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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to assess the role of academic libraries as social justice and ubuntu advocates, promoters and contributors within a community engagement framework. This was a qualitative study that utilised interviews with 20 library heads and 8 focus group discussions with librarians from South African university libraries to gather data. The findings reflect that South African academic libraries’ community engagement approaches can be grouped into several themes. These include contributions to quality education, health and wellness, work and employment, food security, addressing the digital divide, environmental concerns, equality and gender equality, the preservation of national heritage and food security. With regard to social justice, there were four themes that emerged from the participants’ narratives: (1) they stated that community engagement is a deliberate social justice action; (2) community engagement was associated with a contribution to the rights to education and information access, among others; (3) they pointed to the social-redress actions of their libraries as contributing to social justice; and (4) they associated community engagement with ubuntu, which they argued is itself a social justice concept. The findings support community engagement activities as a contribution to a socially just society and ubuntu. The results confirm the need for academic libraries (and universities in general) to go beyond their traditional role of teaching, learning and research support, and participate in community engagement not only as an expected social responsibility but also as a contribution to a socially just society and development. Based on the results, this article considers social justice and ubuntu as inherent to, and not an accidental notion of, community engagement.

Keywords

Social justice community engagement ubuntu academic libraries social redress human rights

Introduction

South Africa is a country that is still bedevilled by the legacy of its apartheid past, which includes high levels of illiteracy, high rates of crime, racial and gender inequalities, unemployment and poverty (Nkondo et al., 2014). The country remains one of the most unequal societies in the world, with a per-capita-expenditure Gini coefficient of 0.63 in 2015 (World Bank, 2019). On average, the top 10% South African population by income spent 7.9 times more than the bottom 40% of the population by income in 2015 (Statistics South Africa, 2020).

The legacy of apartheid is also reflected in the country’s library services. There remains a debilitating shortage of public and school libraries, especially in poorer areas. There were three public or community libraries per million people by 2007, most of which were concentrated in affluent urban provinces (Nkondo et al., 2014). Only 8% of schools had functional libraries (Equal Education, 2022). This situation has not significantly altered since Zaaiman et al. (1988: 28) first observed that libraries in poorer black areas were ‘second-rate compared to the opulent buildings and facilities often found in white areas’.

Despite there being disparities even within the academic library sector between affluent (previously white) universities’ libraries and their less endowed (previously black) counterparts, Satgoor (2015) is of the view that all academic libraries in the country are relatively well off compared to their school and community library cousins. This prompted Nkondo et al. (2014) to suggest that academic libraries can help address some of the inequalities within the library sector by identifying points of need and networking with others to address them. They can assist by donating materials to communities, offering training, providing information to informal sectors and small businesses, and setting up libraries or information centres in those communities and opening their doors to members of the public, among other initiatives (Akpom et al., 2020). In addition, they can share their resources and expertise with schools to address the shortage of libraries in that sector through community engagement (Bangani et al., 2016).

The American Library Association (2020) defines community engagement as ongoing networks, partnerships and relationships formed between university libraries and communities that are utilised to deal with societal problems collectively. According to Nkondo et al. (2014), academic libraries, like all libraries, ought to play a developmental role by alleviating information poverty, building social cohesion, and promoting and contributing to social justice. Lor (2021) is of the view that libraries do indeed promote equality of opportunity and combat information poverty. According to Mahlomaholo (2010): ‘community engagement programmes are perceived to be pillars of social justice’ (quoted in Netshandama et al., 2011: 122). This means that community engagement is a way by which universities and, by implication, academic libraries demonstrate commitment to social justice. The Education White Paper 3 reminds universities to consider past injustices when conducting their community engagement; they should engage in programmes that seek to ‘redress past discrimination and ensure representivity’, and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order, meet pressing national needs, and respond to new realities and opportunities (Department of Education, 1997: 2).

