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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

South Africa

Overlaps - are they a problem?

The organisations do have clear roles and responsibilities but there is duplication of material and they often service the same clients.

They have a clear idea of their core business but do overlap.

Regarding the provision of audio books, the SA Library for the Blind and Tape Aids offer very similar services to similar consumers and stock the same titles. They thus appear to duplicate one another and may compete for funding.

Co-operation between Blindlib and other services at this stage is minimal but this could very likely improve. There is closer cooperation between Blindlib and the South African National Council for the Blind, than between Blindlib and other organizations. Different organizations serve the visually impaired person in different ways. International co-operation is starting to play an important role in terms of benchmarking not only Library and Information standards, but also in terms of IT skills and the use of production tools.

Blindlib will continue to expand and improve its services to its constituency.