The Perry Years, 1954 – 1961
7.6. Library staff
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.
However, perusal of the list of library staff in 1955 indicates that, although the three top management posts were held by men, the remainder of the professionally qualified staff were all women (one Assistant Librarian in Pietermaritzburg, one at the Medical Library and four at Howard College). It would be interesting at this point to consider briefly the position of women in university libraries in South Africa in general.
7.6.1. The position of women in the Library
The predominance of women in the lower paid positions in a library while men occupied the better-salaried positions was the norm for the times. Traditionally women, on leaving school, were expected to marry and raise a family while it was expected that men would establish a career for themselves. A survey undertaken by University of Cape Town Librarian Mr R.F.M. Immelman on staff in South African libraries indicated that, of the staff employed in professional posts in libraries, over 68% were women.715 Coetzee commented on Immelman’s findings:
Considering the personnel of these institutions as a whole, it would appear that almost three-quarters ... were women [including both professional and clerical staff], of whom one quarter were married but remained in or returned to library posts some time after their marriage (the latter were in a very small
minority)...The picture as a whole, then, is one of personnel consisting overwhelmingly of women, among whom wastage is comparatively high.716
The phenomenon was not confined to South Africa. In the United States in 1956 Wilden- Hart gave it as her opinion that:
It is true that many men are preferred for senior positions by committees because their status (married or single) will in no way interfere with their work; in fact, it is often assumed that a married man will settle ...”717
Some years later Holden interviewed the Dean of a prominent library school in the United States who said:
“Right or wrong,” where men are presidents and board members of colleges and library systems, they usually select men for the management operations
positions, because they find men to be more in harmony with their way of
715 P.C. Coetzee, Voorraad en personeel in die Suid-Afrikaanse biblioteekwese, South African libraries, vol. 29, no. 4, April 1962, p. 133.
716 Ibid.
717 M. Wilden-Hart, Women in librarianship, in Weibel, K. & Heim, K., The role of women in librarianship, 1876-1976, Oryx Press, 1979, p. 144.
thinking. We know there are exceptions to this, but the ratio of women to men in top library executive posts is in favour of MEN.718
Interestingly, the first woman in South Africa to hold the position of University Librarian was Miss E. Hartmann, who was appointed University Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand in April 1954, following Mr P. Freer’s retirement. She was also the first woman to sit on the University of the Witwatersrand Senate. Her appointment was, however, controversial, being strongly contested in Senate with the motion to refer the selection committee’s recommendation back being defeated by only one vote “in a secret ballot rather than by the customary show of hands.”719 Sadly, says Murray, she “never won the full support of Senate, and in 1960 she resigned in bitterness …”720
At the University of Natal the management of the Library remained the province of men for over 20 years, until the appointment of Miss C. Vietzen as University Librarian in Pietermaritzburg in 1978.721
7.6.2. Qualifications of librarians
Prior to the introduction of the correspondence courses by the South African Library Association (SALA) in 1933 and the university courses in librarianship introduced at the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town in 1938 and 1939 respectively, library staff were either untrained, as in the case of the two librarians at the University of Natal, Henry in Pietermaritzburg and Fraser in Durban, or they had to travel overseas to acquire
qualifications. The introduction of training courses in South Africa meant that the numbers of qualified librarians in South Africa gradually began to increase and thus it became possible for South African university libraries to employ Assistant Librarians who held professional qualifications in librarianship. The University of the
Witwatersrand Library was in the fortunate position in 1953 of all its permanent librarians being in possession of “degrees and qualifications,”722 due to the encouragement received from Freer, the first University Librarian, as well as his successor, Hartmann. New Assistant Librarians employed at the University of Natal,
718 M.Y. Holden, The status of women librarians, in Weibel, K. & Heim K., The role of women in librarianship, 1876-1976, Oryx Press, 1979, p. 151.
719Murray, Wits, the open years, p. 162.
720 Ibid.
721 N. Knowler, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, press release [on C. Vietzen], no. 49/78, 14th November 1978, unpublished.
722 Murray, Wits, the open years, p. 162.
too, possessed both degrees and postgraduate qualifications in librarianship.723 Fraser was also qualified by this time, having taken ten months’ leave in 1951 to study for a professional qualification from the University of Cape Town.724 Yet the pressing problem of an “acute shortage of trained librarians”725 remained. Several Annual reports mention the difficulties experienced in engaging qualified and experienced librarians, in
particular those who were able to catalogue. Perry enlarged upon this problem:
Cataloguing is not merely a technique, but is greatly accelerated if the cataloguer is also a person with a scholarly background and considerable experience. This combination is rare and the Library cannot always recruit suitable persons.”726
Milburn, Deputy Librarian in Durban, contended that the shortage of professionally trained librarians was felt more in Natal and the Orange Free State than in the other South African provinces “owing to the lack of training facilities in these two provinces.”727 He was most likely correct. Besides the two courses at the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town, new schools of librarianship had been introduced in 1955 at the University of South Africa, which took over the South African Library Association’s examining and training functions in 1961,728 in 1956 at the University of Potchefstroom and in 1958 at the Universities of Stellenbosch and the Witwatersrand. Thus by the close of the 1950s the Transvaal had three schools of librarianship and the Cape had two while no courses could be offered to would-be librarians in either Natal or in the Orange Free State.
Maple retired at the end of April, 1961 and the difficulties experienced in filling his post resulted in the upgrading of the post of Deputy Librarian in Pietermaritzburg to that of Librarian, although the incumbent would still report to the University Librarian.729 Shortly before Perry’s resignation in September 1961 to take up the post of University Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand it was announced that the post of University Librarian would be re-designated “Director of Library Services.”730 The departure of two thirds of the management staff complement left Milburn, Deputy Librarian in Durban, to cope alone until both vacant posts were filled.
723 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1955, p. 6.
724 C.F. Calvert, Barbara Davidson Fraser, 1906 – 1982, Library news, [Durban], no. 24, p. 30.
725 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1961, p. 1.
726 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1958, p. 3.
727 University of Natal Libraries, Annual report, 1961, p. 1.
728 Coetzee, South African libraries, vol. 29, no. 4, April 1962, p. 140.
729 University of Natal, Joint Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 22nd May 1961.
730 University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Library Committee, Minutes of a meeting held on 8th September 1961.