Social justice is associated with the values of good: ‘fairness, equality, inclusion, and diversity’ (Mathiesen, 2015: 198). Social justice is about giving a ‘greater voice and more representation for the underrepresented or underpowered communities’ (Clark, 2011: 383). It is about equality, solidarity, the eradication of poverty, human rights and human dignity (Osman and Petersen, 2013). It is about empowering the powerless. Rawls (1999; cited in Mathuews, 2016: 10) views social justice as distributive fairness. Morales et al. (2014) demonstrate that the concept encompasses the ability of all members of a society to participate in socio-economic and political activities that strengthen the democratic processes of a country. In the context of this study, social justice is broadly considered as all acts of libraries aimed at fostering human rights and social redress that are underpinned by the ubuntu values. The currency in South Africa is often to draw parallels between social justice and ubuntu (Raju et al., 2020). Ubuntu is an African philosophical concept that delineates humaneness or being humane from its literal meaning, and ‘the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity’ in the philosophical sense (Mukwedeya, 2022: 221). The concept is associated with the positive human traits of sharing, caring, compassion, empathy, helpfulness, togetherness and reconciliation – hence its appeal to proponents of social justice.

As a result of their inherent mission to contribute to the right to information and education, serve communities on the margins and provide safe spaces for the threatened, there is a growing interest in how libraries advocate for, contribute to and promote social justice (Gorham et al., 2016). In an editorial note for a special issue of Library Quarterly on social justice, Jaeger et al. (2016) point to the growing interest of library journal editors in social justice. They cite the example of three other library journals that had special issues covering the social justice theme in the same year to support their assertion.

Libraries have been called ‘both a site for social justice struggles and a social justice actor’ (Ncube, 2019). In trying to locate the role of libraries in social justice, IFLA (n.d.) also refers to ‘libraries…[as] social justice institutions, committed to giving everyone the opportunity to learn, grow and develop’, while the Committee of Higher Education Libraries of South Africa (2021) exhorts academic libraries in the country to forge partnerships towards the promotion of an inclusivity agenda and social justice, for continued relevance.

However, despite the growing scholarship and evidence of libraries as social justice actors, there remains scant evidence of how academic libraries contribute to social justice beyond their contribution through teaching, learning and research support roles. The aim of this study is to find out if and how libraries’ community engagement initiatives help libraries to advocate for, promote and contribute to social justice and ubuntu.

Literature review

This section seeks to provide an appraisal of relevant literature on academic libraries as contributors to social justice and ubuntu through community engagement initiatives. To provide a balanced view, the literature review covers both the international and national or South African context. Nkondo et al. (2014) aver that libraries can play a role in social cohesion by prioritising services for the marginalised. Ocholla (2006) divides the marginalised into five categories: the poor, the geographically isolated, the culturally and socially disadvantaged, the discriminated and the physically disabled. As in previous times (Zaaiman et al., 1988: 36), ‘a large number of South African populations are economically deprived, geographically isolated, culturally and socially marginalized’ (Ocholla, 2006: 16). Besides Ocholla’s categories, COVID-19 exposed the prominence of another category in South Africa, which can be referred to as the digitally disadvantaged (Jantjies, 2020). This literature review therefore seeks to develop an understanding of how library community engagement programmes are used to address issues that are pertinent to the marginalised as identified by Ocholla (2006) and expanded on by Jantjies (2020).

Gustina and Guinnee (2017) are of the view that libraries contribute to social justice through running community engagement programmes that are inclusive. These enhance academic libraries’ standing in society. Putnam (1993: 175) believes that ‘networks of civic engagement that cut across social cleavages nourish wider cooperation’ and contribute to the development of mutually beneficial networks. This means that by cooperating or targeting people across class, gender, colour and sexual orientation lines in their community engagement activities, academic libraries can enhance their partnerships and increase their social capital while also contributing to social justice (Bangani and Dube, 2022). Most academic libraries’ community engagement activities show an inclination towards contributing to social justice.

There are plenty of studies that demonstrate the commitment of libraries to social justice. They include Akpom et al.’s (2020) research, where it is reported that Nigerian university librarians contribute to climate change issues in line with the IFLA’s stance, which supports activist librarians in climate change through the IFLA Green Library Award. These librarians create awareness about environmental sustainability and support educational programmes to increase the environmental literacy levels of Nigerian communities.

