The multicultural nature of South Africa is recognised by our Constitution when it says that "the South African nation consists of a diversity of cultural, religious and linguistic communities." It also states that "everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice" (South Africa, 1996). This supports the IFLA (1998: 6) International Guidelines for Library Services to Multicultural Communities which recommends that all ethnic, linguistic and other cultural groups be provided with library materials and services according to the same standards. It urges public libraries around the world to strive towards providing materials and services to all communities on an equitable basis - in their preferred languages and reflecting their own cultures. The LIASA policy supports this by recommending that libraries acquire, preserve and make available the widest variety of materials to reflect the plurality and diversity of South African society. Providing equitable library collections and services for the culturally diverse population of the City of Johannesburg is also supported by policy. This includes the Minimum Standards for the CJLIS (2003-2006) which maintains that the library should reflect the variety of cultures represented in the community; support cultural traditions; and be provided in the languages spoken and read in the local community. It also includes the Policy for the Selection of Materials for CJLIS (2002) which states that the Library's materials should reflect the cultural diversity of the City, especially materials in the languages of the indigenous communities. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the multicultural nature of South African communities - specifically that of Johannesburg - is reflected in the collections and services of public libraries. It also aims to identify suggestions on how these might be improved to ensure the representation of library collections and services to culturally diverse communities. To achieve this, a local and international literature review was conducted and interviews were held with librarians from CJLIS, Region Eight. It became evident from the investigation, that although policy documents that support the principle of providing equitable services and collections to culturally diverse communities exist, public libraries - such as the CJLIS, Region Eight, which operates within a culturally diverse environment - often do not provide these. The findings show that most of the collections and services are only offered in English and are not representative of the diverse communities. Reasons for this include the shortage of financial resources; non-availability of published materials in indigenous languages; and the lack of skills to offer these services. It is also evident from the study that multicultural services should be based on a thorough understanding of the composition and needs of each group in the community. This should be accomplished by means of user profiles and needs assessments. Based on these findings, recommendations on the development of multicultural library services and collections were made which may be applied - not only to the CJLIS - but also to other public libraries in South Africa that are similarly confronted with serving culturally diverse communities. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

The multicultural nature of South Africa is recognised by our Constitution when it says that "the South African nation consists of a diversity of cultural, religious and linguistic communities." It also states that "everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice" (South Africa, 1996). This supports the IFLA (1998: 6) International Guidelines for Library Services to Multicultural Communities which recommends that all ethnic, linguistic and other cultural groups be provided with library materials and services according to the same standards. It urges public libraries around the world to strive towards providing materials and services to all communities on an equitable basis - in their preferred languages and reflecting their own cultures. The LIASA policy supports this by recommending that libraries acquire, preserve and make available the widest variety of materials to reflect the plurality and diversity of South African society. Providing equitable library collections and services for the culturally diverse population of the City of Johannesburg is also supported by policy. This includes the Minimum Standards for the CJLIS (2003-2006) which maintains that the library should reflect the variety of cultures represented in the community; support cultural traditions; and be provided in the languages spoken and read in the local community. It also includes the Policy for the Selection of Materials for CJLIS (2002) which states that the Library's materials should reflect the cultural diversity of the City, especially materials in the languages of the indigenous communities. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the multicultural nature of South African communities - specifically that of Johannesburg - is reflected in the collections and services of public libraries. It also aims to identify suggestions on how these might be improved to ensure the representation of library collections and services to culturally diverse communities. To achieve this, a local and international literature review was conducted and interviews were held with librarians from CJLIS, Region Eight. It became evident from the investigation, that although policy documents that support the principle of providing equitable services and collections to culturally diverse communities exist, public libraries - such as the CJLIS, Region Eight, which operates within a culturally diverse environment - often do not provide these. The findings show that most of the collections and services are only offered in English and are not representative of the diverse communities. Reasons for this include the shortage of financial resources; non-availability of published materials in indigenous languages; and the lack of skills to offer these services. It is also evident from the study that multicultural services should be based on a thorough understanding of the composition and needs of each group in the community. This should be accomplished by means of user profiles and needs assessments. Based on these findings, recommendations on the development of multicultural library services and collections were made which may be applied - not only to the CJLIS - but also to other public libraries in South Africa that are similarly confronted with serving culturally diverse communities. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Cette thèse explore la complexité de la notion de patrimoine depuis un contexte caribéen, à la fois spécifique et intimement lié aux mouvements du monde depuis le XVIe siècle. Elle s’intéresse à l’entre-deux qui caractérise le patrimoine, entre la dimension héritée -perçue comme un donné inaliénable, malgré soi-, et la dimension construite au présent pour un devenir, manifestée par ce que l’on souhaite transmettre aux générations futures. Le patrimoine se déploie dans la relation singulier-collectif dont il convoque les imaginaires du monde, les connexions entre des espaces et des temporalités diverses. Il peut être perçu comme un baromètre de la capacité des sociétés à s’inscrire dans un ordre communicationnel envisagé comme un acte de partage. La perspective multidirectionnelle proposée confronte des mobilisations historicisées d’un patrimoine outil des pouvoirs, pris dans des convergences politiques, économiques et techniques dans lequel se forge également l’ordre de la connaissance, aux fonctions sociales du patrimoine qui renvoient à une quête de sens, de lien social, de ressources et s’inscrit dans des territorialités complexes. La Caraïbe, territoire polythétique, présente un point de vue inédit pour remettre en question ce couple patrimoine/territoire et les paradigmes problématiques que son institutionnalisation a naturalisé pendant la période de formation des identités nationales européennes, période corrélée à l’émergence de la Modernité. La Traite négrière transatlantique, le système esclavagiste fondé sur la race puis la colonisation constituent une histoire associée à la souffrance, un passé transnational complexe dont la mise en partage est encore problématique, un héritage que personne ne souhaite accepter et qui marque pourtant encore à divers égards les rapports sociaux contemporains. La capacité à performer, à composer avec l’apport de chacun, à transmettre des savoirs-faire s’est déployée dans les sociétés caribéennes avec et contre les systèmes d’oppression, comme une forme de résistance et de survie, une ressource vitale essentielle du point de vue pratique et symbolique. Longtemps rejetés de l’espace normatif du patrimoine, ces héritages incorporent des perceptions peu compatibles avec les définitions et les modalités de traitement figées du patrimoine institutionnel articulées autour des productions matérielles. Le discours poétique et intellectuel caribéen à partir des années 1960-1970 s’est forgé dans une double dynamique, associant la déconstruction critique de l’ordre institué initiée par la première génération, à un imaginaire de l’espace commun inspiré de la volonté de revaloriser les héritages, leur créativité et la capacité d’action des Hommes à réinventer des imaginaires du monde fondés sur la Relation. Ce projet caribéen est ici lu comme la proposition d’une rupture patrimoniale créatrice liée à un territoire en rupture avec la superposition-fusion de l’espace politique, physique et culturel imposé par le prisme de l’imaginaire national. Cette thèse part sur les traces de ces dimensions relationnelles dans lesquelles interviennent des constructions historiques, des trajectoires et territorialités multiples, puis tente de mettre au jour les paradigmes naturalisés, les héritages et les contraintes contemporaines qui participent de cet empêchement patrimonial qui n’est pas sans relation avec des conflits que suscite le traitement du passé dans l’espace public. Le dernier mouvement met ces recherches en perspective de l’observation de dispositifs effectifs : les bibliothèques numériques de la Caraïbe. Il en analyse les modalités de construction, interroge les contextes individuels et collectifs qui les animent et les territorialités multiples qui interviennent dans ces hétérotopies ultimes de la Caraïbe, manifestations effectives de l’utopie caribéenne. / This thesis explores the complexity of the notion of heritage from a Caribbean context, both specific and intimately linked to world movements since the sixteenth century. It examines the in-between that characterizes heritage, between the inherited dimension-perceived as an inalienable given, and the dimension constructed in the present for a becoming, manifested by what one wishes to transmit to the future generations. The heritage unfolds in the singular-collective relationship of which it invokes the imaginary world, the connections between spaces and different temporalities. It can be perceived as a barometer of the capacity of societies to fit into a communication order envisaged as an act of sharing. The proposed multidirectional perspective confronts historicized mobilizations of a patrimony that is a tool of the powers taken up in political, economic and technical convergences, in which the order of knowledge is also forged, to the social functions of heritage which refer to a quest for meaning, social bonding, resources and is part of complex territorialities. The Caribbean, a polythetic territory, presents an unprecedented point of view to question this heritage / territory couple and the problematic paradigms that its institutionalization naturalized during the period of formation of European national identities, a period correlated with the emergence of Modernity. The Transatlantic Slave Trade, the slave system based on race and then colonization, is a history associated with suffering, a complex transnational past, the sharing of which is still problematic, a legacy that no one wishes to accept, but which still impact social relations. The capacity to perform, to cope with the contribution of each one, to transmit know-how has been deployed in the Caribbean societies with and against the systems of oppression, as a form of resistance and survival, an essential vital resource from a practical and symbolic point of view. Long ago rejected from the normative space of the heritage, these legagy incorporate perceptions that are incompatible with the definitions and the fixed treatment methods of the institutional heritage articulated around the material productions. The Caribbean poetic and intellectual discourse from the years 1960-1970 was forged in a double dynamic, associating the critical deconstruction of the instituted order initiated by the first generation with an imaginary of the common space inspired by the will to revalorize the heritages, their creativity and the ability of Men to reinvent the imaginations of the world based on the Relation. This Caribbean project is here read as the proposal of a creative heritage break linked to the maling of a territory in breach with the superposition-fusion of the political, physical and cultural space imposed by the prism of the national imagination. This thesis takes as its starting point the traces of these relational dimensions in which historical constructions, multiple trajectories and territorialities intervene, and then tries to bring to light the naturalized paradigms, the inheritances and the contemporary constraints which participate in this heritage impediment which is not unrelated to conflicts arising from the treatment of the past in public space. The last movement puts this research in perspective of the observation of effective projects: the digital libraries of the Caribbean. The author analyzes the methods of construction, questions the individual and collective contexts and the multiple territorialities that intervene in these ultimate heterotopies of the Caribbean, manifestations of the Caribbean utopia. This observation makes it possible to measure the obstacles of all kinds facing actors engaged in projects that aim to shape or reveal relations between territories that are both distinct and connected and to treat the heritage both as traces of the past and as a living, dynamic phenomenon, constantly enriched by contemporary experiences.