except for one service “module” in the rear which incorporates a staircase, lift shaft and lavatories. This “modular” system gives the building great flexibility, so that it can be adapted to any particular use required.900
The plan of the ground floor of the building, shown below, illustrates clearly the modular construction. Library collections were moved to the new building during the long
vacation at the end of 1964. The Library “opened for service in January 1965”901 although, for various unavoidable reasons, the official opening had to be delayed until 15th October 1966. The new library building could accommodate 270,000 volumes, which was more than double the 100,000 volumes in stock at the time, and could seat 500 users. It was to serve its purpose for over 25 years, unaltered apart from the enclosure of the basement space, until extensions were built in 1990.
899 P. Aucamp, Universiteits- en kollegebiblioteke in Suid-Afrika, 1828 – 1989 [sic], South African Library Association Conference (Johannesburg : 1978), Papers presented at the conference, Johannesburg, 1978, Potchefstroom: SALA, 1978, p. 178.
900 University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzburg, South African libraries, vol. 35, no. 2, October 1967, p. 66.
901 Ibid.
Figure 8.1. Ground floor plan of the new Main Library building in Pietermaritzburg
rom
rtag uilding
had been extended in 1959, but by 1962 there were indications that more space would shortly be required. It is recorded in the minutes of the first Durban Library Committee meeting of 1963 that
... all alterations had now been completed, including an access door to the rooms now occupied by Professor Schuddeboom. It was hoped that these rooms would, in due course, become available for Library use.903
At the same meeting it was noted that a new library building for Howard College was a distinct possibility and that a site had already been chosen. The minutes state that “...
whilst the site for a new building must be retained, arguments for the adaptation and use
902
In Durban, however, both the Howard College and Medical libraries were suffering f a critical sho e of space. The library accommodation in the Memorial Tower B
902 The opening of the new library, Pietermaritzburg, 15th October 1966.
903 University of Natal, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of the meeting held on 12th March 1963, p. 1.