The reference desk or information desk of a library is a public service counter where professional librarians provide library users with direction to library materials, advice on library collections and services, and expertise on multiple kinds of information from multiple sources.
Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa with 4,803,262 people, and is classified as a megacity; it is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international-scale mineral, gold and (specifically) diamond trade.
A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants.
Randburg is an area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, its administration devolved to the newly created City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, along with neighbouring Sandton and Roodepoort, in the late 1990s. During the transitional period of 1996–2000, Randburg was part of the Northern Metropolitan Local Council (MLC).
The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Zulu is the most spoken home language at 23.4% followed by English at 20.1%.
Damelin is a private college founded in 1943 by Benjamin Damelin. It has 6 campuses in South Africa and is owned by Educor group. Damelin offers degrees, diplomas and other higher qualifications, but is considered a college instead of a university due to the regulations for tertiary institutions in South Africa. Damelin is the oldest and most profitable education subsidiary owned by Educor. By November 2012, over one million students had graduated from Damelin.
Readers' advisory is a service which involves suggesting fiction and nonfiction titles to a reader through direct or indirect means. This service is a fundamental library service; however, readers' advisory also occurs in commercial contexts such as bookstores. Currently, almost all North American public libraries offer some form of readers' advisory.
The Daily Sun is a tabloid daily newspaper in South Africa. It has a circulation of more than 28,006 copies making it the second largest daily newspaper in the country to the Sunday Times in terms of largest circulation among all papers.
Al Jama-ah is a South African political party. It was formed in 2007 by present leader Ganief Hendricks and contested the 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024 national elections.
James Hall Museum of Transport is a transport museum that aims to preserve and promote the history of over 400 years of transport in South Africa in particular, and Africa in general. It is the largest transport museum in Africa. It is located at Pioneers' Park beside the Wemmer Pan in La Rochelle, Johannesburg, South Africa. It was established in 1964 by Jimmie Hall and the City of Johannesburg.
Vaughan Public Libraries (VPL) is a public library system consisting of twelve libraries and 1 express self-serve storefront in the city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada. It has a collection of more than 534,000 items and serves over 1.7 million visitors a year. VPL has twelve branch locations, including three resource libraries. The Bathurst Clark Resource Library opened in 1994. Pierre Berton Resource Library opened in 2004. The newest resource library, Civic Centre Resource Library, opened in May 2016, and houses VPL’s administration offices. The latest branch, VMC Library (located in Vaughan Metropolitan Centre), opened to the public in June 2022. VPL serves the growing multicultural community of Vaughan by offering collections in Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Malayalam, Persian, Portuguese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese, in addition to French and English.
The Johannesburg City Library is situated in the central business district of the City of Johannesburg. The Library is located in an Italianate building designed by John Perry which first opened in 1935. It has over 1.5-million books and items in its collection and more than 250 000 members.
Kya Sands is an informal settlement located in Region A of the City of Johannesburg.
Vasco Manoel da Gama is a South African politician with the Democratic Alliance and a member of the Johannesburg City Council. He most recently served as the Johannesburg council speaker until 31 August 2022 when a motion of no confidence was settled with 136 votes for the motion and 132 against it, resulting in Da Gama’s ouster.
South Africa's energy crisis or load shedding is an ongoing period of widespread national blackouts of electricity supply. It began in the later months of 2007 towards the end of Thabo Mbeki's second term as president, and continues to the present. The South African government-owned national power utility, and primary power generator, Eskom, and various parliamentarians attributed these rolling blackouts to insufficient generation capacity.
Ntombi Valencia Khumalo is a South African politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of South Africa from 2021 to 2024. She is a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Mpho Louisa Phalatse is a South African medical doctor and politician who was the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. A member of the Democratic Alliance, she served in the position from 22 November 2021 until her ousting in a motion of no-confidence on 26 January 2023. She is the first woman to serve as mayor of the metropolitan municipality, which was established in 2000. She is the first black woman to serve as mayor of the city of Johannesburg and only the second female mayor of the city after Jessie McPherson, who served from 1945 to 1946.
Wendy Robyn Alexander is a South African politician who has been a Democratic Alliance Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since November 2022.
City PowerJohannesburg is a state owned power utility, wholly owned by the City of Johannesburg. Its responsibilities include buying electricity from power producers and supplying it to the public, and installing and maintaining the electrical infrastructure in the city of Johannesburg. It supplies electricity to 3.2 million people in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area.
The Alexandra Children's Library began initially in a shipping container. However, this community resource has been transformed into the Alexandra Multi-Purpose Community Centre. The library is located in the heart of Alexandra, a township in the eastern part of Johannesburg. It serves the children and youth of Region E.
