Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century; Changes, Challenges, and Choices

i

Edited by Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick

Medford, New Jersey

ii First Printing, 2007 Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century: Changes, Challenges, and Choices Copyright © 2007 by Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, New Jersey 08055. Publisher’s Note: The author and publisher have taken care in preparation of this book but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the information contained herein. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Information Today, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Caribbean libraries in the 21st century : changes, challenges, and choices / edited by Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57387-301-7 1. Libraries--Caribbean Area. 2. Libraries--West Indies. I. Peltier-Davis, Cheryl Ann. II. Renwick, Shamin, 1961Z753.A1C37 2007 027.0729--dc22 2007009440 Printed and bound in the United States of America President and CEO: Thomas H. Hogan, Sr. Editor-in-Chief and Publisher: John B. Bryans Managing Editor: Amy M. Reeve VP Graphics and Production: M. Heide Dengler Cover Designer: Dana Kruse Book Designer: Kara Mia Jalkowski Proofreader: Barbara Brynko Copyeditor: Pat Hadley-Miller Indexer: Wendy Catalano

Contents List of Figures and Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Foreword, by Stephney Ferguson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Introduction by Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

PART I: Historical Perspective Chapter 1

From Then ’Til Now: The Development of Rural Library Services in Trinidad and Tobago . . . . . . . . . 3 Jennifer M. Joseph and Claudia Hill (Trinidad and Tobago, United States)

Chapter 2

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Jane W. F. Smith (Suriname)

Chapter 3

Historical Development of Libraries in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Monique Alberts-Luijdjens (St. Maarten)

Chapter 4

Broadening the Academy’s Influence: A Glance at Two Academic Libraries in the Caribbean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Willamae M. Johnson (The Bahamas)

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PART II: Management of the 21st-Century Library—Collections, Staff, and Services Chapter 5

Transformation and Impact: The Experience of Two Academic Libraries in Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Hermine C. Salmon and Heather Rodriguez-James (Jamaica)

Chapter 6

Collection Development and Management in Small AcademicLibraries in Jamaica: Where Is My Budget? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Dorothy M. Palmer (Jamaica)

Chapter 7

Ephemera and the Academic Library: The Response of the Main Library, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Beverley A. Wood and Barbara A. Chase (Barbados)

Chapter 8

School Libraries in the Caribbean: A Jamaican Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Cherrell Shelley-Robinson (Jamaica)

Chapter 9

Use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme for Legal Materials in the Caribbean . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Janice A. Modeste and Yemisi Dina (The Bahamas, Canada)

PART III: Innovative Services Chapter 10

Out of the Darkness: Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled in Trinidad and Tobago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Annette Wallace (Trinidad and Tobago)

Chapter 11

Reading Between the Lines in Jamaica’s Rural Libraries: Some Personal Impressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Beryl W. Johnson, Dolsy Smith, and Gwendolynn G. Amsbury (United States)

Contents

Chapter 12

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Experiences in Developing Customised Information Services for a Competitive AgriculturalSector: The Case of the CaribbeanQuestion and Answer Service (QAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Claudette de Freitas (Trinidad and Tobago)

PART IV: Integration and Impact of Information Technology on Library Services Chapter 13

The Impact of Modern Information Technology in the Caribbean: Exploring the Challenges for the Technical Services Division . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Gwyneth E. George (Guyana)

Chapter 14

Internet Access Management in Jamaican Public Libraries: The Role of Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Barbara A. Gordon (Jamaica)

Chapter 15

Digitization Initiatives in Trinidad and Tobago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Angela Ramnarine-Rieks (Trinidad and Tobago)

PART V: Library Cooperation and Resource Sharing in the 21st Century Chapter 16

COLINET: Making a Difference in College Library Development in Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Hermine C. Salmon and Marva Bradford (Jamaica)

Chapter 17

The Caribbean Library in Diaspora: Perspectives from Scholarship and Librarianship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Nancy Cirillo, Linda Naru, and Ellen Starkman (United States)

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Chapter 18

Building a Digital Library of the Caribbean: Crossing Borders . . . . . . . . . . 243 Erich Kesse, Catherine M. Marsicek, and Judith V. Rogers (United States, St. Croix, USVI)

PART VI: Education and Training of Library Users Chapter 19

Information Literacy Best Practices and Models within Caribbean Academic Libraries: The Role of Information Literacy Standards . . . . . . . 257 Vanessa Middleton (United States)

Chapter 20

Librarian and Lecturer in Partnership: A Caribbean Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Petronetta Pierre-Robertson (Trinidad and Tobago)

Chapter 21

Library Use in Academia: A Bahamian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Berthamae L. Walker and Raynold K. Cartwright (The Bahamas)

PART VII: Distance Education Chapter 22

Equivalent Library Services for International Students? A Comparison of Students’ Responsesin Jamaica and The Bahamas withthe Results of a University-Wide Survey . . . . . . . . . . 291 Sandra Ramdial and Johanna Tuñón (United States)

Chapter 23

Blended E-Learning Techniques: Lessons Learned from the Delivery of Distance Learning Courses to The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Carole Compton-Smith, Wendy Duff, and John McDonald (Canada)

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PART VIII: Caribbean Librarians Chapter 24

Whither Our Thoughts? A Decade of Scholarly Publishing by the Librarians of UWI St. Augustine Libraries, Trinidad and Tobago . . . . . . . . 317 Tamara Brathwaite and Niala Dwarika-Bhagat (Trinidad and Tobago)

Chapter 25

Change Management in Caribbean Special Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Sandra E. John (Trinidad and Tobago)

List of Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 About the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 About the Reviewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 About the Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

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List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2 Figure 1.3 Figure 1.4 Figure 13.1

Figure 13.2 Figure 13.3 Figure 24.1 Figure 24.2 Figure 25.1 Figure 25.2

Library training class and staff, March 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Book van during the 1960s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bookmobile service points in Trinidad . . . . . . 13 Bookmobile service points in Tobago . . . . . . . 13 Acquisitions functions: Summary of the activities undertaken in an acquisitions department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Cataloguing functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 ICTs and the total technical services functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Number of articles published in refereed journals by year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Percentage publication output by type of library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 Adapted from Steven Covey’s time-management matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Message to research staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Tables Table 2.1 Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table 8.1

Facts on Major Libraries in Suriname . . . . . . . 25 Educational Status of Library Staff at UTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Educational Status of Library Staff at NCU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Availability of Space for Activities . . . . . . . . 103 ix

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Table 8.2 Table 8.3 Table 8.4 Table 14.1 Table 14.2 Table 14.3 Table 21.1 Table 21.2 Table 21.3 Table 21.4 Table 21.5 Table 22.1 Table 22.2

Table 22.3

Services Offered to Teachers and Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Qualifications of Persons in Charge of School Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Source of Funding for School Libraries . . . . . 110 Content of Training for Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Content of Training for Users . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Content of Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Education Student Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Law Student Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Library Usage Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Reasons for Library Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Home Internet Access Among Education and Law Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Satisfaction Levels for the Resources and Services Offered by NSU Libraries . . . . . 295 Results to Question: “When Doing Research for NSU Classes, I Prefer to Start by Using” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Results to Question: “Indicate Your Use of the Library Resources and Services” . . . . . 296

