Expansion of the library service to Durban, 1931-1945
5.6. Library staff
Until the first librarian419 was employed, a member of the academic staff, the redoubtable Palmer, was responsible for the overall administration of the Howard College Library.
Student assistants performed the daily tasks. Like Currey’s “devoted Honorary Librarians”420 at Rhodes University, and Professor W.S. Logeman at the University of Cape Town,421 the work was a labour of love on the part of Palmer which she carried out in addition to her teaching duties. Although she withdrew from these duties in 1936 when she became the coordinator of the “Non-European” classes, she remained a member of the Library Committee until 1947, by which time she was well over 70 years old.
Along with Palmer, the student assistants shouldered a fair amount of responsibility.
They were the ones who carried out the daily tasks associated with running a library, as evidenced by a report they compiled for the Durban Library Committee. Their report points out the problems which beset the Library, including difficulties that students experienced with finding books; “largely due to the lack of knowledge of the method of finding any particular book ...”422 and selfish borrowers who took advantage of the lack of rules. They grumbled that
Another trouble we experienced was that students persisted in taking out as many books as they could find on the shelves pertaining to their subject and
418 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 5th March 1941.
419 Ms Barbara Fraser was employed on a part-time basis in 1936. She held a Bachelor’s degree but did not possess a professional library qualification.
420 R.F. Currey, Rhodes University, 1904-1970, Grahamstown: [s.n.], 1970, p. 166.
421 T. Barben, The sapling that grew into a tree,
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/index.php?html=/2004/info/sapling5.htm&libid=88
422 T.C. Salmon, et al, Report on the Howard College Library by the student helpers, 21st March, 1934, unpublished.
would then keep such books out for an indefinite period, merely, as a protective measure to prevent any other student from doing the same!423
Arising from the report the Library Committee agreed to a few basic rules, including a restriction on the number of books that students were allowed to borrow – only three books at a time for 14 days – and that, as in Pietermaritzburg, books were to be recalled at the end of November each year in order to facilitate stock-taking. This discussion points to another difference between the two libraries, that is, in Pietermaritzburg the very first Library Committee meeting revolved around library rules while in Durban it took several months before the Library Committee thought about applying a set of rules.
An arrangement whereby students had charge of the university library was not an unusual one. At the University of the Witwatersrand in the mid-1920s Musiker and Musiker report that “two senior students” were appointed to take charge of the Medical Library and “five senior students” were appointed to take charge of the Central
Library.424
Although clerical assistance was provided to the Library by the Principal, it was minimal.
At a Library Committee meeting held on 17th May 1934 it was noted that a “Miss Hartley”425 would provide a minimum of six hours of clerical assistance to the Library.
Palmer voiced her disappointment at this announcement, giving it as her understanding that “a much larger proportion of Miss Hartley’s time would be available for Lib.
Work.”426 In a bid to ease the staffing situation, she proposed at the next Library Committee meeting that “the Council and Senate be requested in future to award
scholarships on the condition that the holders give 2 hours a week of work for the College if requested.”427 This request could not be granted; Senate’s reply was that the
conditions attached to scholarships were laid down by the donors of said scholarships and that the College itself could not impose conditions. Despite further discussion on the need for extra help in the Library, the problem remained unresolved.
423 Salmon, et al, Report on the Howard College Library ... , 21st March, 1934.
424 R. Musiker & N. Musiker, Wits library, Johannesburg: Scarecrow, 1998, p. 13.
425 There was no library staff at this time so it can be assumed that Miss Hartley was a clerical assistant employed by the Principal’s office.
426 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 17th May 1934.
427 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 28th June 1934.
The unsatisfactory state of affairs continued. The first stocktaking of the Durban Library, undertaken in December 1934, was a case in point. Palmer’s report on the 4th April 1935 to the Committee regarding the project is tinged with exasperation. She reported that the help promised by the students had been inadequate and that “she had been obliged to give up much of her own time to the work.”428 Clerical assistance to the Library was being provided for three hours per day but “this was only to overtake the accumulation of work & could probably not be continued.”429 Students also assisted with cataloguing although progress was slow.430 Matters came to a head towards the close of 1935. At the Committee meeting of 31st October Palmer read a memorandum which unfortunately has not been traced. It dealt with the difficulties which had arisen in the arrangements for the Library and proposed solutions. The matter was discussed at length by the
Committee, Palmer having withdrawn from the meeting. Opinion, it seems, was divided.
