The Coblans years, 1946 – 1953
6.3. Library staff
that was de facto in existence, the Government virtually averting its eyes (over nearly three decades) from the embarrassing phenomenon of the separate non-European classes.”530
Two monetary donations during this period are worth noting. Carnegie Corporation of New York granted $15,000 to the Library in 1948, apparently for the purchase of library materials. Senate decided at a meeting held on 12th June 1948 that the fund would be administered by the Librarian under the direction of the Joint Library Committee. The fund was to be used to purchase “books which cannot be normally afforded”531 including standard reference works, duplicate copies of books in demand and basic periodicals.
The Joint Library Committee agreed that the monies were to be expended over a period of several years.532 The Librarian noted gratefully in his report for 1949 that this grant
“added appreciably to the Library’s holdings of scientific journals and of the general reference section.”533 Four years, later, in 1952, Mrs F. A. E. Powell, later to be described as the Library’s “fairy godmother,”534 donated £500 towards the creation of a fund, of which half was to be used for the purchase of books published in the social sciences and the other half was to be devoted to the purchase of books in the “technical sciences.”535
States of America537 and that the Principal had agreed to the employment of a “sub- librarian” who would deputise for him. Mr H.L. Maple was subsequently employed and began his duties as Deputy Librarian, stationed in Pietermaritzburg, in June 1947.538 His appointment “helped to relieve the understaffing”539 for the eighteen months prior to Coblans’s departure for overseas.
Initially, Coblans had been granted leave by Council for six months, from December 1948 to July 1949540 as per the terms of the Fellowship.541 However, in July 1949 he was appointed to the post of Librarian at Unesco542 and was granted long leave by the University Council to remain in the post until June 1950.543 Subsequently his leave was extended to December 1950. He was thus absent for over two years, only returning to his post as University Librarian in January 1951.
On his return, he found the libraries in a serious state as far as staffing was concerned.
Student numbers and book stock had increased exponentially without a concomitant increase in the number of library staff to carry out the necessary work. The
Pietermaritzburg Library, he found, was barely coping with the daily work. “The arrears, especially the cataloguing of periodicals, could not be undertaken,”544 he said. His frustration is obvious from the memorandum he presented to the Joint Library
Committee meeting of 18th June 1951. He considered that “a university operating as one unit cannot afford the luxury of so much duplication, in fact multiplication, by place, colour and type (full-time and part-time),”545 concluding that:
If the present policy of providing the same subjects in certain faculties in both centres i[s] retained, it may be necessary to treat the two centres as entirely separate for purposes of library administration.546
537 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 31st October 1946.
538 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 21st September 1948.
539 Natal University College Library, Annual report, 1947.
540 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 27th March 1947.
541 Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 13th June 1945.
542 University of Natal Library, Annual report, 1949, p. 1.
543 University of Natal, Joint Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 27th May 1949.
544 Coblans, Statement by Librarian [to the Joint Library Committee meeting of 20th November, 1951], p. 1.
545 Coblans, Memorandum by Librarian on the University of Natal Library, 2nd April, 1951, p. 3.
546 Ibid., p. 4.
Lack of staff and the poor salaries paid to library staff were amongst the chief complaints voiced by Coblans throughout his tenure as University Librarian. In 1948 he complained
“It is still very difficult to attract members of staff with a minimum of professional training and some experience.”547 In 1951 he compared the salary scales paid at three universities: Natal, Cape Town and the Witwatersrand. As may be clearly seen in Table 6.2. below, the salaries of library staff at the University of Natal salaries are the lowest of the three:
Library staff Natal Witwatersrand Cape Town Librarian £600 x 25 - 900 £1000 x 50 - 1400 £1000 x 50 - 1300 Deputy Librarian £550 x 25 - 725 £800 x 40 -1400 £800 x 40 - 1000 Senior Assistants
(Degree + professional qualification)
£400 x 25 - 550 £550 x 25 - 800 £550 x 25 - 800
Assistants £240 x 20 – 320
(Graduates) £300 x 25 – 550
(promotion dependent on professional examinations)
£300 x 25 - 450
Table 6.2. Comparison of salary scales between the Universities of Natal, the Witwatersrand and Cape Town.548
It is no wonder that the University found it difficult to attract qualified and experienced staff. Interestingly, the Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand, Mr P. Freer, voiced a similar complaint in 1946 regarding the salaries paid to librarians. Musiker and Musiker quote him as stating that:
Until we have a sufficient number of posts carrying salaries which can compete with other libraries, we cannot hope to give service worthy of a university library.549
Matters at the University of Natal were made more difficult by the fact that the Libraries were operating in three centres, divided both geographically and racially. The Botha- Duminy Commission noted that:
The dispersion of effort and activity in Durban is far too great and is producing an intolerable strain on many members of staff. Several factors combine to bring about this unhealthy state of affairs, the chief among them being the part-time
547 Natal University College, Librarian’s report, 1948
548 Appendix 3 to Coblans, Statement by Librarian [to the Joint Library Committee meeting of 20th November, 1951), unpublished.