Foreword Although libraries have been a part of the Caribbean landscape since the 18th and 19th centuries, Caribbean librarianship can be said to have made its debut only as recently as the mid-20th century when the first Caribbean librarians with professional certification began to provide leadership for the development of all types of library services in the region. The work of the early pioneers laid a solid foundation for their successors, and it is true to say that, by and large, the accomplishments of Caribbean librarianship have been noteworthy. This is evident by the level of success achieved in the development of libraries and library systems to meet the information needs of the community, especially when it is recognized that these libraries and library systems have been developed and are being operated in a challenging environment characterized by crippling resource constraints and expensive fastpaced technological developments. Records of the challenges faced, the solutions attempted, or even the accomplishments achieved by Caribbean librarians are not easily available as there is a dearth of library literature emanating from the region. Previous publications from the English-speaking region include Alma Jordan’s seminal work based on her doctoral thesis, The Development of Library Service in the West Indies through Interlibrary Cooperation, Scarecrow Press, 1970; Libraries and the Challenge of Change, Proceedings of the International conference held in Kingston, Jamaica 24–29 April 1972, Mansell, 1975, and Libraries, Literacy and Learning: Essays in Honour of Joyce Lilieth Robinson OJ, CD, MBE, FLA, LLD (Hon), published by the Jamaica Library Association in 1994. These have been complemented by articles in refereed journals published by librarians in academic institutions who seek to survive the “publish or perish” requirements of their institutions as well as conference proceedings primarily from the annual conferences of the Association of Caribbean Universities Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL), which was founded in 1969. It is, therefore, with pleasure that I welcome the publication of Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century: Changes, Challenges, and Choices as an effort to help fill the gap in the literature of librarianship in this unique multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual Caribbean region. The collection of papers is an eclectic mix of topics, approaches and styles. Topics include the traditional public, school, academic, and special xi

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libraries as well as the challenges associated with modern technological applications and the issues involved in the delivery of services in the modern information environment. Approaches include case studies, research findings, and historical perspectives, while styles range from the scholarly and the thought-provoking through to the critical. Altogether, the collection should satisfy a wide range of interests for students of international librarianship in schools of Library and Information Science, professional practitioners in developing countries who face similar challenges, or those who merely want to learn about developments in library and information work in different parts of the world. The editors, Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick, two relatively young Caribbean librarians, deserve congratulations on this bold initiative, which has provided yet another outlet for Caribbean librarians who wish to contribute to the literature of librarianship in the region. —Stephney Ferguson, former Campus Librarian, UWI, Mona, 1997–2004, and University Librarian for The University of the West Indies, 1998–2004

Acknowledgments The editors wish to thank the many individuals who have supported us in the successful completion of this venture. Our thanks and appreciation to our publishers Information Today Inc, primarily to John Bryans, editor-inchief and publisher, books division, who courageously supported our proposal, and Amy Reeve, managing editor, who tirelessly and patiently responded to an abundance of queries. To our distinguished panel of external reviewers, Stephney Ferguson, Derek Law, Maurice Line, and Margaret Rouse-Jones, we are indebted for your help in resolving many of the difficult issues of selection, review, and editing of individual articles. A remarkable group of contributors has made this book possible, and we would like to express our gratitude to all who have willingly endured our editorial comments with good grace and timely response. To our friends and families who have given unstinting support and much needed advice, we are eternally grateful.

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Preface There are two seminal publications that are considered valuable compilations for tracing the development of library services in the Caribbean which stimulated ideas for this publication: The Development of Library Service in the West Indies through Interlibrary Cooperation by Alma Jordan, former Campus Librarian at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago,1 and British Caribbean by Daphne Douglas, former Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies, UWI, Mona, Jamaica.2 Editor Shamin Renwick has also produced a work titled Electronic Information Resources in the Caribbean, which complements this publication as it collates papers and presentations at the 34th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2004.3 During preliminary discussions about this book on Caribbean libraries, our intent was clearly articulated: tap the burgeoning and established writing talents of library and information professionals within the Caribbean region to produce a work that describes their concerns, efforts, and experiences in addressing the myriad of issues affecting libraries in the region. We believe that we were successful in this endeavor. Overall, there were 36 proposals for articles from 55 contributors. For the final manuscript, 25 articles were selected from 41 professionals employed in academic, public, national, special, and school libraries as well as an archivist, an information consultant, and two university lecturers. These contributors come from St. Maarten; The Bahamas; Barbados; Guyana; Jamaica; Suriname; St. Croix; Trinidad and Tobago; Canada; and the U.S. These contributions provide in-depth analysis and coverage of topics relevant not only to libraries and other information centers in the Caribbean but may also be of interest to libraries in other parts of the world. Subject areas include management of collections, staff and services, implementing innovative services, integration and impact of information technology on library services, library cooperation and resource sharing, education and training of library users, delivering courses to distance learners, and the role of the 21st-century librarian. Articles were selected and reviewed based on contribution to the field of library and information science, clarity, and relevance, and where applicable, xv

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literature review and methodology were criteria considered as well. The review system was two-tiered. The editors did the initial selection and notified contributors, accordingly. After submission, the contributions were reviewed by the editors and a panel of external reviewers. Authors were contacted for editorial changes as necessary. As with any publication of this nature, which attempts to be comprehensive in its coverage of a geographically dispersed, multilingual, multicultural region with a wide range of topics, there were some limitations, many of which related to the constraints of time allotted to the completion of the manuscript and the fact that both editors reside in different countries. Fortunately, with the extensive use of modern technology (mainly e-mail and online chat), we successfully managed to overcome these difficulties and met our stated deadlines. Another factor that came under consideration was the usage of both the British and American English spelling. We made the editorial decision—wishing to maintain the influence of the Caribbean where both forms are in common use—that within any one chapter the spelling will be consistent but no single style (British or American) was chosen for the entire book. We hope that this book will serve as a valuable research tool and provide practical lessons for librarians, information professionals, computer scientists, bibliographers, documentalists, educators, library science students, and persons with a casual or passing interest in learning more about libraries in the Caribbean. We strongly believe that this book captures the core body of knowledge of an established profession in a rapidly changing information environment in a comprehensive and up-to-date manner. Our ultimate goal: to produce a work that informs, educates, and stimulates discussion among librarians and other information specialists about future strategic directions for libraries in the Caribbean region and the rest of the world. —Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick

ENDNOTES 1. Alma Jordan, The Development of Library Service in the West Indies through Interlibrary Cooperation (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970). 2. Daphne Douglas, “British Caribbean,” in International Handbook of Contemporary Developments in Librarianship, ed. M. Jackson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981). 3. Shamin Renwick and Jaishree Kochhar, eds., Electronic Information Resources in the Caribbean: Trends and Issues: Proceedings of the ACURIL XXXIV Conference, May 23–29, 2004, Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad: UWI, 2005).

Introduction Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick The term Caribbean, if applied in its widest geographic context, is said to describe all the lands washed by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The definition thought appropriate for this book is the definition used by the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) in its guidelines for membership.1 This description includes those countries in the Caribbean archipelago, the mainland countries (including the Guianas), and the states of the United States of America, which border on the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico.2 This region, which includes many territories with historical, political, linguistic, and cultural affiliations that are as varied as their past, has been greatly influenced by the relationships of the pre- and postcolonial era. English, French, Dutch, and Spanish are the main languages but local languages such as Papiamento (in the Dutch Islands) and Creole (in the French Islands) are also spoken (Ferguson 46). This book seeks to document the state of Caribbean libraries in the 21st century by examining the responses by these institutions to the changes, challenges, and choices in an increasingly electronic and virtual information environment. This is a topic that has generated considerable discussion among practitioners in the field and is an issue often highlighted during presentations at local, regional, and international library conferences. The changes are self-evident: the emergence of the Internet, the unprecedented growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the multitude of formats now available for storing and retrieving information. The challenges are not unique to Caribbean libraries but also affect libraries in the developing and developed world: budget cuts and shrinking resources, retraining staff and reorganizing workflows, delivering traditional and innovative services to an increasingly technologically savvy consumer. The choices, although seemingly obvious in this complex information environment, are not always easily and readily adopted: redesign and reorganization of existing infrastructure; make efficient and effective use of available resources; harness and integrate new technologies into existing services; cultivate alliances and partnerships with aggressive competitors in the information arena such as Google, Yahoo!, and other information providers. xvii

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This collection of selected articles attempts to address the myriad issues identified above by providing information that is theoretical as well as practical, utilizing original research, surveys and case studies, personal narratives, and insightful opinion pieces drawn from regional and international perspectives. The approaches of our contributors are almost as diverse as the libraries and information centers they describe. From the variety of approaches and indepth (perhaps distinctive) analyses provided, a number of common themes can be readily identified. These themes are discussed below using the headings as outlined in the book’s 25 chapters and are considered by the editors as significant and worthy of mention as they clearly link the development of modern-day Caribbean libraries within a global construct.

