South African storyteller Gcina Mhlope, also known as the Mother of Books, moderated the opening ceremonies at the World Library & Information Congress. The hit of the morning was Justice Albie Sachs of the Constitutional Court of South Africa who lost an arm and an eye in a bomb attack while he was in exile during apartheid. He dedicated his talk to the librarian who provided books to him while he was imprisoned even though he never met her and she didn’t know the books were going to him. He said, “The librarian was just doing her job but she was illuminating and providing access to a world that might not have existed…. magical.” He was showed a video about the building of the new court building and library. It was great to hear him say, “Judges march on our libraries.” He talk about three types of libraries:
* Libraries walk around on legs — they are people with an oral tradition — “I am a library” — we should be recording our experiences
* Libraries as havens — a place of illumination, safety, gathering and conversing in your own langugage — a place to dream
* Libraries you can’t see — the virtual library and all the things that internet provides access to