In the case of Zimbabwe, Mataranyika and Mlalazi (2016) profess that the community engagement initiatives undertaken at the University of Zimbabwe were necessitated by a crisis or circumstances. They report that to achieve maximum impact, community engagement approaches at the University of Zimbabwe were targeted at the marginalised, ‘incarcerated, the visually impaired and the displaced’ (p. 1). This is in line with Nkondo et al.’s (2014) appeal for libraries to direct community engagement at the marginalised. The University of Zimbabwe Library held a literacy fun day at a children’s home, donated and set up a primary school library, installed assistive technologies for the blind at a school for the blind, and donated books to a maximum-security prison. These community engagement initiatives led to new strategic partnerships between the university library and the surrounding communities. This seems to confirm Putnam’s (1993) assertion that community engagement can assist institutions in developing mutually beneficial partnerships or relationships with the marginalised, closing the ‘social cleavages’ between the haves and the have-nots.

Many African countries are faced with a shortage of libraries (Kinyanjui, 2010; Mataranyika and Mlalazi, 2016) and widening poverty gaps, some of which are caused by the digital divide (Kinyanjui, 2010). In Kenya, Kinyanjui (2010) notes that there is a shortage of children’s libraries. A children’s library section was created at Kabarak University so that children can access material in the university library. According to Kinyanjui (2010), this has enhanced the status, reputation and visibility of the library in the surrounding communities. Further, it has led to a good relationship between the library and the community. In an effort to close the digital divide and improve the literacy levels of children residing in slums, a community engagement project was carried out at the Kenyan Kibera Community Library in collaboration with the Electronic Information for Libraries Public Library Innovation Programme. The project involved preloading tablets with educational content and then giving them to children for use in the library. This resulted in improved marks and performance among the schoolchildren who received such assistance.

Other forms of community engagement employed by African academic libraries include offering health literacy (Kamau and Gichohi, 2018) and information literacy (Mwesigwa, 2013) programmes to the general public. Health illiteracy is a reality in many African countries. This prompted the Kenya Methodist University to offer consumer health information literacy sessions to public librarians in Central and Upper Eastern Kenya, with the aid of a grant obtained from the Elsevier Foundation. The aim of this relationship was to assist the community and public librarians in advising community members on making informed health decisions. According to the Kamau and Gichohi (2018), after the sessions, many of the targeted public and community libraries established health corners, and there was a noticeable increase in the number of health-related queries, which attested to the new-found confidence of the librarians in answering such queries.

Another example of how libraries have contributed to social justice through community engagement is reported by Bantham (2020) at South Africa’s North-West University Library and Information Service, which partnered with the North-West Department of Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation and the South African Library for the Blind to improve reading access for the blind through offering them access to assistive technologies in the libraries in the North-West Province. The project also serves as redress for inequalities in the library and information sector and enables ‘local communities to have access to information to broaden their knowledge and in turn improve their socio-economic conditions’ (Bantham, 2020).

South African university libraries also provide training for library assistants in school libraries. A partnership between the University of Cape Town’s Library and Information Studies Centre, The Bookery and a group of schools in Khayelitsha Township resulted in the training of library assistants by University of Cape Town lecturers based at the Centre (Silbert and Bitso, 2015). The library assistants in partner schools in Khayelitsha were empowered to run functional school libraries. While the University of Cape Town brought its theoretical and academic know-how and expertise to this initiative, the communities gained practical experience, pointing to the mutuality of the community engagement project. Similarly, the University of Johannesburg has identified the sharing of information with schools as part of its community engagement initiatives (University of Johannesburg Library, 2020). The University of Johannesburg Library organises annual seminars to empower and share knowledge with teacher librarians. It is hoped that these seminars will improve teacher librarians’ digital literacy skills. According to Ocholla and Ocholla (2020), digital literacy skills are critical in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The empowerment of teacher librarians can also be thought of as closing the prevailing digital divide in South Africa. The digital literacy skills offered by the University of Johannesburg Library empower teacher librarians to undertake online learning, which is more prevalent post-COVID-19. Interestingly, the University of Johannesburg Library’s initiative does not appear to be unique. Carlito (2009) also mentions offering teacher workshops as one of the ways in which the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the USA contributes through community engagement. This is a reflection of how academic libraries can learn from the community engagement initiatives of others, irrespective of whether the initiatives emanate from underdeveloped or developed countries, and adapt them to their own environments.

