The Perry Years, 1954 – 1961
7.5. Accommodation
Perry’s first Annual report provides a succinct overview of what the libraries were like in 1954. Of the Pietermaritzburg Library he said,
It would be hard to find any university library in South Africa which is so
intimately associated with the life and work of staff and students as this Library.
This happy situation springs from its central position, easy accessibility, liberal hours of opening and close contact between academic and library staff.683
However, the building itself, he felt, was “unsatisfactory and difficult to improve.”684 The structure itself required strengthening in 1957 by the addition of steel columns to allow for the addition of extra shelving on the upper floor.685 There was also the matter of the two rooms on the upper floor which were still occupied by the Departments of
Philosophy and Fine Arts. At a meeting of the Pietermaritzburg Library Committee held on 2nd December, 1954, the Librarian had been mandated to ask that these rooms be
“handed over to the Library”686 but seven years lapsed before the Library finally
managed to gain possession of this space. In 1960 a request was made to the University for a grant of £18,000 “as an initial grant in re-adapting and extending the present building.”687 Further grants were recommended “with the ultimate object of a separate university multi-storey library building of functional design similar to those erected at the Universities of Potchefstroom and the Orange Free State, at Rhodes University and at
681 University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzburg, Librarian’s 11th annual report, 1972, p. 4.
682 University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzburg, [Librarian’s] 37th annual report, 1999, p. 26.
683 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1954, p. 13.
684 Ibid.
685 University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 20th November 1957.
686 University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 2nd December 1954.
687 J.W. Perry, Request for a grant for improving and extending the present accommodation for the University Library at the Pietermaritzburg Centre, 21st April 1960, unpublished.
the University of South Africa.”688 The current library building was considered unsuitable because it could not be expanded. Perry, notes that “It was not erected exclusively for library use, and its foundations are not strong enough to take further storeys.”689 Discussions around the new building began at the Pietermaritzburg Library Committee in May 1960 although the retirement of Maple in April and the resignation of Perry in September 1961 stalled the planning process until the new Pietermaritzburg Librarian commenced his duties in 1962.
In contrast to the Pietermaritzburg Library, the Howard College Library was not “of easy access, although centrally placed.”690 There was insufficient space, the Library being
“shelved to capacity,”691 and the resultant lack of space for books posed a serious
problem. Perry was, however, impressed with the “three memorial rooms” in the tower which, he felt,
... when more fully fitted out, with glazed or latticed bookshelves, are well suited for the purpose of providing quiet study rooms for staff and students and also of housing closed collections.692
The lack of space in the Main Library grew ever more serious as more stock was added as a result of Perry’s initiatives in acquiring donations. In a letter to Perry from New York in 1956 the University Principal wrote:
I want to tell you that my next drive for more funds for building will be to
complete the wing of the Memorial Tower Building as soon as possible ... it would provide the Library with two whole floors right to the end of the extension. In addition we should put in a basement under the extension where stacks can go and provide also room for binding and storage and as the University expands in the more distant future, other floors can be taken over by the Library. Plans should be made accordingly in order to provide for proper rationalisation and control of the Library in the future.693
The extension was, however, only completed in 1959, by which time a number of books had been removed from the open shelves and boxed, only to have to be unpacked and re- arranged once the alterations were complete. The enlarged but rambling library was still far from satisfactory. As Perry stated, “the Library’s contents are now spread over seven
688 Perry, Request for a grant for improving …, 21st April 1960.
689 Ibid.
690 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1954, p. 13.
691 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1955, p. 1
692 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1954, p. 13.