PART I: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Articles in the introductory chapters trace the development of different library types (academic, public, school, special, and national) in the Englishspeaking Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, and Grenada; and the Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries of Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. Collectively, the four chapters in this section adequately give the reader a sense of the historical past from which many of the libraries have developed as the authors present comprehensive overviews and analyses of the influence and development of Caribbean libraries in their countries. Perhaps what is most significant about these introductory chapters is the fact that the contributors effectively relate the history of individual libraries to the social, political, economic, and intellectual environment in which these libraries were developed. Johnson, in Chapter 4, which examines the development of two academic libraries in the Caribbean, encapsulates this approach when she suggests that “libraries are not an end in themselves but rather are the images of the political, social and economic fabric of the societies in which they exist. Their evolution and sustainability over time are greatly influenced by the prevailing socio-economic development of individual nations and that of the global community.” The value of the content of this section is enhanced by the fact that all contributors Joseph, Hill, Smith, Alberts-Luijdjens, and Johnson provide unique information that has not been previously unearthed and documented. For example, the comprehensive chapter by Smith on the development of libraries in Suriname has not been documented in such detail before and, certainly, not in English.

PART II: MANAGEMENT OF THE 21ST-CENTURY LIBRARY: COLLECTIONS, STAFF, AND SERVICES One identifiable theme in many chapters is the challenge of managing Caribbean libraries in countries where national budget allocations have been

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substantially reduced over time. The reality of working with reduced budgets has coerced many library directors and managers into becoming more creative in their response to increasing calls by stakeholders for new and improved facilities, products, and services. Chapter 5 in Part II shares the experience of two academic libraries in Jamaica, whose parent institutions successfully made the transition from college to university status. In an environment where efficient management of resources—financial, physical, human, and technological—is considered vital for success, the authors Salmon and Rodriguez-James provide instructive advice for peer institutions hoping to attain similar status: “The transition of a college to university requires careful planning, enthusiastic implementation and critical review of goals and objectives. The political, social, economic and intellectual environment in which the institution operates must always be studied and anticipated in order to be appropriately responsive.” Two chapters in this section allude to the challenges of managing library collections that now include a mix of traditional materials (printed books, journals, audio-visual) and emerging formats (e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, e-theses, Internet resources, digital objects, multimedia). Palmer, in her examination of collection development and management in small academic libraries in Jamaica, maintains that management of such an eclectic collection within this technological age is critical and challenging. Critical because library users will judge the effectiveness of the service by the quality of the collection and its ability to satisfy their needs and expose them to trends in new and existing subject areas, and challenging because of the financial and economic constraints alluded to above. Within such an environment, Palmer views the development of a collection development policy as an essential tool. According to Palmer, such a policy will provide the basic guidelines for the selection, acquisition, and evaluation of resources in all formats including print and electronic. In addition to managing print and electronic resources, should Caribbean libraries have responsibility for collecting, managing, and providing access to ephemeral materials that document important aspects of our Caribbean cultural heritage? Authors Wood and Chase in Chapter 7 provide convincing reasons why the Main Library at The University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados should aggressively take on this role and also highlight the intrinsic value of ephemeral material to research and teaching within the academic environment. In Chapter 8, Shelley-Robinson provides a detailed and insightful overview of the historical development of school libraries in the Englishspeaking Caribbean using data gathered from a national survey of school libraries in Jamaica and by consulting current literature on the topic. ShelleyRobinson appeals to regional governments to provide direct financial support for school libraries. She does this by reiterating the basic tenets of the IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto, which states that “… the school

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library is essential to every long-term strategy for literacy, education, information provision and economic, social and cultural development.” ShelleyRobinson urges Caribbean librarians to act as advocates, forming strategic alliances with pressure groups to strengthen their case in their bid to lobby government to recognize the important contribution these [school] libraries can make in helping the society to produce information-literate citizens capable of functioning successfully in an information society. This section on the management of the 21st-century library concludes with a chapter jointly authored by Modeste and Dina who evaluate the historical significance and usefulness of the Moys Classification scheme to law libraries in the Caribbean and suggests directions for future developments of this scheme.

PART III: INNOVATIVE SERVICES In an environment where change is constant, there is one challenge that can be identified as continually affecting libraries and other knowledgebased centers. The challenge is this: how to harness and use information technology to provide core or traditional information services to a diverse clientele while simultaneously introducing new and innovative services. These innovative services must be relevant and accessible to diverse communities; emphasize the library’s role as a center for life-long learning and self-development; underscore the social responsibilities of libraries in bridging cultural gaps; and promote libraries as enablers, providing information for decision and policy-making. Chapters in this section profile innovative library services in different library types. In Chapter 10, Wallace discusses library services for the blind and print disabled in Trinidad and Tobago. She describes this service as a model for local and Caribbean libraries. This service also has the distinction of being awarded the Prime Minister’s Innovating for Service Excellence—the Social Inclusion Award in 2004. Wallace attributes this successful implementation of assistive technology to several factors: library legislation that mandated that the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) provide a national information service for the benefit of the physically disadvantaged; donations and support from philanthropic organizations, and the opening of a state-of-the-art national library in 2003 with the infrastructure to support these enhanced services. For the expansive public and school library service network in Jamaica (121 branch libraries and approximately 900 school libraries), the key to developing innovative service lies in the central administrative agency’s, that is, the Jamaica Library Service’s (JLS) willingness to delegate administrative independence and promote the potential benefits of shared resources among the network of rural branch libraries in Jamaica. This is the somewhat defiant view put forward in Chapter 11 by authors Johnson, Smith, and

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Amsbury in what can best be described as an anecdotal overview of the rural library service in Jamaica. The authors envision rural libraries in Jamaica as serving as an important source of information and as a social institution. They strongly believe that rural libraries would benefit from each other by sharing ideas and best practices on how to utilize scarce resources to provide patrons with appropriate, timely, and quality services. But, for this to become a reality, “there would first need to be autonomy in the JLS management at the regional and parish levels, that would ultimately give branches the freedom, along with the requisite resources and support, to develop programs and collections that reflect the needs and characteristics of their unique communities.” De Freitas builds on this concept of collaboration and shared resources in Chapter 12, which chronicles the challenges in the development of a regional network of customized information and reference services known as QAS (Question and Answer Service) for the Caribbean agricultural sector. De Freitas thinks that the need for developing such a network was essential because QAS provides the resources and services required for policy makers and other priority stakeholders to make the critical link between research, information, and development, which will ultimately improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. As de Freitas notes in the opening lines of the chapter: “With the advent of the information technology revolution, information is now viewed as critical element in the development process.” This view of information as a valuable economic resource is strongly supported in the management literature. One such proponent was noted management consultant Peter Drucker, who in describing the knowledge society stated that “the basic economic resource is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge” (Drucker 233). The QAS, if it can overcome some of the challenges as outlined by de Freitas, has the potential to develop into a 24/7 virtual reference cooperative, delivering round-the-clock, live reference services to virtual and walk-in clientele.

PART IV: INTEGRATION AND IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON LIBRARY SERVICES The opportunities presented by the advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) is one of the underlying themes of Chapters 13–15 in Part IV. These chapters focus on libraries’ efforts to harness these emerging technologies and integrate ICTs into existing services in their bid to invade users’ spaces, taking services and content to users where they need it the most. In Chapter 13, George provides a comparative analysis of the impact of modern information technology and the challenges it poses for the Technical Services Division of libraries in developed and developing countries.

