Nquthu (KZN) impressed during visit to CIPAL

Geel, 18 March 2010 - In October 2008 Nquthu Local Municipality (KwaZulu-Natal - South Africa) and the flemish municipality of Bornem (Province of Antwerp - Belgium) entered into a municipal co-operation agreement. One of the action points in this international municipal co-operation is focussed on library management and related activities.

When a delegation of Bornem visited KZN and Nquthu in September 2009, they heard about the library project of CIPAL in South Africa, in co-operation with SITA (the South African State Information Technology Agency).  It was a lucky coincidence that also the municipality of Bornem planned to start with CIPAL's Brocade Library Services in December 2009, doing their switchover from a competitive system. Immediately the actions were co-ordinated between Bornem and CIPAL to organise a visit to CIPAL during the next visit of Nquthu to Belgium.

And so this happened on 18 March with a delegation consisting out of Mr. Bhekie Magwaza: Librarian of Nquthu and Nondweni and Mr. Mpume Jiyane: Manager LED and Planning Nquthu LM, together with Mrs. Diane Van Doorslaer: librarian of Bornem and Mr. Daan Sanders: World Consultant of Bornem.

With the basic knowledge the South African delegation acquired by visiting the Bornem and other local libraries a few days earlier during their visit to Belgium, the delegation arrived well informed at the CIPAL offices in Geel (Belgium) to get a more in-depth view of all the extensive possibilities Brocade Library Services has to offer.

Jef Gielen, senior library consultant of CIPAL, showed them all the main differences between the older PALS system, currently in use at Nquthu, and the state-of-the-art Brocade-system. It was also a lucky coincidence that at this moment CIPAL already had converted all the data of the KZN-libraries into the new system and is currently making the final preparations for the roll-out of SLIMS/Brocade in KZN by mid-April.

No need to say that the Nquthu librarian was very happy to see - as one of the first South Africans - all his Nquthu-catalogue data in a brand new OPAC. One of his final remarks, before saying goodbye, was that he saw everything he expected to see and that he couldn't wait any longer anymore to implement the new system.