693 E.G. Malherbe, Letter to J.W. Perry, 22nd March, 1956, unpublished.
floors and over a dozen rooms or areas ... the present arrangement is very wasteful of space and makes expansion within that space very awkward.”694
As far as the “Non-European” Library was concerned, the accommodation at Sastri College had for some time been unsatisfactory. Plans were put forward in 1954 to build an extension but there were problems with the Provincial authorities who dragged their heels about granting permission for further extensions on the site. As an interim measure, an extension to the Library was built in 1956, increasing both shelving and seating space, but within a year it was once again “stacked to capacity.”695 Palmer, who, at the age of 80 had finally retired as Organiser of the “Non-European” section in 1955, was succeeded by Mr I.K. Allan who “set to work with a will to improve the condition of the non-European students.”696 His efforts resulted in the relocation of the entire section from the hutments at Sastri College to Marian Building in Lancers Road during the course of 1958. Unfortunately, to quote Brookes, it was “too little” and “too late697 as without warning the “Non-European” Library was summarily closed in July 1960 and the stock moved to the Commerce Library in the City Building. The closure was, it seems, necessitated by the need for extra classroom space, as is apparent from the minutes of the Durban Library Committee meeting of 23rd August which note that the Committee
“Whilst appreciating the urgent need of the Library premises at Marian Building for class-room purposes ... noted with regret that no previous consultation had been held, either with the Librarian or with the Library Committee.”698 As has already been mentioned in a previous chapter,699 the knowledge that students who were registered before the Act came into force were to be allowed to complete their degrees at the
University of Natal provoked a rush of registrations in 1958 and 1959. Student numbers in this section reached an all time high of 896 in 1960 and it is therefore not surprising that classroom accommodation was at a premium. The closure of this Library
precipitated a recommendation to the Library Committee from the Faculty of Arts that
“Non-European students should be admitted to all university libraries without
694 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1960, p. 1-2.
695 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1957, p. 1.
696 Brookes, A history of the University of Natal, p. 75.
697 Ibid.
698 University of Natal, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 23rd August 1960.
699 See: Chapter 3, section 3.3.9.
restriction.”700 The recommendation was fully supported by the Committee and thus, although they lost their “own” library, these students at last were able to access the larger, better collections of the Howard College and City Building libraries.
It was fortunate that, during the July 1959 vacation, the Commerce Library had moved to larger premises on the fourth floor of the City Building. It was thus able to accommodate the extra stock but the lack of a lift in the building meant that the Library was less
accessible than it had been previously. Students were often unwilling to climb the four flights of stairs to use the Library. Perry laid the blame for the declining issue statistics of this Library on its decreased accessibility. He commented that, “a lift to this Library will have to be provided if this Library is to play its full part in the work of the down- town Faculties.”701 In 1954 the Medical Library moved from its temporary premises at Wentworth into new accommodation in the Medical School building in Umbilo Road, next door to the King Edward VIII Hospital, a hospital designated by the Government for
“non-Whites”702 only. The battle to acquire permission from the Durban City Council to build a Medical School on this site has been described at length by E.G. Malherbe in his autobiography.703 Suffice it to note here that there was considerable opposition from some of the councillors to the establishment of a Medical School for “non-Whites” in Umbilo Road, next to the hospital, in spite of the fact that, according to Malherbe, it was
“the logical site on which to build it.”704
Shelving, tables and chairs for the new Medical Library were purchased with a £2,000 donation from the Directors of Barclays Bank. Since medical books and journals had been accumulating at Wentworth since 1951,705 and donations of books and journals to
700 University of Natal, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 2nd November 1960.
701 University of Natal Library, Annual report, 1959, p. 1.
702The term “Non-European” was eventually replaced by the term “Non-White” to denote persons who were either of African, Indian or “Coloured” (mixed race) descent. Both terms have now fallen out of favour.
Thompson explains that , at the “heart” of the National Party government’s apartheid system was the idea that the population of South Africa comprised four racial groups; White, Coloured, Indian and African. - Thompson, A history of South Africa, p. 184. “Non-White” is the collective noun applied to persons who did not fit into the category “White.”
703 Malherbe, Never a dull moment, p. 297.
704 Ibid.
705A small Pre-Medical collection remained at Wentworth in the charge of the lecturers. The pre-medical year was an additional year of study undertaken by students to improve their English before they commenced with the formal pre-medical year. Subjects taught were those which required the writing of essays, such as English, History and Sociology. In July 1960 a “library helper” was appointed to manage the Wentworth collection. – S.I. Malan, A short outline of the history of the Medical Library, [1965], unpublished. The Wentworth Library was eventually closed, apparently in the late 1980s.
the Medical Library continued to stream in, it is not surprising that, in Perry’s opinion,
“The quarters provided, although at first apparently spacious, are by no means too large to cope with the tremendous growth of this collection.”706 The Medical Library was to remain in these premises for over 40 years, until the erection of a new library in 1992.