A tribute from his former students…
Professor Pieter van Brakel made a significant contribution to the transformation of the LIS sector and to building a new South Africa. As three of his former students, we never experienced any hint or form of racism in his presence, and this meant a lot to us during those years when racist resistance to the democratic dispensation was rife and tensions were high.
We will always remember Professor van Brakel’s lectures on ‘push and pull technology’ and his immediate apprehension of how important the appearance of the Internet was going to be. He was, in fact, the first academic to introduce us to the Internet, the World Wide Web, search engines and their evaluation, among so many other information technology developments and skills. His enthusiasm was infectious and his reputation as the ‘go to’ person for all things IT drew many students to study at RAU.
He is going to be sorely missed. We are saddened by his untimely passing and moved when we remember his humane character and the enriching way he touched our lives!
Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family and friends, and may his soul rest in peace.
Thank you Professor van Brakel!
Mokgadi Rebecca Senyolo, Margaret Maleto and Kwanang Shokane (former RAU LIS students)
From: Christine Stilwell [mailto:Stilwell@ukzn.ac.za]
Sent: 08 November 2013 11:53 AM
To: liasaonline@list.liasa.org.za; sabinet-sabinews@googlegroups.com; lib-helig-l@lists.uct.ac.za
Subject: [Lib-helig-l] Tribute to Professor Pieter van Brakel
Please be so good as to post this on the listserv, thanks Christine
The Information Studies Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal wishes to add to the tributes to the late Professor Pieter van Brakel.
Our Acting Dean, Professor Stephen Mutula’s PhD was supervised by him and his mentorship was greatly appreciated. As a programme we found him a most knowledgeable, helpful and generous colleague. Many of us benefitted from his editorial leadership of SAJIM and the example it set as an online journal in the discipline.
His leadership, energy and enthusiasm for Library and Information Studies was inspirational. We join the LIS community in mourning the loss of our colleague and our thoughts are with his wife and family.
Christine Stilwell
on behalf of the Information Studies Programme, UKZN
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