SCHOOL LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES (SLIS)

School Library and Information Services (SLIS): A Mycelium Micro-Community for Reading Transformation - Growing Something Good Together

This platform echoes and extends the national vision of the South African National Literacy Strategy and Plan: 2024–2030 as a resource to support anyone who believes that every South African—put in part of , or location—deserves the joy, power, and opportunity that come from becoming a lifelong reader.

According to the constitution, every South African are people of any: 

ay not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more ground

race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth." 

Not everyone sees it—but something amazing is happening beneath the surface.

Literacy Development: South Africa’s Living Reading Network

In harmony with the vast sweep of South Africa’s landscapes—from savanna to karoo, across Highveld grasslands, beneath desert sands, and even under the waves of the ocean—an invisible network pulses with quiet power. Like the mycelium that weaves beneath the forest floor, reading is imagined here as a luminous web beneath every learner and every community, inviting them to grow joyfully in the light of stories and imagination.

This Literacy Development space on Moodle is a gateway into that hidden world—a place where libraries are towering fungi, casting broad canopies of knowledge, and each book is a glowing spore, just waiting to spark curiosity and wonder.

Across the country, from rural homesteads to buzzing metros, a quiet revolution is taking root. It mirrors the forest’s mycelium: an intricate network that lets trees communicate, share, and nurture one another. In the same way, South Africa’s reading ecosystem connects learners, educators, communities, and resources—offering support, sharing wisdom, and growing together.

At the heart of this network lies the South African National Literacy Strategy and Plan: 2024–2030—a grand design for collective growth. Like threads in a living tapestry, each of its six pillars holds a vital role:

• Policy Direction stretches out like a protective canopy, guiding growth across the network, with libraries positioned as the main delivery platforms for reading.

• Developmentally Appropriate, Culturally Relevant Materials act as the rich, spore-laden soil, ensuring every language and cultural context is honoured and nourished.

• Systematic Teaching and Continuous Professional Development function as the mycelial architects, creating strong, intelligent pathways for educators to lead learners.

• Parent and Community Engagement brings the tender dew that supports seedlings—new readers—as they reach toward confident literacy.

• Partnerships and Advocacy are the winds that spread ideas and action across distances, enabling collective movement and shared purpose.

• Study, Tracking, and Evaluation offer moonlit reflections, revealing the hidden patterns of growth and guiding the care of every young sprout to thrive.

In some provinces, this vision is strengthened through close collaboration between School Library and Information Services (SLIS) practitioners and GET Language Specialists—aligning classroom teaching with the joy of library-led reading.

The acronym SLIS, borrowed from Mpumalanga, is used here to name those working in school-based library services. It serves only to clarify roles, not to separate them. Public librarians, community librarians, dual-purpose library staff—all are vital strands in the same living network. Each has a part to play, and each nourishes the whole.

This Moodle space invites all who work with words—teachers, librarians, curriculum advisors, and champions of literacy—to walk the lit tunnels of text, to feel the steady thrum of community beneath their feet, and to imagine every learner—whether in the heart of Jo’burg or in a quiet rural village—growing as a reader.

For fun. For joy.
And for lifelong understanding.