The earliest South African libraries were established by and for European colonists in the 18th century, and well into the mid-20th century most free "public" libraries remained white-only institutions. Some South African libraries underwent desegregation in the 1970s, but it wasn't really until the end of Apartheid in the 1990s that emphasis was given to library services for all.
Like the United States, South Africa has different types of libraries and different ways of organizing them. Some of the major types include:
