Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
NCERD Library – a wealth of educational information
It has been in existence for almost two decades but to some it remains non-existent. However, those who have sought with diligence to utilise its service can testify to the fact that the National Centre for Educational Research Development (NCERD) library is home to a wealth of information.
Three of the four staffers of the NCERD Library. From left: Alicia Rollox, Joan Grooms and Esther McKenzie
The NCERD Library, according to Librarian, Ms Joan Grooms, was introduced by the Ministry of Education in 1989. But it was not until 2002 that she was entrusted to manage its affairs.
In that year, though, it certainly was not much of a library, Grooms recalled. A trained teacher, Grooms was seconded by the Education Ministry to perform the task of librarian. From being a teacher at the South Road and Smyth Street Nurseries, Grooms was shipped off in 1994 to Manchester, England on a Library and Information Studies scholarship.
She returned and briefly continued teaching before she was thrust fulltime into the library arena. First to the Library at the Cyril Potter College of Education then it was over to the NCERD library for Grooms where she wasted no time in lending to the development and raising awareness about the library.
“The library was not functioning as it should when I arrived and many persons even today may not know that we have a library here. They may know about it if we have a special event like an exhibition, but that is it.”
She related that while there is yet much to be done, a lot has happened over the years in order to improve the status of the library and to bring it to a level that is best suited for the persons it was intended to serve.
The initial intent for the library, which is situated in the bottom flat of the NCERD building, was to be one that was recommended to serve the needs of the in-service teachers training at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Grooms disclosed.
And though the library continues to be one to meet the needs of teachers in general, the clientele base has since expanded. According to the spirited Librarian, the library with a staff of four caters to the general public and even students, who in some cases are given special attention.
Students, particularly those of the secondary level, are even afforded crucial help to complete difficult school assignments. “Some of them may have assignments and they inquire of us how to go about doing them. We encourage them to come in if their assignments prove to be challenging. It happens too when we have student teachers needing to have information. “There are times when the information they may be seeking from a particular type of book or a particular document may not be available so we have to draw from our background or whatever information we may be aware of and try to present in such a way that it is useful.”
In addition to a Reference section which enables persons to access information quickly, there is a Caribbean Section which offers information on the general Caribbean and Guyana; literature by Caribbean writers and a general fiction section are included as is an instructional material department where curriculum guides and any other document produced in a bounded form by NCERD are found within the confines of the library.
In addition, materials such as Secondary School Entrance Examination and Caribbean Examination Council manuals along with periodicals such as Guyana Review are available. There is, of course, the general study section and a children’s reading room, which could be considered the most exciting section of the library.
“Anybody can come in and use these materials; once we have them they are allowed to come in Monday through Friday to use them.”
Alicia Rollox, since 2007, has been charged with managing the Children’s Reading Room. She said that through invitations mainly, students from various primary and nursery schools are allowed to utilise the materials.
And they are usually intrigued by the many educational materials, especially the talking globe. “Each school is allotted about one hour to use the room. Students are accompanied by teachers and they are able to use all of our materials with guidance. Some of them even opt to borrow some children’s books as well.”
Cataloguing and classification of the materials in the library are tedious tasks and Ester McKenzie is responsible for these. She has been attached to the library for the past 15 years and like her other colleagues, she finds satisfaction in helping to provide accurate and needful information to the public.
Grooms admits, though, that there are many days of highs and lows in the management of the library.
“On a daily basis there are moments when we have a lot of people come in and we have to be there to help them all the way. There are times when persons don’t come as we would like. But we have come to understand over the years that persons would have varying needs at varying times and depending on what their needs are there is likely to be a higher or lower intake.”
And when there is a demand for information, the team of four is tasked with rendering their assistance to a room of about 25 persons. The first objective when a person enters the library, Grooms explained, is to find out how a member of the team can best offer assistance with the view of ensuring that the purpose of the visit is fulfilled.
NCERD library is primarily known to support educational activities but it had ventured into promoting agricultural activities during the recent Ministry of Agriculture’s month of activities.
It is the vision of Grooms that the standard of the library will be raised to a level of recognition and acceptance by ensuring that the goals of education are met.
“There are still a lot of things I would like to see happen here so that we can reach our peak. We don’t want to be on par with other local libraries because we are different but we want our library to better serve persons in the educational field,” Grooms added.
She is hopeful that the stock at the library will be increased, particularly in those areas that are relevant to persons that are differently able.
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