When does the life of an institution truly begin? Is it the moment the charter is signed, or does it start much earlier, in the quiet accumulation of knowledge? Professors Mpho Ngoepe and Lorette Jacobs recently explored this profound question, reframing the history of the Unisa Library and Information Services (LIS) not merely as a department, but as a living intellectual infrastructure.
The “185 in 80” Paradox
In 2026, Unisa LIS officially celebrates its Oak Jubilee—80 years of formal existence (1946–2026). However, a closer look at the archives reveals a deeper story: the oldest record in the library’s custody dates back to 1841, making the collection itself 185 years old.
This “improper fraction” of history—185 years of heritage tucked into 80 years of formal governance—challenges the traditional “formal date” narrative. While 1946 marks the administrative birth of the library (charters, budgets, and staff), the material origin began nearly a century earlier through:
- Early donations and acquisitions.
- Informal networks of knowledge sharing.
- The gradual formation of the university’s intellectual ambitions.
From Correspondence to CODeL: A Philosophy of Access
The true DNA of Unisa’s Comprehensive Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) model wasn’t born in a modern boardroom; it was prefigured in the library’s early “material origins.”
Long before the library was a building, it was a system designed to overcome a fundamental constraint: distance. The early practices of mailing learning materials and managing remote loans created the “proto-infrastructure” for what Unisa is today. The core logic has remained consistent for nearly two centuries: moving the information to the student, rather than requiring the student to move to the information.
A Living Intellectual Infrastructure
Professors Ngoepe and Jacobs argue that we should view the library’s history as a continuum—a movement from Roots to Reach:
- The Roots: The informal collection-building and early access practices that established the institutional “DNA.”
- The Reach: The formalization and scaling of these services into a massive digital and open-access infrastructure, now accessible via the library app.
By holding both the “formal date” and the “material origins” in tension, the “185 in 80” narrative provides a more resilient account of Unisa’s impact. It positions the library as both a heritage institution preserving the past and a forward-looking infrastructure empowering the digital futures of students across the globe.