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In Chapter 14, Gordon’s article is devoted to Internet access management. This emphasis on the Internet is deemed appropriate, given the fact that since its widespread public adoption in the 1990s, the Internet has inextricably woven itself into every facet of human existence, influencing and in some ways reshaping every aspect of modern life—our communications pattern, the way we seek information, the way we think, and, in some instances, the way we act. As a result, the demand to provide this service is pervasive throughout libraries in the Caribbean despite the low levels of resource allocations by some regional governments. Gordon evaluates the implementation of Internet access policies within the public library system in Jamaica. She clearly articulates the need for such policies that will guide librarians through a maze of moral, ethical, and legal challenges associated with access to the Internet. Chapter 15 explores initiatives to develop digital collections in the Caribbean and to make these collections accessible via the Internet. According to Ramnarine-Rieks, this major push to develop digital collections is an attempt to satisfy the needs of the 21st-century library user, often characterized as information-addicts, eager for quick access to current and personalized electronic information (De Rosa et al. 5) who are demanding access to information packaged in a manner that they have grown accustomed to on the basis of their Web surfing experiences. The value of Chapter 15 lies in the in-depth profiles and citations provided, leading readers to discover existing digital collections and digital networks in the Caribbean and Latin American region.

PART V: LIBRARY COOPERATION AND RESOURCE SHARING IN THE 21ST CENTURY This section on library cooperation comprises three chapters, and it is one of the few sections where all the chapters were the output of collaborative writing. This is deliberate because collaboration and the formation of strategic alliances can assist in the equitable acquisition of and access to resources and services, and can be viewed as the panacea to many of the challenges currently faced by Caribbean libraries, which have been discussed in many of the chapters. Chapter 16, which focuses on the operations of the College Libraries Information Network (COLINET) is the first of two chapters that outline the existing infrastructures in place to promote collaboration among Caribbean libraries. Salmon and Bradford examine the role of COLINET in developing and improving the status of libraries in tertiary education institutions in Jamaica. Given the success of this network, the authors are of the opinion that it may already have the resources and characteristics required to evolve into a full-fledged consortium. These include its present role as a catalyst for change, its ability to provide logistical support through consultations, library visits, meetings, seminars, workshops, and its promotion of the use of standards.

Introduction

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The commitment of the University of Illinois at Chicago Library to initiate collaborative projects with peer institutions in the Caribbean to preserve the H. D. Carberry Collection is discussed in Chapter 17, “The Caribbean Library in Diaspora: Perspectives from Scholarship and Librarianship,” which is a unique chapter written by an academic and two librarians. As the authors note in the chapter, there are ethical questions about such purchases of rare collections and the subsequent removal from their country of origin (in this case Jamaica). In fact, some readers—on reading this chapter—may view this acquisition as a visible manifestation of 21st-century imperialism. The solution—as proposed by the authors—is a dynamic, collaborative effort, with Caribbean libraries, in which technology can be harnessed to make the valuable works in this collection of Caribbean literature widely accessible, in a sense, returning the collection back to the Caribbean. Chapter 18 in Part V provides tangible evidence that Caribbean libraries are successfully engaged in creating a Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). Described as a regional cooperative for construction and administration of an electronic gateway to Caribbean collections, dLOC builds on the collaborative experience of institutions in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and the state of Florida. The article identifies the various institutions from which dLOC have already gained pledged support to digitize and contribute rare and valuable resources and concludes by inviting all eligible institutions to become members and contribute to the growing collections of Caribbean resources within this regional network.

PART VI: EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF LIBRARY USERS How do information professionals maintain relevancy in a world where the Internet is perceived as satisfying the information needs of our clients, usurping our primacy in a field that we have long dominated? A logical answer may be that librarians and other information professionals must now assume the role of instructor, identifying specific competencies that the library user needs to access information and developing strategies to help these users acquire these competencies. This instructional role is now “as great or even greater than the traditional reference role” (Birks and Oesleby 33). Chapters in Part VI address this issue as contributors focus on the education and training of library users. Middleton (Chapter 19) conducts a survey of information-literacy practices and models within Caribbean academic libraries and also examines the role of existing information-literacy standards. Pierre-Robertson (Chapter 20) discusses the benefits and challenges of collaboration between lecturer and librarian in teaching an integrated course built on library research and critical-thinking skills. In Chapter 21, authors Walker and Cartwright focus on the role of library as place by surveying undergraduates and postgraduates

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

who use the facilities and services provided by The College of The Bahamas Libraries.

PART VII: DISTANCE EDUCATION The chapters in Part VI are ably complemented by the two chapters in this section on distance education. Ramdial and Tuñón (Chapter 22) provide a comparative analysis of library services for on-campus students at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Florida and NSU’s international students based in The Bahamas and Jamaica. Authors Compton-Smith, Duff, and McDonald (Chapter 23) report on the lessons learned in delivering two onesemester distance learning courses on records management at the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at UWI in Mona, Jamaica, using both Web-conferencing technology and learning management software.

PART VIII: CARIBBEAN LIBRARIANS Chapters 24 and 25 provide some insight into the role, function, and character of Caribbean librarians. Issues identified in this section should be of much interest, and perhaps are all too familiar, to librarians and other information professionals. Two chapters are not adequate to provide the in-depth scrutiny and analysis required for such a topic, and we hope that our colleagues will address these and similar issues in future publications. Chapter 24 is a study by Braithwaite and Dwarika-Bhagat, which seeks to determine if the professional librarians at the UWI St. Augustine Campus Libraries System have noted the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within their academic library publishing efforts. Given the impact and wide-scale adoption of ICTs discussed in many of the preceding chapters, this study is an appropriate topic to end this collection of selected articles on Caribbean libraries. The authors’ list of published scholarly works, included as an appendix at the end of the chapter, is a fair indicator of an increase in publication output by librarians at this institution over a 10-year period and evidence that many librarians have found it necessary to document the impact of ICTs on librarianship. John, in “Change Management in Caribbean Special Libraries” (Chapter 25), analyzes the various factors that have altered the environment in which Caribbean special libraries function today. John is quick to point out that many of the lessons she alludes to will be relevant to libraries of all types and sizes. She identifies one of the most dramatic shifts as occurring in the relationship between the library service and its users. In this new increasingly electronic environment, the user is made suddenly independent of the modest efforts of the library by the infinite

Introduction

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research possibilities available via the Internet—now regarded by most librarians as the reference source of first choice. In the face of this and other challenges, how must the librarian respond? John provides compelling advice in this instructive chapter.

ENDNOTES 1. This geographic description was obtained from the ACURIL Web site (acuril.uprrp.edu/que.htm). One of the major objectives of this regional library association as stated on the Web site is to facilitate the development and use of libraries, archives, and information services, and the identification, collection, and preservation of information resources in support of the whole range of intellectual and educational endeavors throughout the Caribbean area. 2. A map of the Caribbean is provided on page xxvi. Map reproduced from John Macpherson, Caribbean Lands (Trinidad: Longman, 1981): p. 194.

WORKS CITED Birks, Jane and Liz Oesleby. “Mere Mortals Need Not Apply.” In Expectations of Librarians in the 21st Century, ed. Karl Bridges. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. De Rosa, Cathy et al. The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition: A Report to the OCLC Membership. Dublin, OH: Online Computer Library Center, 2004. Drucker, Peter F. Managing in a Time of Great Change. New York: Truman Talley Books/Plume, 1998. Ferguson, Stephney. “Caribbean.” In International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science, eds. J. Feather and P. Sturges. London: Routhledge, 1997.