549 R. Musiker & N. Musiker, Wits Library, Johannesburg: Scarecrow, 1998, p. 39.
Non-European classes, the full-time Non-European classes, the part-time European classes, and the library organisation.550
The problems were actually beyond the Library’s control. Botha and Duminy made several suggestions regarding the rectification of academic administration and, if their recommendations were acceptable to Council, they stated, “their application would immediately and automatically tend to remove any of the difficulties with which library organisation in Durban is faced.”551 Council, however, opted for a cautious approach and no immediate benefits accrued to the Library as a result of this report. An indication of the University’s shortcomings both as far as staffing and collections were concerned may be seen from the following minimum standards for university libraries, quoted by
Coblans from evidence submitted by the South African Library Association (SALA) to the Holloway Commission:
• Staff: five assistants for a college of 500 students, 10 assistants for 1,000 students and 4 additional assistants for each additional 500;
• Bookstock: the College Library should have books in large measure, 100,000 to 150,000 books per 1,000 students.552
Coblans drew up a table, indicating the shortcomings of four South African university libraries. As may be seen from the table below, none of the libraries met the standards drawn up by SALA. Of course, at Natal the complications of the geographically and racially separated multiplicity of libraries served only to compound the problems.
550 Botha & Duminy, Report of the Commission Enquiry [into the University of Natal], 5th May 1951, p. 8.
551 Ibid., p. 10.
552 H. Coblans, Some considerations in drafting a memorandum for the Holloway Commission, 17th May 1952.
University Students Staff -
actual Staff -
required Bookstock -
actual Bookstock - required
Natal 1880 12 18 c.65,000 c. 200,000 UCT 3970 28 35 c.272,000 c. 400,000 Wits 4240 23 37 c.220,000 c. 400,000 Rhodes 780 7 8 c. 65,000 c. 100,000
Table 6.3. Comparison of minimum standards between four South African university libraries553
In 1951 the Library was, however, relieved of one burden. For some years the University Press in Pietermaritzburg had operated under the auspices of the University Library.
The Publications Officer spent an hour every day “registering, numbering and
display[ing]”554 periodicals in the Pietermaritzburg Library but his dismissal in 1950 for an unspecified offence555 meant that it became a matter of urgency that a clerical
assistant be employed to administer the periodicals section.556 Funds were found to employ an assistant as well as two part-time Publications Officers and the Librarian was happily able to report that: “Publications work is thus no longer a library
responsibility.”557
Coblans resigned at the end of 1952, having spent more than 30 years at the University, as student, lecturer and lastly University Librarian. His last two years at the University had been both difficult and frustrating. It is recorded in the minutes of the Durban Library Committee meeting of 26th June, 1952 that the Committee regretted “that Dr Coblans has felt this step necessary” and hoped that “he will reconsider it, at least until the recommendations of the Holloway Commission are known.”558 In this respect, the University had requested the regrading of the posts of University Librarian, Deputy Librarian and Senior Assistant Librarian to professor, senior lecturer and lecturer, respectively.559 Coblans was not inclined to wait and left South Africa early in January
553 Coblans, Some considerations in drafting a memorandum for the Holloway Commission, 17th May 1952.
554 H.L. Maple, Letter to Professor Davies, 9th October 1950.
555 University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Memorandum from [the]
Pietermaritzburg Library Committee to the Senate Executive, 5th October 1950.
556 Ibid.
557 University of Natal Library, Annual report, 1951.
558 University of Natal, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 26th June 1952.
559 H.S. van der Walt, Secretary for Education, Arts and Science, New posts and regrading of posts for 1952, Letter to the Registrar, University of Natal, 5th October 1951, unpublished.
1953 to return to the Unesco Library, leaving Maple, the Deputy Librarian based in Pietermaritzburg, acting as University Librarian until he went on long leave in August 1953. Fraser, the Senior Assistant Librarian based in Durban, took over the management of the libraries until the new University Librarian took up office in March 1954.
The Joint Library Committee did not advertise the post immediately, preferring to await the outcome of the Holloway Commission. It turned out to be a worthwhile wait as the Commission recommended the upgrading of the status of University Librarian as well as the Deputy Librarian and Senior Assistant Librarian.560 In addition, a new permanent post of Deputy University Librarian in Durban had been agreed to by the Minister of Education. At a meeting of the Joint Library Committee on 10th September, 1953, it was agreed that the Library’s management team should consist of a Librarian and two Deputy Librarians, one in Pietermaritzburg (Maple already occupied this post) and one in Durban.561 Significantly, it was also noted that “... the appointment of [a] Deputy Librarian in Durban would not absolve the Librarian from routine work because the Library is grossly understaffed.”562