The Coblans years, 1946 – 1953
6.1. Administration and governance: a unitary library service
Dr H. Coblans took up his duties in 1946 as University Librarian with authority over all the College libraries. The former Chemistry lecturer at Howard College and member of the Durban Library Committee was, as has previously been noted, recommended for the Carnegie Library Fellowship483 and the post of Chief Librarian of the Natal University College in 1939.484 There had unfortunately been a long and inexplicable delay between the announcement that he had been recommended and his assumption of duty, the reasons for which are not entirely clear. However, once he had been released by the College Council from his lecturing duties in Chemistry in 1945 he enrolled at the
478 Ibid.
479 See: Footnote no. 3, Chapter One for a definition of this doctrine.
480 D. Robertson, A dictionary of modern politics, 3rd edition, London: Europa, 2002.
481 L. Thompson, A history of South Africa, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2006, p. xvi.
482 Ibid., p. 177. The men were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.
483 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 14th March 1939.
484 See Chapter Four, section 4.3.2 for a discussion of this appointment.
University of Cape Town to undertake the one-year certificate course in librarianship.
Upon completion of the course he returned to the Natal University College as the new University Librarian.
It had originally been planned that the University Librarian would be based in
Pietermaritzburg.485 However, Coblans remained in Durban. It does not appear as if a specific decision was taken that the University Librarian’s office should be in Durban and it is therefore a matter of speculation as to why this was de facto the case. It may have been due to the time-consuming administrative problems connected with the difficulties of running three libraries in the Durban area, or perhaps a decision was made based on the severe criticism of the administration of the Durban Library voiced at the Durban Library Committee meeting of 9th August, 1944.486 It may also have been related to the simple fact that Coblans was living in Durban and did not wish to uproot his family and move to Pietermaritzburg. Whatever the reason, it seems that the decision as to the location of the University Librarian’s office had already been taken when the
Pietermaritzburg Library Committee met on 7th November, 1945, since it is stated in the minutes that:
Agreed that Prof. Le Roux and Dr Pratt Yule be appointed a sub-committee, together with the Chairman and Principal, to meet two members of the Howard College Library Committee for the purpose of discussing the staffing of the Pietermaritzburg Library.487
Of course, once the decision had been taken by the University authorities to move the administrative headquarters from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 1953, as noted above, it made sense for the University Librarian to be based in Durban. Durban also had a larger library staff (there was an assistant-in-charge at each of the three libraries) as opposed to the single staff member in Pietermaritzburg, although the appointment of H.L. Maple as Deputy Librarian in June 1947 brought the number of staff in Pietermaritzburg to two.
Despite the dual-centred nature of the library service and the problems associated with inadequate finances and lack of sufficient staff, Coblans apparently enjoyed cordial relationships with the library staff and the Library Committees in both centres. The
485 J.J. le Roux, Letter to the Registrar, Natal University College, 6th March, 1942, unpublished.
486 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 9th August, 1944.
487 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 7th November 1945.
minutes of Committee meetings convey a sense of co-operation and a unity of purpose which was to continue for over 20 years.
Coblans had been appointed with a mandate to form a single, unitary library service.488 At the time of his appointment there were four libraries, the oldest and largest being the Pietermaritzburg Library, and three in Durban – Howard College, the Commerce Library and the “Non-European” Library. He began work at once, immediately introducing a number of administrative changes which included uniform rules for lending and standard methods for ordering and classifying books throughout all four libraries. A start was made on compiling a central catalogue of the total holdings of all the College libraries, firstly with the object of providing users with a comprehensive guide to the Library holdings and secondly to avoid the “excessive duplication,”489 noted at a meeting of the Pietermaritzburg Library Committee two years previously. It was no easy task. In an article published in South African libraries in 1949, Coblans discussed the numerous problems he had encountered in trying to integrate the library resources of the two centres of the University.490 As the “problems arising from unification”491 manifested themselves, the need was felt for a change in the way that the College libraries were governed.
A motion, to be proposed at the Senate meeting of 3rd April 1947, that there should be “a Joint library committee of N.U.C. concerned with matters affecting the various university libraries as a whole”492 was discussed by both library committees at their March
meetings but committee members were left to “express their own views before
Senate.”493 At the Senate meeting of 3rd April 1947 a decision was taken to create a Joint Library Committee, the purpose of which would be to deal with matters that affected the College libraries as a whole.494 Membership was to consist of the Principal (ex-officio), the Chairs of the Pietermaritzburg and Durban Library Committees, the Librarian and
488 H. Coblans, Memorandum by Librarian on the University of Natal Library, 2nd April 1951, unpublished, p. 1.
489 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 13th March 1944.