These projects are a demonstration of how academic libraries have exploited community engagement partnerships with local communities and non-governmental organisations to contribute to social justice (Bangani and Dube, 2022). It has already been pointed out that South Africa continues to be afflicted by a high number of social maladies, which are often genderised and racialised. Most of these challenges are often ascribed to the history of segregation in the country, which led to opportunities being provided along racial and gender lines. As early as 1988, Zaaiman et al. argued that South Africa was a country of two communities. The white community was (and still is) mainly privileged, with better libraries and other facilities, while many members of the black population did not have access to libraries. This situation has not entirely changed since the 1980s. As a result of the prevailing social inequalities, Shawa (2020) concurs that, in the South African context, all community engagement should be driven by social justice principles.

Very few studies in South Africa discuss social justice without juxtaposing it with the concept of ubuntu. In library and information science (Hart, 2007; Nkondo et al., 2014; Raju et al., 2020; Vann, 2013) and other disciplines (Du Plessis, 2019; Gustina and Guinnee, 2017; Lim et al., 2022; Lim et al., 2022), studies associate ubuntu with social justice. Vann (2013) holds the view that, in the context of South Africa, social justice is often associated with ubuntu. Similarly, while discussing open access as a social justice action, Raju et al. (2020) confirm Hart’s (2007) assertion by associating ubuntu with social justice and the moral obligation to distribute a university’s intellectual output, thus demonstrating solidarity with the information poor.

Despite many examples of academic libraries contributing to social justice through community engagement, as outlined above, there is a scarcity of scholarly literature that explicitly discusses how community engagement contributes to social justice. Most studies of this nature can be found on the Web and in unaccredited conference publications. This study is therefore an attempt to bring this phenomenon to the forefront of academic discourse.

Methodology

This study is extracted from a PhD thesis. It was qualitative in nature and relied on multiple methods of data collection: online interviews with 20 library heads in South Africa, complemented by eight online focus group discussions with librarians and five telephone interviews with community members. However, for the purposes of this part of the study, the latter group’s data has not been used to avoid unevenness in the findings and discussion. The community members could not provide deeper insights into the community engagement approaches of libraries besides those in which they participated, and therefore could not provide rich data on the contribution of the approaches to social justice. The study employed a census sampling approach for the library heads, meaning that the entire population of South African public university library heads was enumerated. The snowball sampling technique was used for the focus group discussions as the investigator relied on referrals from the library heads.

Regarding the procedure, the study began with sending emails to all 26 public university library heads in South Africa, informing them about the study and requesting their participation. The email further asked the library heads to provide information on the process of acquiring permission from their universities’ gatekeepers to interview them and other staff should they be interested. Ultimately, 20 library heads were interviewed between July and December 2021, although the last interview was in February 2022 owing to delays in issuing permission from one institution. The interview guide was divided into seven sections. The interest of this study is in Section C of the guide, which sought to determine community engagement approaches in South African public universities and their contribution to social justice (for the exact questions that were asked, see Appendix 1). On completion of the interviews, each library head was asked if they would be willing to allow focus group discussions to be held with some of their staff and, if possible, to recommend staff to the researcher who had been involved in community engagement approaches in their libraries. Eleven of the 20 library heads gave their permission to the researcher to hold a focus group discussion with their staff. Eventually, only eight focus group discussions involving 33 librarians were held.

Due to its qualitative nature, the study relied on qualitative data analysis methods – specifically, thematic analysis. The online interviews and focus group discussions were automatically transcribed into a verbatim written format using the in-built mechanisms of the two software programmes (Microsoft Teams and Zoom in one instance). However, in downloading and reading the transcripts, the investigator realised that the transcriptions were not 100% accurate due to differences in the voice accents and other external factors. Together with a research assistant, the investigator listened afresh to the recordings from the interviews and focus group discussions and corrected the transcripts where necessary. Once the investigator was satisfied with the quality of the transcripts, they were uploaded to ATLAS.ti. To avoid confusion, all responses addressing a particular objective were grouped together in a single folder. Keywords and themes were identified and grouped together according to similarities. The data was then presented in the form of visual maps, tables, narratives and verbatim quotations from the participants.

