College and Research Libraries By J . W . P E R R Y Research Libraries in South Africa Mr. Perry is librarian of the Univer- sity of Natal, Durban. WH E N I TRAVELED f r o m New York to Cape T o w n less t h a n seven years ago, I came by cargo boat on a regular Europe, America, r o u n d Africa, back to Europe route. I asked the ship's en- gineer what his normal cargo to and f r o m Africa was. H e replied, "Mission- aries on the way out, wild animals on the way back." T h i s was doubtless an exaggeration a n d out of date when he said it, b u t there was a time, and not so long ago either, when it was not com- pletely u n t r u e . Today, however, the passenger list of each air liner touching down at Johan- nesburg or ship calling at Cape T o w n and D u r b a n as often as not contains the name of a great industrialist or well- known scholar. T h e former is tempted by a still largely unexploited continent, and the considerable supply of labor that goes with it. W h a t brings the latter in increasing numbers to our shores? It is surely the realization that here we have a n a t u r a l and h u m a n laboratory, a happy h u n t i n g ground, for the sociol- ogist, anthropologist, archaeologist, bot- anist, zoologist and medical researcher. But what resources in the printed and written word can the continent offer? From the days of the Alexandrian Li- brary, Egypt and N o r t h Africa have fre- quently been great reservoirs of the printed and written word. However, it would seem that their present-day re- sources (little known though they are) are outside the scope of this survey in that the cultures that they represent are of Oriental r a t h e r than European or African origin. A desert is a more effec- tive natural barrier than a m o u n t a i n range or even an ocean, and Africa south of the Sahara rather than Africa as a whole is a u n i t after the fashion of N o r t h America, South America, or Eur- ope. It is probably true to say that, before the last world war, no single collection of books r u n n i n g into five—let alone six—figures existed between the line of latitude r u n n i n g through Cairo and the one r u n n i n g through Johannesburg, surely one of the most poverty-stricken library areas in the world. Even today, apart f r o m the collections being built u p by the Central African Archives in Salisbury (which should be visited), the library of the University College of Iba- d a n in Nigeria, and certain collections in the Belgian Congo, this statement is still largely true. One is thus brought back to the fact that the libraries of the U n i o n of South Africa are likely to remain for some time the main on-the-spot quarry for any scholar living and working in Africa. As a country of settlers from Europe, South Africa is almost as old as the United States, b u t its oldest library is less than 150 years old. Little is known of books and readers before the first British occupation at the end of the eighteenth century. However, the small- ness of the population alone, less than 25,000 (limited to an area one-tenth the present extent of the country) and the lack of a p r i n t i n g press were factors hardly conducive to the building u p of large libraries. Such collections as there were—and there is some evidence of the existence of "gentlemen's libraries" belonging to Dutch and later to British officials—have vanished almost without MARCH, 1956 135 trace, one of the few exceptions being the Dessinian collection (dating f r o m the mid-eighteenth c e n t u r y ) , which formed the basis of o u r oldest library, the South African Public Library, f o u n d e d by a British governor in 1818. T h e rest of the country, now the prov- inces of Transvaal, Orange Free State, a n d Natal, did not develop on any large scale at all u n t i l well into the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed the most significant industrial develop- ment of the country, a development q u i t e out of p r o p o r t i o n to the growth of its white population, has taken place in the last 20 years. It is perhaps more a p p r o p r i a t e a n d more in accordance with historical per- spective if, in surveying the library scene, one starts at Cape T o w n , landing at the base, so to speak, r a t h e r t h a n d r o p p i n g by air into the f r o n t line at Johannesburg. I n many ways, of all the "new coun- tries" of the world (the U n i t e d States, Australia, Canada a n d New Z e a l a n d ) , South Africa has the closest cultural ties with Europe. A pleasant a n d not too long sea voyage and, u n t i l the present century, the lack of facilities for higher education in the country itself, fostered these close ties. Nor has the tie by any means been exclusively with Britain. A South African professor is more likely to hold a doctorate f r o m Leyden or Munich t h a n f r o m O x f o r d or Cam- bridge. T h e familiarity of most South Africans with Afrikaans has insured that the German and Dutch languages are never quite regarded as foreign lan- guages to the extent that they are by the Englishman or the American. However it must be admitted that the educated South African's familiarity with cultures other t h a n the Dutch and German (with French and Italian for example) is much t h i n n e r t h a n is the Englishman's. In- deed, to an English immigrant the South African's concept of British culture itself sometimes appears a