Two members, Professors Oldham and Neal, “stressed the need of training in library work” while Professors E. Whittaker and Clark felt that more use could be made of student assistants given “the present financial stringency.”431 Eventually Oldham proposed the following resolution, which was adopted after much discussion:
This committee is of the opinion that the policy of the N.U.C. Library should provide for an organization embracing a chief librarian & library assistants who should as far as possible be fully trained.432
From the discussions at this meeting it may be concluded that the Durban Library Committee had had some input into the request for funding for books and monies to pay clerical staff which had been sent to the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1935.433 The Durban Library Committee hoped that “In the event of the Carnegie grant being available ... a partly qualified librarian will be appointed to work in Durban.”434 In the meantime it was agreed that the “present arrangement” with Palmer would continue until June of the following year.
428 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 4th April 1935.
429 Ibid.
430 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 6th June 1935.
431 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 31st October 1935.
432 Ibid.
433 Natal University College, [Pietermaritzburg] Library Committee, Report of the N.U.C. Library Committee (Pietermaritzburg) on Carnegie Corporation grant, [1935], unpublished.
434 Ibid.
It was not to be. Palmer, who had borne the burden of administering the Library for over two years with minimal assistance in addition to her teaching load, resigned from the Committee. In 1935 she had become Organiser of the University’s Non-European classes and her time was consumed by this pioneering work which she had to develop “in the face of much indifference, and even hostility.”435 She quite obviously had no time to run the Library as well. However, her resignation was also a shrewd move and had what can be presumed to be the desired effect. The Committee Chairman was obliged to make alternative arrangements for the carrying out of routine library tasks for 1936 in a hurry and, as so often happens when there is a crisis, sufficient money was suddenly made available to employ a Librarian:
The Chairman stated that Dr Bews had unexpectedly been able to find a sum of about £50-0-0 which might be devoted to the appointment of a Librarian for part time work and that Miss Barbara Fraser was willing to undertake work under these conditions.436
Only one member, Professor Whittaker, protested, considering the money better spent on the purchase of books. When it was pointed out that “the funds were not likely to be available for any purpose other than salary,”437 he acquiesced and Fraser started work in a part-time, temporary capacity on 1st April 1936, the first Librarian at the Howard College campus. A year later she became a full-time permanent member of the University College staff and Fraser, “the pioneer who remained the longest,”438 had begun a career which was to last for 32 years. An Arts graduate of the College, she possessed no library qualifications until she was granted ten months’ leave, in 1951, to take the Higher Certificate and Diploma in Librarianship at the University of Cape Town.
Calvert describes the numerous difficulties under which she had to operate. Her
responsibilities included the Howard College Library as well as the Commerce Library in the city building in Warwick Avenue. “Some days,” says Calvert, “she was the only staff member on duty, but she had to try to keep both the Howard College and the City Building Libraries open for those who wanted to use them.”439 However, these
difficulties were yet to manifest themselves when she was first appointed. The Library
435 Retirements: Dr Mabel Palmer, University of Natal gazette, vol. 2, no. 2, November 1955, p.
36. 436
Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of the meeting of 31st March 1936.