Background and characteristics of participants

There were 53 participants in this study (see Tables 1 and 2). Forty-four were female and nine were male. Table 1 further shows that 20 of the participants were either heads of libraries or their designates. There were 15 actual heads of libraries with various titles such as library director, senior director, executive director and chief director. Five library heads decided to designate the interview to either their deputies (whose titles were director or deputy director in three instances), a manager or a senior manager. However, these are collectively referred to as library heads in this study, irrespective of the nomenclature.

In terms of institutional profile, six of the library heads were from universities of technology, five were from comprehensive universities and nine were from traditional universities. Traditional universities are theory-based universities that offer degrees at the undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral level. Comprehensive universities provide ‘a mix of programmes, including career-oriented and professional degrees, research masters and doctoral programmes, while universities of technology offer vocational education both at degree and undergraduate levels’ (Council on Higher Education, 2009: 8). South Africa has 12 traditional universities, eight universities of technology and six comprehensive universities.

Table 1.

Gender and position of library heads and their designates.

University type	Males	Females	Actual library heads	Designated deputies/managers
Traditional	1	8	8	1
Technology	1	5	4	2
Comprehensive	1	4	3	2
Total	3	17	15	5

Eight focus groups with 33 participants formed part of the discussions, as shown in Table 2. Twenty-seven of the focus group participants were female while six were male.

Table 2.

Composition and gender of library focus groups.

University type	Number of focus groups	Number of females	Number of males
Traditional	4	15	3
Technology	3	9	3
Comprehensive	1	3	–
Total	8	27	6

Findings and discussion

In the first instance, the library heads and librarians were asked to share their community engagement initiatives with the researcher. These were grouped into several themes: quality education, health and wellness, work and employment, food security, addressing the digital divide, environmental concerns, equality and gender equality, the preservation of national heritage and food security. Some of the main initiatives shared included: the establishment and setting up of libraries in marginalised schools and communities; support for reading and writing skills; hosting visits by school learners; the donation of books and various items to schools and communities; and recycling and participation in environmental projects. The interest of this section of the study lies in whether the participants viewed any or some of the initiatives as a contribution to social justice, and in what way they thought these initiatives helped them fulfil social justice.

Contribution of community engagement approaches to social justice and ubuntu

All of the participants (library heads and librarians) were asked the following question: ‘Would you say university libraries’ community engagement initiatives fulfil social justice?’ The view expressed by most of the library heads and librarians was that the contribution of their community engagement initiatives towards a socially just society speaks for itself, as the targeted people emanate from sectors of society that are marginalised or are, in one way or another, social outcasts. These include the incarcerated, institutionalised, poor, homeless, genderised, discriminated or historically disadvantaged.

There were various ways in which the participants contended that the community engagement initiatives of their university libraries contribute to social justice. The themes that emerged included: targeting the marginalised; contributing to the realisation of access to information; a form of social redress; ensuring equality; and empowerment of the marginalised. Despite the assertions from the participants that the projects speak for themselves in terms of their role in a socially just society, the investigator encouraged them to conceptualise this contribution.

Community engagement as a deliberate social justice action

The first theme was that of community engagement as a deliberate social justice action. Library Head 13 chose to be philosophical, insisting that assisting the vulnerable, who may feel rejected and outcasts in society, is itself a socially just action. They linked social justice to the concept of ubuntu by stating that involvement in such initiatives can awaken a sense of responsibility, the need for solidarity and ubuntu within oneself. So, the action is socially just not only to a member of a vulnerable group but also to the library staff member who participates in such an action because ‘it is the right thing to do’. It may mean that a librarian is more willing to participate is such action in the future due to the fulfilment that comes with it. Library Head 2’s response was telling: ‘For us, the satisfaction, the intrinsic rewards that come with it [participation in community engagement ], should be enough. It teaches good citizenship, ubuntu and the value of working without expecting anything in return’. Ramsey (2016) agrees with these sentiments in identifying the sense of fulfilment from participating in activities that contribute to the public good and developing an image of a library that cares as benefits of community engagement.

