Ocean View library turns 50

Pictured are staff members, patrons, and well-wishers celebrating the library’s birthday.

The Ocean View library is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

According to the City’s Mayoral committee member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross, the library was built and opened in 1972, four years after the community was established.

Back then, Ocean View had a population of approximately 30 000 residents and two primary schools, a high school, shops including a butcher, a soccer field, and a library.

None of the schools in the area had their own library and the Ocean View library served as the central reference facility for the whole community.

The library was extended in 1998 and the hall was transformed into the children’s section, while the old children’s section became the teenage section.

It has a reference section and a study room, an ECD toy library, and a puzzles and games section and the computers provide a vital service to the community. There are also regular storytelling programmes, movie days, a chess club, and art classes.

The Ocean View Library staff in front, from left, are library assistant Ulfah Frans and acting librarian in charge Fatima Kiel, who boasts 34 years in service. At the back, from left, are librarian Natasha Arendse, security officer Yongama Time, and library aide Dawn Maureen Keet who has 31 years of service.