bit superficial a n d distorted. Before describing the contents of the various South African libraries, it is as well perhaps that something be said about Africana. It is as well because the South African librarian will allow little time to elapse before uttering the in- evitable " B u t I must show you my Afri- cana." W h a t is Africana? Africana is any book, pamphlet, anything connected with South Africa. Africana is also the disease or mania of collecting Africana. It might easily be assumed that the South African librarian's, the South African millionaire's, and indeed any South African's interest in this field sprang f r o m his nationalism. But this is not really the case. South Africa has crammed an awful lot of complicated history into 300 years of a small country. T h e earliest collectors in the field were not South Africans, b u t immigrant Eng- lishmen fascinated by the past and the present. T h e fruits of these early collec- tors f o u n d their way into the libraries of the country, notably the Mendlessohn collection into the Library of Parlia- ment a n d the Gubbins Collection into the Witwatersrand University Library. Perhaps the finest Africana still in pri- vate hands is the Campbell Collection in D u r b a n . It will be likely to find its way to the Natal University Library. T h e deposit of these two collections, greatly enriching what were compara- tively poorly stocked libraries, has led to intense competition among all librar- ies of any standing at all, to build u p similar collections—this in the face of competition by private collectors. Other Africana collections of note in the coun- try are in the South African Public Li- brary, Cape T o w n , a collection with an older history than the Mendlessohn and Gubbins, and in the J o h a n n e s b u r g Pub- lic Library, which, together with the Africana Museum associated with it, must surely be one of the largest and 136 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES best organized "local collections" (even if of continental dimensions) in the world. I n gauging the significance of this type of collecting, it must be realized that the libraries concerned compete against each other in collecting in the whole field (in the geographical sense) of Africana. In- deed in some respects the purely local collection, in the English librarian's sense of the term, has even been neg- lected. Some idea of the costs of compe- tition may be gathered from the fact that the standard bibliography of Africana (Mendlessohn) until reprinted a few months ago brought $250; indeed it is even d o u b t f u l that the r e p r i n t i n g will have much effect on the price of the original edition. T h e Van Riebeeck Society has printed at a cost of a 10/- a n n u a l subscription about 80 original historical manuscripts in the last 20 years or so. A set now fetches $400—a good investment for the a n n u a l subscriber. Even in the realm of out-of-print textbooks, figures like $25 are not uncommon, while the standard work on South African architecture fetches $150. I have spoken at some length on this subject because there is no d o u b t that Africana has h a d a large effect on the content and scope of the average South African library. O n the credit side, it has no d o u b t meant that South Africa does not suffer quite so much as some countries in losing its original material to overseas institutions. O n the debit side there is no d o u b t that if even a small proportion of the effort that has gone into Africana collecting had gone into collecting in other fields, the con- tents of South African libraries would have been far more catholic t h a n they are. As it is, time and again requests for material on interlibrary loan are re- turned f r o m the state library in Pre- toria, which acts as the center for this service, marked "not available in South Africa." Fortunately there are signs that sev- eral of the leading libraries are begin- ning to realize the importance of, if not the necessity of, a modified Farmington Plan for South Africa, at least the culti- vation of a Farmington Plan attitude. As South African industry is developing at a tremendous rate and yet with a scarci- ty of skilled labor, so is South African scholarship often handicapped by the lack of the necessary research works. South African libraries are at a stage where their task is to get books into the country, not just current material b u t the older works as well. America's and Britain's problem of the overwhelming size of their libraries is hardly of inter- est to South Africa as yet. T h e American visitor, if he reads these lines after visiting our libraries, may feel that my remarks about our re- sources are perhaps too critical and carping. He will have been agreeably surprised at the good service and com- paratively modernity of our half-dozen larger libraries, which do go a long way towards compensating for the poverty of our collections. T h e writer has held appointments only in the Cape and D u r b a n areas and must apologize to any of his colleagues who may read this article if it appears that his account of the resources of the Pretoria-Johannesburg area is sketchy. W hile several South African libraries, notably the South African Library, the Cape T o w n University Library, and the Johannesburg Public Library issue in- teresting a n n u a l reports, few have pro- duced comprehensive accounts of