490 H. Coblans, Some problems of a multi-centred library, South African libraries, vol. 17, no. 1, July 1949, p. 35-40.
491 Coblans, Memorandum by Librarian on the University of Natal Library, 2nd April 1951, p. 2.
492 Natal University College, Joint Library Committee: proposed terms of reference, unpublished.
493 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 27th March 1947 and Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 28th March 1947.
494 Natal University College, Joint Library Committee: proposed terms of reference.
two additional members, one from each of the local committees. Its terms of reference included:
• The appointment of library staff “affecting the libraries as a whole”, namely the librarian and the deputy librarian;
• Matters referred to it by the local committees.495
It could also initiate discussion on matters affecting the College libraries as a whole and make recommendations to Senate or the Senate Executive but it was in effect
subordinate to the two local library committees. Coblans did not support the motion. In a memorandum presented to the Pietermaritzburg and Durban Library Committees on 22nd May and 20th June 1947 respectively, he argued that the creation of a joint
committee would not assist in the creation of a unitary library system since it retained
“the present divided control.”496 Other anomalies he pointed out included the differing methods of appointing local library committee members and, more seriously, the lack of an “objective basis for determining annual library estimates for the sections
Pietermaritzburg, Howard College and Commerce, and Non-European.”497
In place of a third committee he suggested the abolition of both existing library
committees and the formation of a single library committee which would function along the lines of the Faculty committees: “just as there is one Faculty of Arts, which has jurisdiction for both Maritzburg and Durban.”498 The Pietermaritzburg Library Committee rejected this suggestion immediately, considering that a single unitary
committee would be “out of touch with the special requirements of Pietermaritzburg.”499 The Durban Library Committee, on the other hand, concurred with the suggestion. The minutes of the meeting of 20th June 1946 record the discussion on the matter:
(a) Professor Clark moved that there should be no library committee at all. The motion was duly seconded, and after discussion, put to the vote. The motion was lost;
(b) Professor Neal moved that there should be one library committee for the whole college. This motion was duly seconded, and after discussion, put to the vote. The motion was carried ...500
495 Natal University College, Joint Library Committee: proposed terms of reference.
496 H. Coblans, Some comments by the Librarian on proposed terms of reference [of the Joint Library Committee], [1947], unpublished.
497 Ibid.
498 Ibid.
499 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 22nd May 1947.
500 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 20th June 1947.
It is not easy to explain the difference in views expressed by the two Library Committees.
The Pietermaritzburg Library and the Library Committee had been in existence for a longer time than the Durban Committee and this would have been a contributing factor.
However, it is possible that, in line with Brookes’s comments on University dualism and the growth exhibited by the Durban centre,501 there was concern that the needs of the Pietermaritzburg Library would be swamped by the demands made by the rapidly
expanding Durban libraries. There is, however, no indication in the minutes of either the Pietermaritzburg or Durban Library Committees that this was the case. As Senate had already agreed to its formation, the Joint Library Committee met for the first time on 21st August, 1947. Its discussions and decisions were, as Coblans had predicted, confined mainly to financial matters 502 although other matters such as staffing and
accommodation were dealt with as the need arose.
In January 1952 the University Librarian received a letter from the Registrar, informing him that “in future the minutes of the Library Committees should be presented direct to the Senate Executive Committee and further, that if necessary the Librarian would be invited to attend when these reports are discussed by Senex.”503 The reason for the change is provided in the minutes of the Joint Library Committee meeting of 20th November, 1951 in which it is stated that:
The relationship of the Joint Library Committee and the Pietermaritzburg and Durban Library Committee was discussed. The Library Committees are the only university committees which do not report directly to Senate Executive. Their minutes only go to Senate and are therefore not given adequate attention.504
According to Coblans, this instruction constituted an important procedural change. It certainly meant that concerns raised at the Library Committee meetings could be dealt with timeously, rather than disappearing into the administrative complexities of the expanding University.
501 E.H. Brookes, A history of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1966, p. 50
502 Coblans, Memorandum by the Librarian on the University of Natal Library, 2nd April 1951, p. 2.
503 The Registrar, Natal University College, Re: Library Committees, Letter to H. Coblans, 4th January 1952, unpublished. Senex is an acronym for the Senate Executive.
504 University of Natal, Joint Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 20th November 1951.