Drive Through

Just stopping by to say hi. Will be back shortly.

In the interim have a look over at The CARLIN blog. Mark-Shane has some interesting articles there including some news from Barbados. Jennifer at The Caribbean Librarian also has some interesting posts as well. Enjoy.

More on the Re-opening of the Public Library

The official re-opening of the Main Branch of the Public/National Library was held Friday January 30th. Speaking at the associated ceremony Minister of Community Development and Culture Steve Blackett noted that the re-opening was considered one of the highlights to date of his ministry. The Library had been closed since August 2005 and as Minister Blackett once stated the incident was a national shame for a country which boasts of a 98% literacy rate. So it is understandable that he was proud to have the library up and running in just over a year of his DLP government coming to office.

At this ceremony the minister spoke of plans to invest in electronic resources to improve the availability and quality of services to the users. Mention was made of the acute shortage (island wide) of professional librarians and conservators. I look forward to seeing a few National Development Scholarships being awarded in these areas. I know of two persons who want to be trained but are unable to get funding to do so.

The Main Branch of the Public/National Library was formerly housed in a Carnegie Building; one of the few in the Caribbean and dating back to 1905. There are plans according to the minister to refurbish this building before the end of the first term in office. A national treasure such of this should never have been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair. The Barbados National Trust I am sure will take an interest in this project.

Much was said and promised at that re-opening ceremony. I look forward to the follow through.

More on the re-opening is available here.

Public Library Re-opens

After approximately two (2) years, that's right, two years the main branch of the Public Library / National Library Service has re-opened. It has been a period of promises and rumours of re-opening but until now no evidence to support these. This re-opening however is restricted to the lending services sections. The opening of the Reference Dept, the section which houses materials used by students to prepare for school based assessments, to do research for projects and to study for CXC and CAPE (O and A) level exams is yet to be opened.

This section is also the one where access to Barbadian and Caribbean material is facilitated. There is no other library in the country which provides this service to the public, and to the best of my knowledge, except minimally through the larger branches,which are in themselves very small spaces, no arrangements to accommodate this were made during the period of closure.

At least this present government seems to be aware of the importance of the Public Library / National Library Service and its value to the citizens. An early Christmas present or an Independence honour? Whatever it may be termed this re-opening is a good thing.

Jamaica Library Service 60th Anniversary Conference

The Jamaica Library Service is hosting for its 60th anniversary International Conference from February 16 -29 2009. The theme of the conference is Public and School Libraries: Your Partners in National Development.

Guidelines for presentations and workshops are available on their website. This is an excellent opportunity for presenting a paper.

Barbados discusses Freedom of Information Bill

The Barbados Government recently circulated the long awaited Freedom of Information bill. This piece of legislation seeks to provide access to documents or records of government agencies. The legislation seeks to make government information more freely available to the public.

The Freedom of Information Bill can be access on the government
website and in pdf here.

Discussion on the Bill and its provisions are encouraged through a series of town hall meetings and via electronic means.

To have an idea of the response thus far to the legislation check out the following blogs:
Barbados Underground, The Bajan Reporter and Barbados Free Press.

For more information on access to information in the Caribbean region have a look at Fay Durrant's article in the open access journal First Monday.

CLR James Manuscript Acquired

College & Research Library News (Feb. 2008) reports that Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired "the complete original work in its entirety" of Notes on Dialectic. The latter was written whilst CLR James lived on a ranch in Nevada between late September and early November 1948. This manuscript joins the extensive collection of other papers of James acquired by the library in 2007.

James, a Trinidadian, is widely recognised for his work Beyond a Boundary.

My Jamaican Family - Blog

I recently came across My Jamaican Family an interesting, illustrated blog by Jamaican-Canadian librarian Dorothy Kew. It explores the history of her family in Jamaica. At the same time it provides an account of Jamaica's social history.