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PA R T I

Historical Perspective

2

CHAPTER 1

From Then ’Til Now: The Development of Rural Library Services in Trinidad and Tobago Jennifer M. Joseph The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Claudia Hill Harvard College Library, Massachusetts, USA ABSTRACT This chapter traces the development of the rural library services in Trinidad and Tobago from its inception in the 1940s and examines the successes and failures of the efforts to provide free public library services to the entire population. After a fairly rapid growth to 1962, the service to rural communities was severely affected by issues of unsuitable accommodation for branch libraries, defective vehicles, and lack of adequate attention by the government. After a long period of stagnation, the services experienced a resurgence, as the national library system came into focus and began to equip itself for the 21st century with the establishment of the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) and the construction of a national library building. The vision for a functional network of information services for the 21st century is presented.

BACKGROUND The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of 1.3 million people, is a twin-island state at the southern end of the chain of Caribbean islands, close to Venezuela. Trinidad, the larger island (4,828 square kilometers), has two main cities—Port-of-Spain (the capital) in the northwest peninsula and San Fernando in the southwest. Tobago, the smaller island, is a landmass of 300 square kilometers. In the context of this chapter, “rural” will be defined as those areas that are not located within the two main cities on the island of Trinidad and, therefore, includes the entire island of Tobago. 3

4

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

STANDARDS AND GOALS OF RURAL LIBRARY SERVICES In countries with a long tradition of library services, several methods of book distribution are used to serve their rural populations including branch libraries, bookmobile services, book deposit collections, and postal services/books-by-mail.1 In essence, the main goal of rural library services is to ensure that the widest number of persons who reside outside of the main cities and towns have access to books and information. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Public Library Manifesto, which was revised in 1994 with the assistance of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), advocates the promotion of equal opportunity and gives public libraries strong legal and social responsibilities. The Manifesto strongly suggests that there should be clear policies for the provision of service to all and specifically articulates that library services must be adapted to the different needs of communities in rural and urban settings. It also recognizes the need for libraries in the 21st century to be transformed from leisure reading centres to places that are central to the provision of information and staffed by a cadre of professionals. This chapter, therefore, also comments on the relevance of the library services provided in the context of the needs of the people of Trinidad and Tobago in the 21st century.

GENESIS In 1932, Ernest Savage, Honorary Secretary of the Library Association of Great Britain and librarian of the Edinburgh Public Library, was requested by the Carnegie Corporation to survey the “Libraries in British and American possessions in the Caribbean.” In 1934, the British Library Association published Savage’s report after his tour of the West Indies (Savage 79). In the section under Trinidad and Tobago, it was reported that the few existing libraries did not provide a service to the population as a whole. In Port-of-Spain, there were the Trinidad Public Library (a subscription library) and a law library (which was part of the Judiciary of the colony); a Research Library at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in St. Augustine (now the Main Library of The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine); the San Fernando Carnegie Free Library; and the Tobago Public Library (a subscription library). Other smaller libraries could be found in select secondary schools (e.g., Queen’s Royal College, Port-of-Spain). Savage saw the need for the introduction of a public library service in the country that would attempt to serve the entire population. He made four recommendations: 1. The alteration of library legislation to make libraries public, as that term is understood in Britain and the U.S. 2. Greater financial support and better use of the income at present available.

From Then ‘Til Now

5

3. A successful scheme of recruiting educated and trained librarians and assistants. 4. Administration of all the libraries as one service for the whole area, or of groups of libraries united as services within the present governmental boundaries (Savage 43). As a result of Savage’s report, the government of Trinidad and Tobago (referred to hereafter as Government) received an offer of US$70,000 in 1936 for the establishment of a Central Library Scheme and an additional US$10,000 for the subsequent establishment of a similar type of service in the Eastern Caribbean and British Guiana (now Guyana). The agreement was that after the first four years of the scheme, the Government would undertake to finance and develop a free public library service. Trinidad and Tobago accepted the offer of the Carnegie Corporation and, in 1941, a Canadian librarian, Helen Gordon Stewart who had done similar pioneering work in Western Canada, was appointed as Director and the Central Library Scheme was launched (Carnegie Corporation 1).2 By 1943, Stewart had laid a solid foundation for the Central Library Services in Trinidad and Tobago through the establishment of a network of distribution agencies consisting of book van stops, branch libraries, and deposit collections. Statistics at the end of 1943 showed that the Central Library Scheme was serving a population in Trinidad and Tobago between 300,000 and 350,000, exclusive of Port-of-Spain and San Fernando (Stewart 5).

EDUCATION AND TRAINING A key area of Stewart’s work was in the training of library personnel. In fact, it has been suggested that the first training program for Caribbean librarian assistants was Stewart’s most important contribution to West Indian Librarianship (Coombs 76). She instituted an annual six-month training course in Trinidad that would provide elementary training in modern methods for existing staff and recruits from other British territories in the region and was designed to provide a pool of persons basically qualified to carry out the work. A certificate of competency that was purely of local value was given at the end of the course. A further programme of training was available to persons who had successfully completed the initial course. This was designed to meet the requirements of the elementary or intermediate certificate of the British Library Association. Stewart sought financial assistance from the British Council to facilitate the inclusion of persons from other islands in the training. Her annual report for the Central Library Scheme in 1943 stated that: The British Council cooperated generously by offering up to ten (10) studentships for candidates outside of Port-of-Spain consisting of (a) travel expenses, and (b) a maintenance

6

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century allowance of $300 each for the six months of the course. Two students from Barbados and one each from Antigua, British Guiana and San Fernando took advantage of the offer, all recommended by their respective Library Boards, and all granted leave on half pay. Two young men from Port-of-Spain joined the class, but are not in receipt of grants…the class ends in February 1944, so that the students will be ready to help with the reorganization programme in their respective islands during and after the visits of the Director next year. (Stewart 3)

The inscription on the back of the original photograph in Figure 1.1 indicated that the group was the “Library training class & staff, March 1944” and confirms the inclusion of persons from other territories in the region— Antigua, Barbados, British Guiana. Former Dartmouth Professor Errol Hill,3 late father of co-author of this chapter, appears in the photograph and was probably one of the two young men from Port-of-Spain, referred to previously, who had attended that training course. Also identified is Marjorie Lumsden, who later became a Director of Library Services in Trinidad and Tobago. The photograph was taken in 1944, the last year that the Central Library Scheme received funding from the Carnegie Corporation. However, the British Council agreed to sponsor an extension of the programme for another five years.4 Except for a change of name from the Central Library Scheme to Regional Library, and the relocation of headquarters from 1 Hayes Street,

Figure 1.1 Library training class and staff, March 1944 (Copyright ©2006 by the Estate of Errol Gaston Hill)

From Then ‘Til Now

7

Port-of-Spain, to rooms in the British Council Head Office in a nearby building named “Whitehall,” the training and work went on without a break. In 1945, the Government assumed full responsibility for the Central Library Organization and the service to the rural areas pushed steadily ahead. A bill, drafted in 1947 to establish the Central Library as a Department of the Government service, was finally enacted in 1949. In 1948, it was decided to base training on the regulations and examination system of the British Library Association and the Regional Library was made an official examination centre. The first six-month training course was held January–June 1949, and there were 100 percent passes. Soon after this, the system changed to correspondence courses and students from other territories came to Trinidad for the examination. Persons who benefited from the early training have stated that it was extremely thorough and covered all aspects of librarianship. The practical aspect was a major component.

THE EARLY YEARS OF CENTRAL LIBRARY AND ITS RURAL SERVICES

The Vision for the Central Library Scheme As envisioned, the Central Library Scheme would have a main library in each island or group of islands. The main library would function as the headquarters from which the entire population would be served through branches, book vans or deposit collections, schools or other organizations. Under Stewart’s directorship, the idea was promulgated to lay the foundations of a permanent library system with an adequate book stock, trained and qualified staff, proper accommodations, and, of course, a system of distribution that reached into the rural districts. The original book distribution system of the Central Library Scheme consisted of a headquarters in Port-of-Spain and 11 branches throughout Trinidad, and Scarborough as a divisional centre for Tobago. Stewart’s vision was for the centres to be served by the book van for the first two or three years and then be converted to branch libraries.