their collections, on the lines of the Guide issued by the British Library of Politi- cal Science. A list of special collections in the scientific and technical field is available in Mews' and Krige's Direc- tory of Scientific, Technical and Medical Libraries in the Union issued by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. A comprehensive compilation of the collections in the MARCH, 1956 137 humanistic field is in preparation. Useful too is Kritzinger's List of Libraries in Government Departments issued by the Government Printer. A wider field than the U n i o n is covered by the Directory of Scientific and Technical Libraries South of the Sahara published by the Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara. I n Cape T o w n there are possibly as many different books as there are peo- ple, that is, about half a million. T h i s city has by far the longest record of publicly housed libraries. T h e Dessin- ian Library, now integrated in the South African Library, was formed in the mid- dle of the eighteenth century and would appear to have been available for pub- lic use before the first British occupa- tion. Book stamps reveal that libraries for military personnel, parish libraries, even a branch of Dr. Bray's clerical li- braries, were in existence before the mid- dle of the nineteenth century. T h e great- est impetus to library development was the f o u n d a t i o n in 1818 of the South African Library. T h i s institution is un- usual in that it appears to be the only example of an a t t e m p t to reproduce that u n i q u e institution, the British Museum Library, which it must be remembered was itself at that time hardly out of its teen-age. Its type of governing body was a n d is a curious replica of its infinitely larger a n d richer prototype. Like the British Museum, it consists of various collections, kept separately, besides the more recently accumulated main collec- tion. It benefited considerably by the ac- quisition in the middle of the nineteenth century of Sir George Grey's library. It is remarkable, when one considers that even 100 years ago this library possessed its Shakespeare folio, illuminated me- dieval manuscripts and incunabula. In- deed its holdings of material of anti- q u a r i a n interest must, at that time, easily have stood comparison with li- braries on the N o r t h American con- tinent. It is probably still the strongest of any library in the country in its hold- ings of the standard works of the eight- eenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a library of a kind in which discoveries can be and are still being made. Its long history as a copyright deposit library renders it very strong in all the earliest South African imprints and it has good runs of newspapers and journals. T h i s library a n d the Cape Archives, situated nearby, are the sources to which the historian should t u r n for the papers of South African statesmen a n d families. It is also the most bibliographically ac- tive library in the country a n d its li- brarian is, by virtue of his position, cog- nizant of other sources of material in various parts of the country. Situated literally within a stone's throw of this library are the Library of Parliament, with its Mendlessohn col- lection of Africana; the Library of the South African Museum, containing like many other South African museums good runs of journals in the fields of the n a t u r a l sciences; the Diocesan Library of the Church of the Province of South Africa, a library with a long history which is well worth a visit; and the law libraries of the Cape Supreme Court and of the University of Cape T o w n ' s Faculty of Law. Nor are the bookshops to be despised. Besides local firms, branches of well-known British and Dutch firms will be f o u n d . German firms are located in the Pretoria area. T h e other g r o u p of libraries in Cape T o w n is represented by those of the uni- versity, situated about f o u r miles out of town. T h e university library has de- veloped rapidly in the last 20 years and is now the leading university library of the country. Although not as strong in Africana as one might expect, it shows its strength in other directions possibly of more value to the researcher. Its medi- cal library of 40,000 volumes, housed in a separate building, can more than stand comparison with the average university 138 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES medical library. So can its music library with its 12,000 scores, 4,000 records, 3,000 volumes, and specially designed listening room. However, it has not spe- cialized to any extent in the music of the native peoples, for which one must turn to the African Music Society in Johan- nesburg. T h e library of the Royal So- ciety of South Africa is housed in the university library and their amalga- mated holdings of scientific journals and of the proceedings of learned societies from all parts of the world are perhaps the best quarry we have for the natural scientist. T h e Bleek Library of publica- tions in the African languages contains many scarce early imprints of the vari- ous mission presses already active 100 years ago. No visitor to the university library should pass over the library's well- equipped photographic department, which will be able to give the visiting scholar good service wherever he may be. T h e library of the Bolus Herbarium is a fine collection