The National Library: maintaining tradition while embracing modernity

Mar 02, 2014 News

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By Keeran Denny

The National Library was established in 1909 as a public facility to serve the citizens of Georgetown. Forty-one years later Guyana’s main library has extended its services to rural communities.

Today, standing as a heritage site, the National Library is forced to find new and innovative ways to compete with modern technology and an ever-growing “culture of laziness” to encourage persons, especially young adults, to use its facilities.
“Within the last 21 years there has been a decline in the number of persons who utilize the library,” says Emily King, Chief Librarian (Ag) who has been a part of the library’s family since 1992. Without having to review the quarterly reports to conclusively identify the reduced library usage, James said that there is no longer a rush, especially by school children, to research or read for fun.
King believes this is primarily because of the accessibility of technology in and around Georgetown.
Libraries are also changing to incorporate the traditional with technology such as the worldwide web. Several years ago, the National Library included a section for persons to research using the internet. Many persons using the library prefer to browse the web for information rather than utilizing the library’s wide collection of books.
“This new generation seems not to have an appreciation for a good book. And they don’t read as they ought to. They do not read for pleasure. They just do what they have to do and that is my observation,” she said.
According to King, students usually flock the library whenever there is a quickly approaching deadline for assignments hanging over their heads. Though students visit the library on Saturdays and some weekdays in large numbers, their stay is not extended as it used to be.
“They just come, get what they want, and it is this “culture of laziness” that exists. In my days I used to write, but many library users are opting to photocopy material. I often wonder if students question the authority they are using when they source information from the internet. Because, you know, anybody can put anything up online,” she said.
To bring the library closer to being “modern”, later this year it will have an online public access catalogue. This is being done in collaboration with the University of Guyana, which is providing experience and the skill of a software engineer.
Currently, the library is inputting data of its collections. Inputting of the special collection has been completed and staff is now working on the general collection. This will enable patrons to know the library’s collection and make reservation on books. The website will update patrons of the library activities. And, probably by year-end, persons could join the

library online.
All is not lost, since some parents have been encouraging their younger children to utilize the services that the library offers. Currently, the library has several programmes geared at encouraging young readers such as storytelling on Saturdays. It will be resuscitating the toy library for day care centres and nursery schools to stimulate children’s minds.
“If you catch them young then they would be able to continue in habit of reading. We want to catch them young, and retain them as young readers,” James added.
The library allows younger readers to borrow new classics such as Goosebumps books written by R.L Stein and the Harry Potter series written by J.K.Rowling. It is hoped children would develop a love for reading and expand their imagination to become great writers and thinkers.
King said that with the National Library’s doors open to everyone, the economy of the country should not be a deterrent to reading. The library receives a subvention from Government and patrons should make use of the services offered.
According to King, more needs to be done to market libraries and bookstores to stimulate persons’ interests in books. Some may argue that e-books are accessible on ‘Kindles’ and computers, but Guyana’s economy has not advanced to the extent where persons could easily purchase these gadgets, she said.

King said that the National Library and by extension Guyana cannot ignore that technology is impacting. In North America, libraries have been loaning ‘kindles’ to patrons but Guyana has not reached there, because of limited resources.
Feeling responsible to help increase the country’s literacy rate, the National Library through its mobile book service visits underserved communities. The service is currently extended to about 20 communities in different parts of the country. In addition, through the library’s rural services citizens could easily access books at the National Library’s five branches in the other Towns. King enlightened that Linden and New Amsterdam are the two branches with the most patrons.
She said that there are 21 library centre scattered across Guyana. Setting up library centre are initiated by community leaders. The communities are tasked with providing a secure building, a subvention of $10,000 annually, and selecting the staff. The Library is responsible for paying the overheads, determining if the selected staff is qualified, and paying the staff.
Newspaper reading is a very common feature of the National Library. On a daily basis many persons walk through the doors of the National Library just to read the newspapers.
“We can’t keep up with the persons who come and read newspapers. If the newspaper is late for any reason they quarrel. They believe this is their privilege and expect to have the newspaper,” she said.
Taking this is into consideration, the library has placed chairs in the lobby for newspaper readers, who represent various age groups.
Because the National Library is a heritage site, changes to the physical structure cannot be done. Rearranging the furniture is permitted and so the ambiance of the library is changed from time to time to attract young adult readers who want a more modern touch.
For instance, games such as chess are encouraged since it is known that they

stimulate the mind. The library is looking for other means to attract and retain members and readers, but that is dependent on the available resources. Surveys have been conducted to find out what students expect in a library. The responses were interesting and some things requested such as access to water are possible. However, the library could not have satisfied all the requests, such as placing all CXC texts.
King believes that the school libraries should provide CXC texts for students. But the National Library is a national/public library and therefore its budget cannot cater for CXC texts. However, some of those texts are on their library shelves to facilitate this specific category of library users.
While the National Library receives donations from private individuals and companies not all are accepted. The library accepts donations on the relevance of the books and physical conditions.
“We get a lot of donations. There is this concept when I am cleaning house I can send what I don’t want to the library. You might think it will be useful, but this is not the case,” she said.
King said the library has a responsibility to guard against books that are infested. Books infested with worms could destroy the library’s current collection. Moreover, the copyright date of books is important especially in the Sciences, since that is an area that is always evolving.
“What we have to tell members of the public there are good books, but we have to examine the books first. We are not going to collect books when we would not be able to use them. It may be too old. It may be 1977 and we are in 2014. So we cannot accept all the books,” she explained.
The manner in which persons store the books is also considered. For instance, some books may have mould, which is a hard fungus to get rid of, and this process requires a lot of money.

King said that though this could be done at the library, binding it would not be feasible.
Restoration of books is also another function of the National Library. It does work for the library and some Government Ministries. However, the work is not extensive because the materials are sourced from overseas and this is also expensive.
Though the library does not offer this as a general service, it would restore certain categories of books such as the Holy Bible. King said currently the bindery is restoring a 104-year-old Bible belonging to St. Andrew’s Kirk.

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