LIASA Higher Education Libraries Interest Group: [Lib-helig-l] Happy 15th Birthday LIASA

Happy 15^th Birthday LIASA!!

I am delighted to invite you to join us in celebrating 15 years of existence of LIASA. How time flies when you are having fun! LIASA is going from strength to strength.

Join me in commemorating the bold steps that members of the LIS profession in South Africa took 15 years ago – to unite as library workers and to take the first steps into a brave new and exciting future! Let us celebrate the achievements and huge milestones that we have reached. In this brief period of time LIASA has grown into a strong and vibrant professional association that truly takes the lead and is placing libraries and librarianship in the limelight! LIASA is widely acknowledged for its leadership on the continent and on the global arena. LIASA members are indeed leaders!

Thank you to those strong and committed LIS leaders who paved the way and created a strong foundation on which we are continuing to build. We salute you.

I proudly launch the special 15^th Anniversary Logo we designed and which already appears on the website.

I would like to invite LIASA members, our partners, stakeholders, past presidents, honorary members and friends to join us in the celebrations by sending your anniversary wishes to the LIASA office for uploading to the website or sharing your personal memories with all of us. You will be able to post these to the LIASA website from tomorrow onwards.

We plan various celebrations over the next few months and will have an extra special Anniversary Gala Dinner at the LIASA Conference in Durban on 4 October, so please be on the lookout for more information.

The Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) was launched on 10 July 1997. The launch marked the end of the process of unification of all existing library organisations in South Africa. This process was initiated in January 1995 at the Conference on Libraries and Information Services in Developing South Africa (LISDESA), which was an initiative of the two largest existing organisations at the time, the South African Institute for Librarianship and Information Science (SAILIS) and the African Library Association of South Africa (ALASA). It was at LISDESA that the first Steering Committee for the Unification of Library and Information Stakeholders (ULIS) was elected and given the mandate to carry forward the process for a new organisation.

At the ULIS-1 conference, held in July 1996 in Johannesburg, an Interim Executive Committee (IEC) was elected and mandated to draft a constitution for discussion by all the stakeholders. The IEC, supported by the Provincial Support Groups (PSGs) representing all nine provinces in the country, arranged the Constituent Conference (aka ULIS-2) at the University of Pretoria in July 1997.

Approximately four hundred and fifty library and information workers representing all nine provinces in South Africa attended the Constituent Conference. The primary focus was to debate and approve the draft constitution. All delegates were given the opportunity to discuss and propose amendments. On the final morning the final edited draft of the constitution was presented and accepted unanimously. The delegates also voted for the name of the new organisation. A Transitional Executive Committee (TEC) was elected to manage the Association, to prepare for the election of the first Representative Council, and to organise the first annual conference, which took place in November 1998.

Of significant note, the acronym LIASA, if pronounced "liyasa", in the Nguni languages, means "the dawning".

Peter Johan Lor is known for being the very first LIASA member. He proudly carries the Membership Number 1.

Best regards

Naomi

Naomi Haasbroek

President

Library and Information Association of South Africa

president@liasa.org.za

http://www.liasa.org.za

Twitter: www.twitter.com/LIASANews