Emmarentia Library
| Emmarentia Library | |
|---|---|
| Location | Barry Hertzog Ave, Emmarentia, Johannesburg, 2195 |
| Established | 1935 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Nobuntu Mpendulo |
| Website | www |
Emmarentia Library is a public branch of the City of Johannesburg Library and Information Services (CoJLIS), situated in the suburb of Emmarentia, Johannesburg, South Africa. It is situated at the Corner of Barry Hertzog Avenue, Emmarentia, Johannesburg, 2195.[1] It is one of 90 branches governed by CoJLIS, a city-run system designed to support literacy, lifelong learning, and digital access across Johannesburg.
History
In 1886, Lourens Geldenhuys bought part of Braamfontein, when it was still a farm. He attempted to mine for gold but was unsuccessful. Geldenhuys gave a portion of the farm to one of his sons, Louw. Louw married Emmarentia Margaretha Botha. In 1937, Emmarentia was laid out, named after Louw's wife.[2]
Near the library are Emmarentia Dam, Johannesburg Botanical Garden, Melville Koppies and Marks Park Clubhouse. The library is situated in close proximity with local schools, which makes it convenient for learners to visit.[3]
Local schools around the library are:
- Emmarentia Primary School
- Greenside Primary School
- Greenside High School
- Parkview Primary School
- LittleHill Montessori Emmarentia
Collection and services
The library's houses books, magazines and audio-visual material for adults and children. It also provide access to OverDrive, an online library that provides access to eBooks and eMagazines.[4]
Programmes and events
The library implements programmes including career guidance, coding, robotics, storytime, digital and information literacy and book review sessions, demonstrating a commitment to enhancing its community through education.[5][6] Interested users can become a member of the library.[7]
The library offers a wide range of other services including literacy classes, classroom support, gatherings for older residents and literary competitions. It is a venues for lectures, exhibitions, and talks.
It offers reading development programmes for primary school learners.
- Battle of the Books: a reading and teamwork competition targeted at Grade 6-7 learners from public schools in Johannesburg. Eight participants per school are given 10 books to read. They are later quizzed on those books. These learners represent their schools. School compete in a group of 2-5 schools per round. The competition spans four rounds: library, zonal, regional and final. It runs from February to November.[8]
- Story Skirmish: a reading and teamwork competition targeted at Grade 4-5 learners. The competition has the same structure as above.[9]
- Science Scuffle: targeted for Grade 6-7 from public schools, this programme teaches how to find information inside Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) books. Eight participants are given a set of questions derived from twenty of the STEM books and the participants have to use keywords taken from the questions and use the keywords to identify a book that has the answer. Then they search the index to find the page(s) that cover the topic. They write down the answer, page number, title and author. It runs from February to June.[9]
References
- ^ "Emmarentia Library in the city Johannesburg". rsa.worldorgs.com. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
- ^ "History". Emmarentia Residents Association. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
- ^ "Emmarentia Library – Cojelearning". 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
- ^ https://joburg.org.za/departments_/Pages/City%20directorates%20including%20departmental%20sub-directorates/Library/Programmes-and-projects---the-big-five-.aspx
- ^ "Locked down City libraries think out of the box". Archived from the original on 2024-06-06. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ Writer, Staff (2024-02-21). "Joburg Library Service launches digital literacy competition". ITWeb. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ "Microsoft Forms". forms.office.com. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ Tsotsotso, Maseipati (2025-10-24). "Young book lovers shine at Joburg's Story-Skirmish and Battle of the Books finals". Joburg Newsroom.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b https://joburg.org.za/play_/Pages/Play%20in%20Joburg/Culture%20and%20Heritage/Links/Libraries/The-Story-Skirmish.aspx