The participants emphasised the intentionality of their actions towards social justice. They used the word ‘deliberate’ in describing the contribution of their community engagement approaches to social justice. In fact, Library Head 4 described their community engagement actions’ bias towards the vulnerable members of society as ‘not co-incidental…but deliberate’. Library Head 9 described their actions as ‘meaningful…conscious, deliberate and well thought out’.

In support of the theme of social justice as an intentional action, Library Head 4 commented:

going to an old-age home, which itself demonstrates social consciousness and responsibility…by helping those people, it’s showing commitment to social justice, these are the people that may feel discarded…by the society. This is the kind of people we deliberately target as the library.

Library Head 16 added: ‘I think our projects speak for themselves. In most cases we go deep in the townships and villages…that speaks to social justice’. These are communities that are on the fringes of society or have poor backgrounds, which again demonstrates the social justice imperatives of the universities’ community engagement activities.

In agreement with this, two members of Focus Group 8 added that community engagement is a demonstration of the spirit of ubuntu because it teaches library staff the value and merit of giving to others. Another librarian added that it embodies our caring nature as human beings towards others. Concurring with the library heads, the librarians also emphasised the intentionality of their community engagement initiatives towards social justice. Focus Group 1 conceptualised this as follows: ‘we went there conscious of who we want to target, which are the vulnerable communities…it’s a matter of conscience…collecting food, knitting clothes for the homeless; it’s first-level awareness towards being socially just’. In line with this study’s results, Mills et al. (2012) found that their participants talked about community engagement as a deliberate approach to incorporating equity. Further, their participants referred to a sense of purpose in participating in community engagement. This reflects that, like the participants in this study, Mills et al.’s (2012) participants were being deliberate in their contribution to social justice through community engagement. Moreover, Morales et al. (2014) refer to participation in socio-economic and political activities that strengthen the democratic processes of a country as a socially just action.

In fact, Mills et al. (2012) refer to community engagement as a key concept of social justice in libraries. Therefore, where there is community engagement, there is a deliberate intent towards social justice. For Jaeger et al. (2015; cited in Saunders, 2017: 56), libraries are themselves social justice institutions, meaning that whatever action they deliberately take has to be socially just in one way or another. According to Closson and Mullins Nelson (2009), merely being involved in community engagement can be a way of teaching social justice and consciousness. Kodikara et al. (2013) articulate that the whole purpose of community engagement is to show solidarity with less privileged and vulnerable groups, hence these groups are always a common denominator in community engagement initiatives.

Some believe that due to the socio-economic challenges faced by South Africa, community engagement in the country should always be guided by social justice principles (Shawa, 2020). This means that the community engagement action should not be socially just by accident but by design. This is in line with the narratives of this study’s participants, who indicated that community engagement initiatives that do not seek to contribute to social justice values will not be approved in some universities in South Africa. To support community engagement as a deliberate social justice act, Mahlomaholo (2010; cited in Netshandama et al., 2011: 122) identifies community engagement as a pillar of social justice.

Community engagement as social justice through contributing to human rights

The second theme that emerged was that of human rights. The community engagement initiatives mentioned by the library heads that were aligned with human rights included: providing access to information for learners and other marginalised communities; reading and writing assistance; holding panel discussions on health issues; and the provision of information literacy training.

Five library heads and six focus groups revealed that some community engagement initiatives help to improve access to information. They raised the issue of rights in arguing that a socially just action must align with assisting another person to realise their rights. This is in line with Gorham et al.’s (2016) study, who refer to an intersection between human rights and social justice. They emphasise that, in librarianship, human rights and social justice are interrelated as the former can only be effectively implemented when there are systems of the latter in place. The library heads gave examples of such social justice acts and systems, including the assistance they render to high school learners, which they said helps them realise their right of access to information. The library heads believed that by providing access to information to the marginalised, academic libraries and librarians are demonstrating social awareness and responsibility, and this can be considered a socially just action. Indeed, Library Head 9 associated their community engagement efforts with the South African Bill of Rights: ‘I think if you think about our Bill of Rights, with the whole notion of having access to information, helping the visually impaired, the elderly, homeless and so forth…these are socially just actions’.