Deposit Collections The method of deposit collections employed during Stewart’s tenure remained in use until about 1974. During the years 1943–1944, approximately 25 collections were established on a temporary basis in certain schools in an attempt to test suitable principles and methods for a permanent policy. By 1946, there were collections in approximately 10 villages and towns in Trinidad and in Tobago. However, some collections were discontinued in 1954 partly through lack of children’s books and partly through pending agreements with the educational authorities. In 1974, there were deposit collections in the villages of Guayaguayare and Moruga in Trinidad, and at Belle Garden, Moriah and Roxborough in Tobago.

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

The Mobile Services 1942–1962: Golden Years On November 4, 1942, the book van started to serve the main centres of population that had been identified. The first van had a capacity of 350 books and had been locally assembled because World War II made it impractical to import a sophisticated vehicle. The book van that is featured in Errol Hill’s photograph (see Figure 1.1) may have been a replacement for an earlier prototype that may have been a converted station wagon (Flood 21). The photograph shows that books were placed on exterior shelving on the side of the van. Raised panels on the side of the van shielded the books from the sun, while allowing patrons to view the collection. In the initial years, there was a small, enthusiastic staff that got their inspiration from the spirit and drive of Stewart. By her own self-discipline and personal example, she imbued all her staff with a high sense of dedication and service, encouraging them to learn about the villages/towns, the lifestyle, and the needs of the library’s clientele. Before the service started in 1942, Stewart had made a survey of the distribution of population in relation to interconnecting transport routes. She spoke to local people in an attempt to assess the needs of the area, and practical demonstrations were staged so that people could see for themselves what was being offered. Arrangements were also made for suitable places for the book van to stop. Trips were made fortnightly or monthly utilizing a book stock that comprised gifts from the British Council and items ordered from New York and England. By the end of 1944, there were 26 points of call to a number of schools and some of the major areas of population. The book van stops were usually very busy, with the staff issuing an average of 75–100 books per hour. From the early days, inadequate book stock was a problem, and it was only from September 1945 that two books were issued to adult readers only. Children were not registered but parents borrowed for them. By the end of 1944, 95,058 volumes had been borrowed from the book van routes and headquarters by the 4,578 members registered (Trinidad and Tobago, Central Library, Annual Report for Central Library for 1944). On October 4, 1948, the Central Library established a regional headquarters at the Carnegie Free Library in San Fernando for its south centres and the routes were transferred to the schedule of the south book van. Some of the book van stops in the southernmost ends of Trinidad, which had previously been discontinued, were then reinstated. On October 26, 1948, the Tobago Public Library was incorporated into the Central Library and was formally opened as a regional branch of the Central Library. Book van routes were started in Tobago when the older van was sent over from Trinidad to service these routes. By 1949, there were eight book van centres in Tobago. A mobile library service to schools in Tobago began as an experimental scheme in 1959, but with the limited resources on hand, it could serve only 13 schools. Statistics prepared in 1962 show that there were 133 stops scattered throughout Trinidad and Tobago, which were served by

From Then ‘Til Now

9

Figure 1.2 Book van during the 1960s (Courtesy National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS), Trinidad and Tobago) two vans in Trinidad and one in Tobago. (Trinidad and Tobago, Central Library, Annual Report for Central Library). Figure 1.2 shows the book van during the 1960s.

The Mobile Services 1962–1974: Problem Years There was very little activity and no major changes in the bookmobile service between 1962 and 1974. The service in the two islands was plagued by defective vehicles, which curtailed visits for prolonged periods of time. Bookmobile repairs proved to be quite expensive, making it more economical to acquire a new vehicle—a process that took an exceedingly long time. In 1962, the number of stops dropped to 35, when only one of the three bookmobiles remained functioning in Tobago. The annual reports of the Central Library for the period 1962–1974 are replete with details of the suspension and resumption of the bookmobile services throughout the two islands. In addition to the perennial problem of defective vehicles, the runs were suspended in 1970 in both islands because of the state of emergency that followed social unrest and a failed military coup. In 1970, overall circulation figures for the book van in Tobago reflected a drop of more than 30

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

percent over the previous year’s figures. On the positive side, however, a new van was purchased under the Government’s Better Village Development Programme, and the bookmobile resumed operations in Tobago in September 1973.5 In 1972, as part of the International Book Year celebrations, Central Library prepared a travelling exhibition of books to educate the public on the type of rural mobile service that should be in place. Although this exhibition brought the libraries and their deficiencies into public focus, the library services continued to struggle to provide service without adequate financial support from the Government. The editorial of the Trinidad Guardian on October 3, 1972, commented on the Minister of Education’s speech at the launch of the exhibition: and while it is true that the cost of books has risen appreciably, it is doubtful whether the Ministry of Education appreciates how much greater effort is needed to provide an adequate library service. There is not only need for more money, but also a more tolerant approach to books and reading on the part of the Establishment. Following International Book Year and some direct lobbying by the director, the Central Library received an injection of funds from the Government in 1973 for further development in the rural areas. A 4,000-capacity bookmobile was stocked for the extension of service to areas in northeast Trinidad where there had been no services. Unfortunately, problems with the vehicle eventually led to the cessation of this service in 1974.

Branch Libraries 1942–1974: Developmental Years As indicated earlier, the original system of book distribution as envisaged by Stewart was expected to serve the major areas of population by book van for the first two or three years, and then some of the centres would be converted to branch libraries. In May 1946, branches were opened in the towns of Couva and San Juan as well as in Point Fortin at the end of 1947. In 1948, the book van centre at Tunapuna was converted into a branch library. Additionally, when a new building was being constructed for the Arima Borough Council in 1950, the authorities were persuaded to include space and facilities for a new branch library. By 1958, the Central Library Service had a total of 10 branch libraries—Arima, San Juan, Tunapuna, Sangre Grande, Couva, Siparia, Princes Town, Point Fortin, La Brea, and Tobago. The branch library in Tobago was opened in Charlotteville in 1956. It provided service to Tobago along with Scarborough, the regional headquarters. Eventually, another branch was opened at Roxborough in Tobago in 1979. The first branch libraries were housed in makeshift buildings. In fact, the first library at Siparia was housed in a funeral parlour, while the first three

From Then ‘Til Now

11

part-time libraries at Couva, San Juan, and Point Fortin only had an average area of 500–600 square feet. The 1957 Annual Report of Central Library included a description of the Sangre Grande branch library: The branch library is too small and lacks any convenience for the staff that has to travel there and remain on duty until late evening. The flooring is beginning to go and wood lice are on the rampage. More and more children are coming into the library and as they are all crammed into a small space, it is becoming impossible to control them without losing one’s voice. In 1957, the library management made very strong recommendations to the Government on the need for new buildings. As a result, two new buildings were specially constructed for branch libraries at Sangre Grande and La Brea and officially opened in 1960. However, with the exception of these libraries and a few that moved to new “rented” premises, the situation remained largely the same as it was in the early days. Recommendations had also been made for the establishment of a branch library at Chaguanas, a heavily populated and fast-growing urban area. However, in 1974, Chaguanas was still being served by the book van, which proved to be inadequate for such a large centre.

SUCCESSES, FAILURES, AND STAGNATION The history of the rural services, until 1974, describes a time of rapid growth followed by a period of stagnation to 1992. Major successes were achieved in the initial years, as a solid foundation was laid for the network of services. Of significance was the high quality of education and training, which was offered to the local and regional students of librarianship. However, during the period 1974 to 1992, there was relatively no developmental activity in the public library services and by extension, the rural library services. No new branch libraries were built and the bookmobiles came to a complete stop. The directors who followed Stewart also displayed the same high level of commitment to the development of the library services and worked tirelessly for the improvement and expansion of the library services.6 However, despite the directors’ best efforts, the services continued to be plagued by inadequate funding, defective vehicles, accommodation in unsuitable buildings, and a minimum of attention from a government that seemed to have its priorities elsewhere. The fact that the library services were part of the Ministry of Education also seemed to further hamper its development since attention was apparently concentrated on other educational services and the construction of school buildings. The Director of Library Services in the early 1980s cited as one of the main obstacles “inadequate attention to the library services through their allocation to a ministry with related but extensive commitments” (Raymond). Overall, the library services

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

of Trinidad and Tobago encountered their “darkest” days in the late 1970s and 1980s.

