The South African Library for the Blind (SALB) is a statutory body with the objective to provide a national library and information service to serve blind and print-disabled readers in South Africa.

History

The South African Library for the Blind (SALB) was established in 1923. It originated, in 1918/1919, from a private collection of 100

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

volumes collected by Miss Comber, a British nurse. On her recall to England in 1919, Miss Comber requested that

Josie Wood Josephine Ethel "Josie" Wood (22 January 1874 – 4 April 1965) was a South African educator, co-founder of the South African Library for the Blind and the South African National Council for the Blind. Early life Josephine Ethel Wood was born in ...

make accessible these materials.

accepted the offer and housed the materials in a room in her house in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

. This collection and the services based on it grew to form the South African Library for the Blind (SALB). In 1930, a grant received from the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

(CCNY) allowed for a building to be purchased to permanently house the collections and services. The grant was awarded on the condition that all library services for visually impaired persons in South Africa be centralised. In 1969, the South African Library for the Blind became one of South Africa's three national libraries. The SALB is a government-funded institution with a membership base of more than 4000 members worldwide.

Vision

"The South African Library for the Blind is the leading library in Africa providing equal access to information in accessible formats that improves the quality of life of blind and visually impaired people."

Mission

"The South African Library for the Blind renders a library and information service to blind and visually impaired people through the production of accessible South African reading material in development of a comprehensive library collection and rendering of advisory services to promote access to information."

Services

The SALB provides reading materials in formats that will allow persons with relevant disabilities to be able to access the content of these materials. These services also include circulation of materials to members

Membership

The South African Library for the Blind is a member of the following organisations: * DAISY Consortium

Legislation

South African Library for the Blind Act 91 of 1998

South African Library for the Blind Act, 1998 - Regulations
*Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled