The first prize, always, for the Trust, is the identification of well managed schools with a couple of unused classrooms that could be converted into state-of-the-art libraries. However, with burgeoning learner numbers in township schools, this is often a hard-to-come-by luxury.
The concept of the mini-library was adopted when our Trustees accepted that preferred schools requesting a library resource centre – schools with 1000-plus learners – just did not have the extra rooms for library conversion. These schools had smaller rooms available hence the emergence of the mini-library.
By virtue of their sizes, such libraries do not have private reading rooms and corners nor the full gamut of resources that our other libraries are given. But they are stocked with about 4000 books and ICT equipment for teacher and librarian-assistant use. Book-borrowing is immediately available for the learners and they may also use the room after-hours to complete homework and project-based activities.