RESURGENCE: 1990s AND BEYOND During the period of stagnation when there were limited funds for the development of libraries, Central Library staff provided advice and guidance as several community libraries were established through the initiative and support of the parliamentary representatives for various areas. Under the stewardship of Director Vere Achong, community libraries in Mayaro, Diego Martin, and Maloney were brought under the umbrella of the Central Library in the early 1990s and continued to function as branches of the national library system. The library services received a locally assembled mobile library from the Scotia Bank in 1990. This gift facilitated the resumption of mobile library services after an absence of 16 years. An additional mobile service with a book stock of 3,500 volumes was launched on September 30, 1996, to serve 12 locations in central and northwest Trinidad. Lending services were introduced for one hour at the community centre and/or school in each location. The public and rural library services slowly began its resurgence. The unwavering efforts of the Secretariat of the Council for National Library and Information Services (CONALIS) that was established in 1990 under Pamella Benson, (who later became the first Executive Director of NALIS), resulted in the integration of the three public library services under a single national library authority and the subsequent construction of a national library building.7 By Act of Parliament No. 18 of 1998, NALIS was established and serves as the umbrella organization under which all national library and information services are administered. The services enjoyed a period of consolidation during the years 1998–2005.

RURAL LIBRARY SERVICES IN THE 21ST CENTURY Figures 1.3 and 1.4 show maps of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, respectively. The service points that exist in 2006 are identified. Trinidad and Tobago is served by a network of 23 libraries, including three regional headquarters as well as four mobile libraries that visit the various locations once every three weeks. In Trinidad, 27 locations in the north and central part of the island are served by two mobile libraries; the 20 locations in the southern end of the island are supplied by one bookmobile from the Carnegie Free Library in San Fernando. The Tobago bookmobile provides fortnightly service to 30 primary schools. In addition, NALIS is expected to acquire a digital mobile library in 2006, which would be fully equipped to offer wireless connection to the Internet and the online catalogue as well as audiovisual services. The Information Networks Division is in the process of upgrading the network infrastructure at all locations that are currently served

From Then ‘Til Now

13

Figure 1.3 Bookmobile service points in Trinidad (Courtesy National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS), Trinidad and Tobago)

Figure 1.4 Bookmobile service points in Tobago (Courtesy National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS), Trinidad and Tobago)

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

by 102 public access computers. There is also a partnership between the North Rural mobile library and one community to promote literacy through a spelling competition for children in 17 schools.

VISION FOR THE RURAL LIBRARY SERVICES The 2006–2020 Public Library Development Plan prepared by NALIS envisages the provision of services to all communities in the country through mobile libraries and district libraries that would serve as the headquarters of the book distribution network. The plan includes the construction of purpose-built libraries in the larger towns of Chaguanas and Tunapuna to replace rented premises, as well as the addition of a library in another large centre (Rio Claro) to replace the bookmobile service. With the advances in information technology, the rural library services in Trinidad and Tobago are poised to function as library/information referral centres that offer online access to all users. The service points should also function as centres for the promotion of national culture and oral history. It is anticipated that full-time professionals would be assigned to support these services, which would also include assistive technologies for the print disabled. There would be functional bookmobiles and fully stocked alternatives that could serve as replacements in emergency situations. In addition, the introduction of the postal service would assist the housebound and other disadvantaged citizens, particularly in view of recent improvements in the local postal services.

CONCLUSION The rural library services of Trinidad and Tobago are on the path to achieving the standards for service as articulated in the UNESCO/IFLA Public Library Manifesto. As described in this paper, the developmental years were fraught with some difficulties. However, with the financial and political support that the services are currently enjoying, it is anticipated that the necessary advancements will be made in the not too distant future. Authors’ Note: The authors wish to acknowledge the following persons and organizations for their assistance with this article: Mrs. Grace Hope Hill, librarians at the Trinidad and Tobago NALIS, and other retired librarians, Mr. Peter Bloor of the British Council, the Harvard Administrative Fellows Program, and the Harvard College Library.

ENDNOTES 1.

Joan Reitz, ODLIS: The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science, 3 Apr. 2006, Libraries Unlimited, 2 July 2006. lu.com/odlis/odlis_b.cfm. See ODLIS for definitions. In the paper, the terms “Book Van” and “Bookmobile” are used interchangeably.

From Then ‘Til Now

15

2.

“Dr. Helen Gordon Stewart’s association with the Carnegie Corporation of New York dates back to the 1930s. The corporation had funded a five-year demonstration programme from 1930 to 1934 designed to promote the feasibility of regional libraries in the remote areas of Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Stewart, the first chairman of the Public Library Commission (PLC) and one of the founding members of the British Columbia Library Association, was appointed director of the PLC’s Fraser Valley Library unit demonstration program, which…involved the use of a travelling library system of books in a book van or bookmobile which she brought to the rural residents in Fraser Valley. Using the custom-built bookmobile, she brought the idea of public libraries to rural residents at deposit stations and newly established branches... The success of the travelling ‘demonstration’ libraries led to the establishment of other regional library units. The Carnegie Corporation turned to Stewart to repeat the success of Fraser Valley in the Eastern Caribbean and to administer the Central Library Scheme.” See Marion Gilroy and Samuel Rothstein, eds., As We Remember It: Interviews with Pioneering Librarians of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia, 1979. 24–26, 80, 142, and 157.

3.

See Errol Gaston Hill’s obituary (1921–2003): Dartmouth College’s. 9 Apr. 2006. www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2003/09/16.html.These albums and scrapbooks are among Hill’s personal papers (acquired in 2003) in Rauner Library Special Collections, Dartmouth College.

4.

British Council and the Colonial Development and Welfare Office had expressed interest in taking over the management of the Central Library Scheme from the Carnegie Corporation as early as 1943. The British Council was interested in expanding the Scheme to other islands in the Eastern Caribbean region. Negotiations began in 1944 and were formalized January 1, 1945. Information is from e-mail dated 6 June 2004 from Peter Bloor, Records Management Officer, the British Council quoting British Council’s Annual Reports for 1944–1945 and 1945–1946.

5.

Annual reports for the Central Library for the period provide detailed statistics and information.

6.

The following persons served as Principal Librarian/Director of Library Services after Titles: Principal Librarian 1941–1970; Director 1970–1998; Executive Director 1998–present. Persons to hold the post: 1941–1948 Dr. Helen Gordon Stewart; 1952 William Eric Gocking; 1959 Sydney W. Hockey; 1960 Vacant, Marjorie Lumsden (Deputy Principal Librarian); 1961–1970 Marjorie Lumsden; 1971–1984 Lynette Hutchinson; 1984–1986 Ursula Raymond; 1986–1989 Angela Bernard; 1989–1994 Vere Achong; 1994–2004 Pamella Benson; 2004–2006 Patricia Zephyrine; 2006–present Annette Wallace.

7.

In July 1993, the government of Trinidad and Tobago agreed to the integration of the three library authorities—Central Library, the Trinidad Public Library, and the Carnegie Free Library.

WORKS CITED Carnegie Corporation. A Report of the Central Library Scheme for the Year ending February 28th, 1942. Report on Progress. [unsigned, Helen Gordon Stewart, Director?] Carnegie Corporation of New York Records; Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Columbia University Libraries. Series III.A (grant files), Box 63.6. [1942?].

