The SABC Information Library - Did you know?

"The SABC celebrates South African Library Week
from 15-22 March 2014"

During the most recent South African Library Week 2014, the SABC Information Library had an internal awareness campaign running in the SABC about the services that they provide to their corporate clients.

"The information library started using a manual way of cataloguing 

which ended in 1979 and it was called a card system."

"During 1988 the library was computerized and started ordering and 

circulating periodicals on behalf of all SABC staff."

"Dr. Burgers together with Ms Rhoda made a small collection of fiction books 

and organized them to assist radio announcers. 

The collection grew to 10,000 in 1979"

Some more facts about the SABC Information Library:

Did you know? 

• The information library was established in 1961 and it is situated at Radio Park K2 A1-19.

• The vision of the library is to be the leading provider for the public broadcaster and it’s stakeholders ad it’s mission is to acquire and make available, at all times, information required by the library’s users-both internal and external and again to provide relevant information upon request.

• The information library has three sections that comprises of book section, magazine and newspaper section.

• That the SABC has a fully-fledged and well equipped Information Library with about 30012 Books that can be borrowed and used by staff for free.

• The book section’s collection comprises of books of different subjects not only limited to broadcasting also include academics.

• That Thelma Hlapolosa, Abel Thulare and Themba Mtshali are responsible for the newspaper cutting section in the library. This section has a huge collection of newspaper clippings like Mandela collection, TRC, biographies and etc.

• The magazine section is managed by Nomawethu Mgangxela and consists of more than 35 titles. We have weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual magazines and more than 39081 indexed articles on our system which is good for research. Biographies, finances, personalities, politics and many more form part of the indexed articles.

• That SABC information library has subscriptions to the online databases that you can search information for work and personal use. You can search African Electronic Journals (SA ePublications), access to SA ePublications, and Law collection via the Sabinet Reference platform.  www.sabinet.co.za

• A hard copy version of newspapers online is available at 
  http//library.pressdisplay.com/

Information supplied by the SABC Information Library.

Interview with the Librarian at the SABC Newspaper Cutting Section

Themba Mtshali
SABC Newspaper Cutting Section

This is an interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Media Libraries and what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this week is with Themba Mtshali, the Information Librarian who works in the Newspaper Cutting Section of the SABC Information Library.

This section has a collection of 3200 000 newspaper articles. The following newspapers are ordered for this section: Beeld, Sowetan, Business Day, Star, Citizen, Mail and Guardian, Rapport, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the City Press. Every day articles are scanned in on the Newbase System and then electronically get cut, pasted and indexed.

Themba, please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Information Library)

Answer: My name is Themba Mtshali. I was born in Soweto. I studied and passed my matric in KZN during the 1976 unrest. In 1981 I joined Standard Bank and worked as a Clerk. After that I worked at a NGO Company in Braamfontein as project coordinator for 5 years. In 1995 I joined the SABC as Desk Help Officer for late Dr Ivy Matsepe Cassaburi’s office. In 1996 I joined the SABC Media Libraries at the Cutting Service Section.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What newspaper articles do you give priority to?

Answer: My normal day in office starts with fetching newspapers from the security office at ground floor in the morning. I look through the papers for SABC articles to be scanned first and start scanning other newspapers thereafter. We give priority to current affairs news mostly form politics, sport, health etc. I also give attention to information requests that come to our office and cut, paste and index sports articles.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the library.

Answer: Our collection consists of newspaper articles that are scanned as well as newspaper articles that were cut and pasted and filed into files before we got the digital system. The focus is mostly on politics of the past and present government; SABC collections from when the SABC was established to present date. The newspaper collection is very vast and varied in its scope.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Answer: Not much, but when we do have problems with our system server, we have BIT to assist us.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting information, please share it with us.

Answer: As I am a sports fan, particularly soccer fan, I would like to preserve the history of soccer in South Africa.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

Answer: The job keeps me well informed about what’s happening around me.

Related posts:
Interview with the Librarian at the SABC Information Library: Newspaper Cutting Section
Interview with the Information Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Interview with the Information Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Abel Thulare
SABC Information Librarian

The SABC Media Libraries consists of five sections, the SABC Information Library, the SABC Radio Archives, the SABC Record Library, the SABC Music Library and Audio Restoration. This is part of a series of posts of interviews to gain a better understanding of the work that we do. We work in silos and are not always aware what our colleagues are doing on a daily basis.

The interview is with Abel Thulare, an Information Librarian who works in the Newspaper Cutting Section of the SABC Information Library. He works very close with SABC Television and Radio journalists and producers in ensuring that they get the most up-to-date information about any requested topic that they are working on.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Information Library)

Born in a small town called Sabie, in Mpumalanga Province. I moved to Tembisa at the age of two.  After completing my matric I studied B.Bibl. at the university of Pretoria which I completed (Former Rand Afrikaans University) now known as University of Johannesburg. I conducted my in-service training at the Kempton Park Public Library in 1998. In 2000 I worked as a Professional Library Assistant at St John’s College Library. I then went on to further my studies at Havatech-Pretoria where I studied IT (Programming) which I found very exciting & challenging. In 2002 I worked as a Junior Librarian at Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA). In 2004 I moved to the Council on Higher Education where I managed the Resource Centre. Between 2007 & 2008 I worked for two different companies Spar North Rand (Dry Goods Receiver/Checker) and ABI Midrand (Supervisor). I then moved to the SABC in June 2008 and to tell the truth I’m here to stay!

Well-well-well! I’m a good cook, baker and mechanic.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What material do you give priority to?

Scanning SABC Radio Bulletins dating back as far as the mid 1950’s.

Electronic cutting and pasting of current newspapers for preservation.

Providing efficient information to internal & external stakeholders as fast as lightning.

I sometimes man the book & magazine section if my colleagues are not around.

I try by all means to keep a balance of my chores.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

The Newspaper Cutting Section in the SABC Information Library has a collection of 3 200 000 newspaper articles. The following newspapers are ordered for this section: Beeld, Sowetan, Business Day, Star, Citizen, Mail and Guardian, Rapport, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the City Press. Every day articles are scanned in on the Newbase System and then electronically cut, pasted and indexed.

We select the articles which are newsworthy, broadcast related or important to keep for our heritage.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Of course yes! First of all it’s our email. I always use more of it to send information requests to internal & external stake holders.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting information, please share it with us.

“We will make sure the men in blue end up in orange if they commit crime” Gen Bheki Cele. That’s a good one for me.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

It keeps me busy and up to date with what is happening around us.



Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

Soccer in the Library

The FIFA World Cup is an event staged on a scale of huge proportions. As one of the most watched sporting events on earth it enjoys exceptional interest from sports fanatics and the business world alike.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa represents a special first performance in that it is the first time that the competition will be hosted in Africa. As such, many entities, organizations, businesses and non-commercial organizations will want to be part of this groundbreaking movement.

With just 77 days to go before the grand opening game the SABC Information Library has launched a soccer display at the library. The display includes books on soccer, world flags, national anthems and newspaper articles on the preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup and sports magazines. First Citizens are encouraged to visit the library and experience the feel of this historic event that will take place on African soil. As the Official Broadcaster let’s make this World Cup a 110% success!

by Abel Thulare (Information Librarian)
SABC Information Library