of systematic botany containing many pre-Hookerian im- prints. It has recently been enriched by the accession of General Smuts' botani- cal library. Botanists should visit the library of the Botanical Gardens on the slopes of Table Mountain. T h e univer- sity library, like the South African Li- brary, is active in the bibliographical field. Students interested in the Afrikaans language and literature will find most of the larger libraries rich in these re- sources. Possibly the most comprehen- sive early collection of Afrikaans im- prints is in the South African Library. Cape Town University is fairly rich in manuscripts of such writers as Louis Leipoldt and in the philological connec- tions of the "Taal" with European and other languages. Perhaps the most com- prehensive collection of the whole out- put in Afrikaans over the last 30 years will be found in the Johannesburg Pub- lic Library. Most South African university librar- ies are stronger than the average Ameri- can and British university library in the languages, literatures, and culture of the Low Countries. French studies are poor- ly represented in South Africa, Cape Town University perhaps having the strongest collection. A visit to the Cape's other university, Stellenbosch, 30 miles from Cape Town, should include a visit to the Seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church, which is strong in Protestant theology. T h e archives of this church, being in good order, are invaluable to students of the early history of South Africa. They are housed in Cape Town. The third educational centre in the Cape Province is that at Grahamstown, where Rhodes University will be found. This university library is strong in the papers of early British settlers. Inci- dentally, it has produced in mimeo- graphed form a good set of instructions for dealing with private papers and let- ters, a field of librarianship about which little has been written. In quite another field, Rhodes University possesses the library of the Leather Research Institute. Scattered throughout the province are many small public libraries, orig- inally r un on a subscription basis, in- cluding several over 100 years old. T h e city library of Port Elizabeth is of some size and the others, although small, may produce some surprises for the curious visitor, notably that of Kimberley, which is rich in the older standard works on the fine arts. T h e Orange Free State is not very rich in collections. Librarians interested in buildings should visit Bloemfontein, where new edifices for the public library and university library have recently been erected. T h e former is strong in drama and the latter has a considerable Afri- cana collection. T h e university librarian will be able to put the botanist in touch with a valuable private botanical li- brary. In Bloemfontein is situated the Harvard University Observatory, the MARCH, 1956 139 collection of which is part of H a r v a r d University Library. I n the southwest corner of the Trans- vaal is Potchefstroom University, the only university in South Africa closely associated with a religious denomina- tion, that of the " D o p p e r " branch of the Dutch R e f o r m e d Church, Paul Kruger's church. T h i s university library is grow- ing fast and has a most interesting re- cently erected library building, of which it might be said that the university is housed in the library. Many of the pro- fessors' private rooms have been delib- erately placed in the library in close juxtaposition to material on the subjects for which they are responsible. O u r journey now brings us to the Transvaal and the Pretoria-Johannes- burg area which, with the Cape, is the country's biggest book center. T h e Jo- hannesburg City Library is, like the New York Public Library, a p r o m i n e n t build- ing in that it is centrally placed a n d conspicuous in that it is not a skyscrap- er. As a city library, despite its poverty in s u b u r b a n branches, it can be said to be one of the foremost in the world. Its Africana Library and Museum should on no account be missed by any visitor to South Africa. It is strong in holdings of journals of all kinds, particularly on engineering. Material on all parts of Africa will be f o u n d here. Other ma- terial characteristic of a large public li- brary includes patent literature, incuna- bula, a n d a very comprehensive range of bibliographical reference works and sources. T h e library of the University of Wit- watersrand is only slightly smaller t h a n that of Cape T o w n , and, with a longer active history, is in many respects more comprehensive. Its strong points are its Gubbins collection of Africana, a library of musical philology, a library of Angli- can theology, and many works of a bib- liophilic and bibliographical interest. Besides these collections, it has a medi- cal library similar in size to that of Cape T o w n . T h e library of the Institute of Medical Research also is situated in Jo- hannesburg. A library of recent develop- ment but of great value is that of the South African Institute of I n t e r n a t i o n a l Affairs, in which will be f o u n d a good collection of official publications of all African territories. I n Pretoria, 40 miles away, will be f o u n d the various libraries of the gov- ernment departments, since Pretoria is the administrative capital of the Union. T h e largest of the government depart- ment