South Africans love their books. No wonder the country is known for producing such talented writers and academics as Nobel Prize Laureate JM Coetzee, André Brink, Zakes Mda and Sol Plaatjie.

The country has more universities than most countries in Africa combined. In fact, students from most African countries have trekked down south to take advantage of the country’s excellent tertiary institutions and facilities, which include state of the art campus and public libraries.

There are public libraries in almost all the towns and major cities, which are loaded with everything from South African literature, research and reference materials to international history and political books.

• Among these libraries is the National Library of South African which came about as a result of the amalgamation of the Cape Town based South African Library and the State Library of the South African Republic of Pretoria in 1999.

• The Cape Town wing of the South African Library is the oldest library in the country and has its origins in the early 1800s.

• The Governor of the Cape Colony Lord Charles Somerset launched the South African Public Library with proceeds from the wine tax, which was one of the colony’s driving economic sectors. The library began to grow from then, relying heavily on donations from various prominent members of society including Sir George Grey.

• The State Library in Pretoria also followed an almost similar of growth, though it was established by the Dutch settlers who ruled over the Free State and Transvaal provinces, hence it was known as Die Staats-Bibliotheek der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (State Library of the South African Republic).

• Today Pretoria is probably the mecca of libraries with its array of excellent libraries which include the National Library of South Africa, University of Pretoria's Academic Information Service, the Library Service of the University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria Community Library, and the libraries of the Tshwane University of Technology, Vista University and the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa).

• The Rhodes University in Grahamstown, hailed as one of the best journalism training institutions in the country also boasts a state of the art library.

• South Africa also boasts an impressive online library called the Internet Public Library which covers anything from humanities, government, politics and media.

• Most of the South African libraries work hand-in-hand with publishing and print media houses to ensure a constant in-flow of new titles, newspapers and magazines.

Links:

• Internet Public Library: www.ipl.org/
• National Library of South Africa: www.nlsa.ac.za
• Rhodes University: www.ru.ac.za
• Open Society and Soros Foundation Network: www.soros.org