Photo credit: Theresa Schoeman, Libraries Communications and Marketing

Dear All

Today as I stood on the Plaza watching the the installation of an exhibition entitled "A Tribute to the Human Spirit" I couldn't help comparing the quiet and peacefulness of this beautiful Autumn day with that of a year ago. 18 April 2021, a day which started beautifully like today, eventually became etched indelibly in our minds as a day of shock, horror and utter helplessness as we watched the well-reputed Jagger Library succumb to fire.

It's been a year of exhaustion and exhilaration, a year of despair and hope, a year of retreat and advancement, a year which stretched and challenged our thinking about heritage buildings, archives and special collections, our capacity to recover and resilience to take on new roles and responsibilities, and the generosity of the human spirit to be a part of something bigger than the individual self, and most importantly, a year of closing old and opening new doors to new paths and new beginnings!

By being focused and strategic about our needs and requirements, we relocated to new premises; consolidated all our dispersed materials to a single location; continued with remedial conservation by staff, an international visiting conservator, and interns; re-organised the thousands of crates into collections; commenced the transfer of primary materials into new archival stationery; sourced additional funding for critical conservation equipment, shared expertise, digitisation of at-risk collections, and future capacity building; and commenced the re-building the African Studies collection by re-shelving some of the salvaged and restored materials with the note "survived the Jagger fire" on each bibliographic record. In addition to the above, the outsourced restoration projects of our rare and antiquarian books and monographs, and audio-visual collections are well underway. After all this activity, we are now better positioned to present the 12-month Jagger Fire report to the UCT community. For more information on these efforts, visit the Memory@UCT blog.

While there is still a mountain of work to be done, which will take a few years and require additional personnel and funding, we do not believe the reconceptualising and rebuilding of the Library should be rushed. It should be seen within the context of the overall UCT Libraries 10-year spatial and design plan for coherence to an Afrikan context. It also allows us the opportunity to re-think Special Collections given our checkered political history and continued socio-economic disparities, the role of the library, librarians and archivists in building, preserving and making accessible these collections, the location and requirements of a new working archive and how do we transition to 'living archives' by enabling the convergence of historical narratives and present experiences and commentary for new contextual meaning and relevance.

As we remember this day and commemorate the library that was, we realise its loss was truly a historic moment. Being inextricably linked to this moment, it then becomes our responsibility to re-conceptualise it so that it takes on a new identity and surpasses that which it was. I marvel at the possibilities of what it can be!

As we reflect on this year and everything that has come to pass, I wish to acknowledge every person who contributed to the salvage of the Jagger basement holdings and the Special Collections team who have brought us to this point of recovery. I also wish to acknowledge all staff who ensured business continuity of UCT Libraries during this time so that we continued providing a service to the UCT community.

Exhibitions

Two exhibitions have been launched to commemorate this event and I invite you to visit:

1. "A Tribute to the Human Spirit” exhibition, a Jagger wrap-around exhibition which honours the efforts and contributions of every person who made this salvage process truly worthwhile.
2. “Of Smoke and Ash” exhibition, a collaborative initiative between the Centre for Curating the Archive and UCT Libraries at the Michaelis Galleries from 20 April to 13 May 2022.

Jagger Fire and Recovery Collection

Keeping a record of an event of this size and scale is a huge challenge, and the decision was taken from the outset to capture all aspects of this event on a daily basis. Given the keen interest shown from day one, it was our duty to share our story and experiences.

The new Jagger Fire and Recovery Collection website has been launched on Ibali, the UCT Libraries digital showcase platform and provides an excellent window into disaster recovery, managing communication and the human experience. Well done to Carmen and Sanjin, and the extended team for collating all the materials over the year and presenting it in this amazing format.

Stars of Hope

Finally let us take courage and hope from the Stars of Hope mounted in the entrance way of the Main Library, which were created by teen members of the Oceanside Public Library in New York and sent to us after hearing about the Jagger fire. By journeying together we will reach our new destination.

Best regards

Ujala Satgoor
Executive Director: Libraries