Conversely, a lack of access to information, often represented by a lack of libraries, can deny learners their rights to education and access to information. It denies the majority of learners access to quiet and stable learning spaces, appropriate supplementary learning and reading materials, audiovisual and digital media, and other learning aids. According to Mtwesi (2013) and Mojapelo (2016), a lack of libraries can be presumed to be a violation of learners’ rights not only to equal education but also to access to information. It deprives learners of access to a place of intellectual growth (Ngulube, 2019), meaning that those learners who do not have access to libraries are deprived of opportunities.

During the focus group discussions, a librarian commented that they had partnered with a non-governmental organisation to hold panel discussions on mental health issues. They reminded the investigator that mental health issues are a human rights concern in South Africa, as the mentally ill are often stigmatised. Lund (2016) is of the view that stigma can lead to the violation of the human rights of the mentally ill. By holding panel discussions on mental health, libraries are spotlighting an issue that is often hidden from public view, thereby contributing to the destigmatisation of people suffering from mental health illnesses. This is also a way of ensuring that people who suffer from such illnesses are not hidden or cast away, and raising awareness about mental health illnesses. Considering the stigmatisation of mental illnesses and the library openly talking about this reality, the participant felt that this was a socially just action. Library Head 4 added: ‘I do believe that highlighting mental wellness issues did a great deal in terms of contributing to social justice’. Generally, there was agreement between the library heads and librarians on the contribution of community engagement to addressing or raising awareness about human rights. Lund (2016) shares the sentiments of the library heads and librarians by calling for scholarly debates on mental health issues in South Africa to inform the public and reduce stigma.

Another common subtheme that emerged as a contribution of the participants to human rights was teaching information literacy skills to learners and teacher librarians. A Focus Group 8 participant referred to the imparting of information literacy skills as a foundation that fosters the realisation of human rights. This thinking aligns with IFLA (2005), which refers to information literacy in a digital world as a basic human right that promotes social cohesion. By being engaged in community engagement through the information literacy training of teachers, learners and other community members, academic libraries play a role in promoting a human right. Several other scholars connect information literacy to social justice and human rights (e.g. Battista et al., 2015; Saunders, 2017).

Community engagement as social justice through contributing to social redress

Another common theme from the participants’ comments revolved around social redress. While reminding the investigator of their university’s values, including social justice, Library Head 19 and the participants in Focus Group 6 commented that in carrying out community engagement, the schools that are being assisted are not well-to-do; rather, they are mainly rural and township no-fee schools that are in need of assistance. Library Head 19 stated:

It depends where one comes from, but the kind of projects that we’ve been doing and maybe I should start by saying that our focal area when we started looking at the school projects, we were focusing on Quintiles 1 to 3.

This was in reference to the South African school quintiles system, which groups public schools into five quintiles, with Quintiles 1 to 3 being no-fee schools from the poorest areas, and Quintiles 4 and 5 being fee-paying schools from affluent areas (South African Government, 2006). Nkondo et al. (2014) encouraged libraries to play an activist role in social cohesion by prioritising services to the marginalised. By targeting the marginalised, public universities play a critical role in fostering social justice. As already pointed out, many universities in South Africa already frame their values around social justice, which, in a way, compels libraries to promote those values in their community engagement endeavours. A Focus Group 6 participant, for example, was of the view that, due to the social justice values and foundations of their university, any community engagement project that does not seek to address a social justice problem will not be supported. She emphasised that the establishment of school libraries by their university library is for the benefit of poor schools. It is a step towards levelling the playing field so that they, too, have access to a library.

Several of the participants observed that the fact that libraries target women’s issues – such as by empowering them with the Take a Girl Child to Work initiative and sanitary towels projects – is testimony to their commitment to social justice and redress. A library head added that not having sanitary towels can have far-reaching consequences for female students, which may result in them eventually dropping out of school. By being provided with sanitary towels, they can see that the library cares about their plight, and this, in a way, can motivate them to work hard and complete their studies, which will have the effect of addressing gender inequality, gender-based violence and other social ills afflicting women in South Africa (Bangani, 2022). The participants considered their community engagement contributions to be a form of social redress. The libraries are involved in giving ‘greater voice and more representation for the underrepresented or underpowered communities’ (Clark, 2011: 383) and empowering the powerless (Mathuews, 2016). Mathuews (2016) refers to social justice as distributive fairness. This is very important in the context of South Africa, with its complicated history of discrimination based mainly on race but also on gender, leading to racialised and genderised socio-economic challenges. This is why most community engagement initiatives are focused not only on the black and the poor, as was stated by many of the participants in this study, but also on gender redress, as demonstrated by attempts to address gender inequities and inequalities.

This contribution to activities that are geared towards redress is in line with the Education White Paper 3, which reminds universities to consider past injustices when conducting their community engagement. As mentioned above, the White Paper encourages libraries to ‘redress past discrimination and ensure representativity’, and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order, meet pressing national needs, and respond to new realities and opportunities (Department of Education, 1997: 2).

Considering the above, the literature agrees with one of the study’s participants, who stated that community engagement makes a valuable contribution by assisting the vulnerable, who may feel rejected and like outcasts. This is, in itself, a socially just action.

Conclusion

This study has outlined the role of South African academic libraries as contributors to social justice and ubuntu through community engagement. Four themes emerged from the discussions with participants in community engagement as a demonstration of social justice: community engagement as a deliberate social justice action; community engagement as social justice through contributing to human rights; community engagement as social justice through contributing to social redress; and community engagement as a contribution to ubuntu.

Regarding community engagement as a deliberate social justice action, the participants shared that their community engagement initiatives target groups in society that are marginalised and considered as social outcasts. Those mentioned include the institutionalised, the poor, the homeless, the genderised, the socially discriminated and the historically disadvantaged. This notion highlights community engagement’s social justice and ubuntu intentionality. Thus, social justice and ubuntu are regarded as inherent rather than accidental notions of community engagement. The librarians also claimed that community engagement contributes to the realisation of human rights. Some of the rights associated with this include the right to education, the right of access to information and the right to human dignity. In addition, the participants claimed that public university libraries contribute to social justice through social redress actions, as their efforts seek to ensure fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity. These participants pointed out that most community engagement initiatives are focused on the black, women and the poor. The aim is to address racial, institutional and gender inequalities.

Finally, the librarians associated community engagement with ubuntu, pointing out that there are similarities between the two concepts. The participants argued that involvement in community engagement initiatives can awaken a sense of social consciousness and responsibility, the need for solidarity and ubuntu within academic librarians. These results confirm some of the positions articulated in the published literature.

The findings of this study will greatly benefit theory in the field of community engagement. They support community engagement activities as a contribution to a socially just society and ubuntu. Therefore, in reporting their community engagement initiatives, academic libraries are encouraged to frame them as a contribution to social justice and ubuntu. In this way, the powers that be are likely to develop an understanding of the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the community engagement initiatives and hopefully offer more support to libraries’ community engagement endeavours. This study also strengthens the theory of community engagement generally, and specifically in academic libraries, and should serve as an encouragement for more studies in this still under-researched and under-theorised niche area. The results of this study can be used when approaching university libraries for possible community engagement initiatives. These results show that university libraries hold community engagement in high regard as a contribution to social justice, social redress and human rights, and an ubuntu imperative. University libraries can use the results of this study to ensure that their community engagement initiatives embody social justice and report those initiatives widely for better support. De la Peña McCook (2011) laments the lack of articulation of community engagement initiatives as social justice and human rights imperatives, despite libraries fulfilling these values through their programmes.

One of the limitations of this study is that it only focused on academic libraries in public universities while community engagement transcends the divide between public, academic, school and special libraries. This study therefore calls for future studies to compare the contribution of community engagement initiatives to social justice across different types of libraries. A study that serves as an audit of the social justice contribution of community engagement initiatives in all library sectors would contribute immensely to theory in this field. Second, the study only used online qualitative research methods (focus groups and interviews), therefore studies utilising surveys and other research methods may have a wider reach and provide the perspectives and nuances of more people in the field. Moreover, studies emanating from other geographic regions would be a welcome addition to the literature in this field. So far, this niche has received limited attention in library and information science academic discourse and practice.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Siviwe Bangani

Appendix 1

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