People's Libraries in Support of People's Education.

This paper addresses the planning of information services in South Africa via Peoples Libraries in support of People's Education, i.e., Post-Apartheid education with a humanistic perspective that strives to offer black and white students education with equal levels of quality, and includes Black Studies in the curriculum. People's Libraries are defined as facilities that proactively provide information as well as physical space to assist people in decision making and self-development. It is noted that most libraries that currently fall under that definition are not part of official library and information services. This paper includes a discussion of two potential objectives of People's Libraries: to support labor movements, alternative education programs, and adult education and, in the Post-Apartheid Era, to support and promote reeducation programs on a nationwide scale. It is proposed that services would include storage and dissemination of information in all formats and information referral, and People's Library personnel would be: (1) politically aware, (2) educationalists, (3) managers, (4) organizers, (5) information experts, and (6) willing to perform their jobs for relatively low remuneration or on a voluntary basis. (19 references) (SD)