HOORC's new library extension

Painted murals lead HOORC library visitors to new space

The past weeks have kept HOORC Library staff fully engaged in getting ready to open the doors of its new portacabin extension. The building and fittings were provided by the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) project, so, on Friday October 27th, we held a launch of the new premises to thank the project managers who are wrapping up their work this month. The October sun beating down, Director of the University of Botswana Library Services Kay Raseroka and ODMP Coordinator Portia Segomelo stood under an acacia to talk about the library as a community resource. Local author Bontekanye Botumile presented a copy of her book, Tlou: the Elephant Story,to the library, and the youth group Diswammogo sang and danced during the unveiling of murals painted for the new building by Maun artists. Former colleague of the late Peter Smith, Mr Ronald Ridge Senior, planted a tree -- Ekebergia capensis -- in the library yard, and to wrap it all up, Terence McCarthy, who was visiting HOORC with another Okavango researcher, Thomas Gumbricht, presented the library with a copy of The Story of Earth & Life: a Southern African Perspective.