libraries is that of the Department of Agriculture, which has branches in various parts of the country. Other gov- ernment d e p a r t m e n t a l libraries of value are those of the Botanical Department, Native Affairs Department, and Educa- tion Department. A visit should be made to the Veterinary Institute at Onders- tepoort, one of the most remarkable in- stitutes of its kind in the world, brain- child of the late Sir Arnold Theiler. T h e Transvaal Museum Library is a strong museum library. Pretoria University Li- brary is strong in German publications of all kinds, the German or Dutch text- book perhaps taking preference over the English textbook at this university. T h e library of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research should be visited by all scientists studying in South Africa, not only for its runs of scientific jour- nals, many on microfilm or microcard, b u t also for its u n i q u e contacts with South African scientists, scientific insti- tutions and industrial concerns. For simi- lar reasons a visit should be made to the State Library, the Staatsbiblioteek of the old South African Republic. It performs functions similar to those of the Nation- al Central Library in Britain, namely those of organizing the loan of material from one library to another t h r o u g h o u t the whole country. T h i s nationwide in- terlibrary loan system is well organized and compensates to some extent for the poverty of individual collections. Pho- (Continued on page 191) 140 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES April 16, 1955. Ed. by Lawrence Clark Pow- ell. Los Angeles: University of California Li- brary, 1955. 70p. (Occasional Papers, No. 3) Manuscript Collection of the Minnesota His- torical Society. Comp. by Lucile M. Kane and Kathryn A. Johnson. St. Paul: Minnesota His- torical Society, 1955. 212p. $3.60. Manuscripts and Documents: Their Deteriora- tion and Restoration. By W . J. Barrow. Char- lottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1955. 86p. Distributed by a u t h o r for the purpose of obtaining criticisms and suggestions. Planning a Library Building. Proceedings of the Library Buildings Preconference Institute, St. Paul, Minnesota, J u n e 19-20, 1954. Hoyt R . Galvin and Kathryn Devereaux, eds. Chi- cago: American Library Association, 1955. 112p., illus. $3. • Reflections of a Physicist. By P. W . Bridgman. 2d ed., enl. New York: Philosophical Library, 1955. 576p. $6. Study Abroad. Etudes a I'etranger. Estudios en el Extranjero. Vol. 7. 1955-1956. Paris: UNESCO, 1955. 703p. $2. (paper) Training Needs of Librarians Doing Adult Edu- cation Work. By Lester Asheim. Chicago: American Library Association, 1955. 44p. The Treatment of Special Material in Librar- ies. By Robert L. Collison. London: Aslib, 1955. 104p. Rev. and enl. ed. of The Cata- loguing, Arrangement and Filing of Special Material in Special Libraries, published by Aslib in 1950. World Survey of Education. Handbook of Edu- cational Organization and Statistics. Paris: UNESCO, 1955. 943p. $16. (cloth) Research Libraries in South Africa (Continued, from page 140) tography is generally used in place of loans. T h e youngest area industrially and in library resources is that of the Durban- Pietermaritzburg area. Natal University Library, with its Institute of Social Re- search (at which American professors such as B r u n n e r of Columbia have re- cently worked for long periods), is fair- ly strong on sociology as is the city li- brary, a library to which almost half of the local European population belong. T h e university library has a growing col- lection of material on the I n d i a n sub- continent, and the curious may like to visit the M a h a t m a G a n d h i Library and the library of the Arabic Study Circle. T h e university library is strong in runs of engineering journals and in geology. Its recently established medical library is small compared with those at Johan- nesburg and Cape T o w n . T h e medical faculty, which it serves, caters primarily to non-European students. Fortunately it has received considerable help from medical libraries in America and Brit- ain. Natal is one of the big sugar-grow- ing areas of the world, and a library con- taining a comprehensive collection of material on this product will be f o u n d just outside D u r b a n , namely that of the Sugar Experimental Station at M o u n t Edgecumbe. In Pietermaritzburg, good collections of zoological journals will be f o u n d in the Natal Museum and in the library of the university. T h i s city contains the Natal Society Library, a subscription li- brary almost as old as the "colony" it- self. Perhaps the most rewarding visit will be that paid to the private library and museum belonging to Miss Killie Campbell. Situated in her own home in D u r b a n , this collection, cared for by Miss Campbell herself, with lady assist- ants, contains books (26,000 of t h e m ) , papers, and objects relating to the Afri- can native south of the Sahara. It surely must be one of the most remarkable col- lections on a given field still remaining in private hands. W h a t is more remark- able is that it is well organized and easi- ly accessible. T h i s impressionistic survey has not been exhaustive or detailed. Perhaps it has even been a little unbalanced. But, if it has stimulated the curiosity of the reader, it will have served its purpose. MARCH, 1956 1.191