437 Ibid.
438 C. Calvert, Barbara Davidson Fraser, 1906 – 1982, Library news, no. 24, 1982, p. 30.
439 Ibid.
report of 1936 encapsulates the hopes of the Library Committee for the fledgling Durban Library:
Further, the appointment of Miss Fraser as a full-time Librarian will enable the Library work to be placed on a proper footing; and it is confidently hoped that many of the troubles which have been experienced in running the Library in the past will disappear and that, as a result, students will be able to make better use of the facilities than heretofore.440
The increasing work load as well as the demands made by students for longer opening hours soon necessitated the hiring of another staff member. Unfortunately the library assistant hired in 1939 did not stay long and her resignation coincided with Fraser’s departure on two months’ sick leave in September 1940. Once again, the Committee faced a staff crisis and students had to be called upon to assist. It appears that, in order to relieve the pressure of work, a request was made by the Library Committee to the Principal to allow students from the “Non-European” section to work in the Library at the Commerce Building but the request was refused. The Chair reported, at the meeting of 5th March 1941, that
...the Principal was strongly opposed to the use of Non-European students in the Library at the Commerce building, in view of the Council’s decision regarding the use of [the] building by Non-Europeans. In this connection the Library
Committee asked the Sub-Committee to go into the question of extra assistance required and gave it power to act.441
Given the problems being experienced at the time with staff shortages, this answer is astonishing, but a comment made by the students of the “Non-European” section sheds some light on the attitude of the University authorities. They complained that
It is our grievance that whenever it comes to a question of contact between European and Non-European students the College authorities are directly interested and communiqués are issued forbidding such contact. The European student, so far we have found, is most willing to co-operate with us on various issues; they seem to have transcended the limitations of race, but the authorities are, it seems to us, attempting to propagate race-hatred.442
Hattersley has also commented on the racial prejudice exhibited by the University authorities of that time:
440 Natal University College, Library report [Durban], 1936.
441 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 5th March 1941.
442 Natal University College Students’ Union (Non-European), Memorandum submitted to the Indian Judicial Commission, [1944], unpublished, p. 4.
Senate’s attitude in the early years was governed by academic traditions of long validity in Great Britain, from which country most of the original staff had been obtained. But what may be described as colonial prejudices in questions of colour were strongly entrenched in the early Councils.443
The Sub-Committee applied itself to arranging extra assistance, and in the same year, in 1941, a Mr J. Prakasim was hired to assist with the processing, shelving and repair of books, collection of mail and making tea at the Howard College Library. Prakasim recalled particularly being taught to make tea “in the proper way” by Fraser and also, very occasionally, having to stand in at the Issue Desk, although, surprisingly, he dismissed this part of his duties as “not an important job!”444
In 1943 the opening of the “Non-European” Library at its own, rented, premises at 78 Commercial Road, necessitated the appointment of a part-time library assistant, Mr S.M.
Moodley. Due to the demands by students for longer hours of opening, it was agreed in February 1944 that students in the respective sections would be used at both the “Non- European” and Commerce Libraries to assist with library duties.
At the Library Committee meeting of 9th August 1944, discussions arose once more over the administrative problems being experienced in the Durban Libraries. The
administration of the library was apparently severely criticised by a member of the Committee but his comments were not recorded. Some felt that “...the administration of the library is seriously defective and it is doubted that the present Librarian can carry out the position ...”445 Fraser retorted that the staffing was inadequate as the staff
complement was exactly the same as in 1938 but that both the library stock and the number of borrowers had grown. Her statement was dismissed – some members felt that it was simply “a matter of library organisation”446 As a way forward, Professor J.H.
Neal proposed and the Committee agreed, that Dr H. Coblans be appointed Chief Librarian at the Natal University College immediately. Neal’s proposal refers to a decision taken six years earlier by a selection committee, comprising the Principal and
443 A.F. Hattersley, The University of Natal, 1909 to 1960, unpublished, p. 52
444 J. Prakasim, Personal communication, Durban, 17th October 2000.
445 Natal University College, Durban Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 9th August 1944.
446 Ibid.
two members each from the Pietermaritzburg and Durban Library Committees447 to recommend to Council that Coblans448 take up a Carnegie Overseas Fellowship and the post of Chief Librarian of the College. There had been a long and inexplicable delay in Coblans undertaking this course of action. Eventually, Coblans was granted leave of absence from his lecturing post in the Chemistry Department in Durban to undertake a course in librarianship but, instead of travelling to the United States, he remained in South Africa and attended a course in librarianship in Cape Town in 1945.449