16

The Caribbean Libraries of the 21st Century

Coombs, Douglas. Spreading the Word: The Library Work of the British Council. London: Mansell Publishing Library, 1988. Flood, R. A. Public Libraries in the Colonies. London: Library Association, 1951. IFLA/UNESCO. Public Library Manifesto. The Hague: IFLA, 1994. Jordan, Alma. The Development of Library Service in the West Indies through Interlibrary Cooperation. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970. Joseph, Jennifer M. “The Development of the Rural Library Services in Trinidad and Tobago.” BA Caribbean Studies Paper. UWI St. Augustine, 1974. Osborne, Joan. “The Public Library System in Trinidad and Tobago: Its Development and Impact on Public Education, Literacy, Culture and Heritage.” MA. Research Paper, UWI St. Augustine, 2003. Raymond, Ursula. Draft Library Development Plan for Trinidad and Tobago 1973–1988: The Challenge of Change. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Ministry of Education, 1973. Savage, Ernest A. The Libraries of Bermuda, The Bahamas, the British West Indies, British Guiana, British Honduras, Puerto Rico, and the American Virgin Islands: A Report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. London: Library Association, 1934. Stewart, Helen Gordon. A Report of the Central Library Scheme for the Year Ending December 31st 1943. (c. 1944). Tate, Thelma H. “Moving Information Systems and the Implementation of the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto: New Paradigms for Literacy.” Rural Libraries 15.1 (1996): 48–54. Trinidad and Tobago. Central Library. Annual Report for Central Library for 1944. Portof-Spain, Trinidad: Central Library, 1951. —-. —-. Annual Report for Central Library. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Central Library, 1962. —-. National Library and Information System. Public Library Development Plan 2006–2010. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: NALIS, 2006.

CHAPTER 2

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview Jane W. F. Smith Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Suriname ABSTRACT This chapter traces the development of librarianship in Suriname. The historical development of librarianship is closely aligned with the political and cultural history and parallels the socioeconomic development of the country. As a former colony of the Netherlands, librarianship in Suriname is modelled on the Dutch system and there still exists formal ties with the motherland. For example, the Netherlands continues to provide funding for local libraries, all librarians are trained in the Netherlands, and there are more cooperative relationships with libraries in the Netherlands than with other libraries in the Caribbean region. Statistics on the resources, services, and use of the major libraries in Suriname are described in tabular format. The challenges and opportunities for libraries in Suriname are also reviewed. At present, some libraries are taking advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to participate in regional and international networks and to automate different library activities, such as cataloguing and circulation. Although collaboration with libraries and organizations in the Caribbean region is slowly increasing, this chapter emphasizes the need for more cooperation between libraries in Suriname and other regional and international libraries. The creation of the Nationale Database Suriname, a collaborative effort among libraries in Suriname, is evidence of the beginning and benefits of such cooperative projects.

INTRODUCTION On the subject of librarianship in Suriname, there is little or no information in English. Even in Dutch, the official language of Suriname, not much has been published. As Suriname is now part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), it is very important to share information about different aspects of the country. Renewed membership in the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) has made it easier to network with other librarians, share experiences and information on the Surinamese libraries and learn from feedback.1 17

18

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

THE REPUBLIC OF SURINAME IN BRIEF Suriname, officially Republic of Suriname (Republiek Suriname) is on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by French Guiana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Guyana. The capital city is Paramaribo. The population is approximately 500,000.

History Suriname was colonized by the Spanish (1593), the Dutch (1602), and the English (1650). The Dutch then ruled the country from 1667 onwards, except during two brief wartime periods from 1795 to 1802 and from 1804 to 1816 when the British regained possession. During Dutch rule, several regulations were implemented and included: • In accordance with Dutch law in 1865, Suriname was granted self-government to a limited degree. • The Interim Regulation, effected in January 1950, and a new constitutional regulation allowed Suriname to have a cabinet government. In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands marked the discontinuation of colonization with regard to the former colonies Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. Suriname got limited autonomy, restricted to home rule, with decisions on foreign affairs and defence remaining under the control of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On November 25, 1975, following race-rioting over unemployment and inflation, the Netherlands granted Suriname complete independence. Prior to independence, some 100,000 Surinamese, mainly of Asian descent, migrated to the Netherlands. A coup d’état in 1980 resulted in military rule and, during much of the 1980s, Suriname was under the repressive control of the military. The Netherlands curtailed all aid in 1982 when Suriname soldiers killed 15 persons: journalists, politicians, lawyers, and union officials. Democracy was restored in 1988.

Culture Suriname is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the Americas. Suriname’s earliest inhabitants were Amerindians (the Surinen Indians, after whom the country is named). However, now the majority of its population are descendants from African slaves (Creoles and Maroons) as well as Indian (Hindustanis) and Indonesian (Javanese) indentured servants brought by the Dutch to work as agricultural labourers. African slaves worked on the coffee and sugarcane plantations until the abolition of slavery in 1863. The slaves (originally called “Bush Negroes” by the Dutch but now referred to as

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

19

Maroons), who escaped into the interior, revived their African culture. There was large-scale introduction of labourers because of the shortage of workers created by the abolition of slavery. The immigration of labourers commenced in 1853. Chinese labourers came from Java (1853), Portuguese labourers from Madeira (1853–1854), and another influx of Chinese immigrants (this time from China) came during the period 1858 to 1869. Ten years after the abolition of slavery, the immigration of East Indian labourers from British India started, and, in 1890, the Javanese immigrants from the Dutch East Indies came to Suriname. Cultural policy is currently the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Community Development, and it allows every ethnic group to retain its own culture. All ethnic groups have their own food, religion, cultural traditions, and native language. Public holidays, for instance, are designated not only for traditional Christian holidays, but also for the religious festivals of Hindus and Muslims. Dutch, the official language, is used for education and to conduct business. Surinamese-Dutch, a variant of the Dutch language differs significantly from Dutch. Sranan Tongo or Sranan, the lingua franca is the second most important language. In addition to these two languages, the descendants of the immigrants use the language of their ancestors, Sarnami Hindi and Javanese. Thus, several languages, about 22, are spoken in Suriname: Amerindian languages, Creole languages, and Asian languages. The educational system consists of primary and secondary education, technical and vocational training, and higher education. Education is not only governmental. Denominational education, set up by private and religious organizations and partially controlled by the government, also exist. Since 1867, there has been compulsory education for children between the ages of 7 and 12. In the early years, not much literature was published in Suriname. Oral communication was predominant. The stories, mostly originating from the Creole population and obtained from their ancestors, were the Anansi stories and the songs from the winti-religion. In modern times, literature is mainly expressed in Surinamese-Dutch, Sranan Tongo, and Sarnami, and is based on the cultural history of Suriname. Most of the oral literature consisted of poems and these existed long before prose was written. The poems were for a Dutch audience and, only during the World War II, with the increasing social conscious awareness of the Surinamese-Creole, literature in Sranan Tongo was published. In 1943, J.G.A. (Papa) Koenders developed guidelines for Sranan Tongo spelling. Some well-known Surinamese writers/poets are Trefossa, Dobru, Shrinivasi, Astrid Roemer, Bea Vianen, and Edgar Cairo. In 1977, writers founded the “Writers group ’77 (Schrijversgroep ’77),” an association to encourage writers to publish. This group regularly organized literary activities such as book presentations and poetry meetings.

20

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

LIBRARIANSHIP IN SURINAME

Historical Development The development of librarianship is closely related to scientific development, as in the 18th century the first scientific library was established. Wolbers (417) reported that scientists who were united in societies brought together books from private libraries with diverse subjects. Before 1857, the libraries that existed were available only to the elite. In 1857, physicians Dumontier and Landré founded the Colonial Library (Koloniale Bibliotheek). In later years, a museum was added to the library. The government assumed administrative responsibility for this library in 1875 and the name was changed to “Koloniaal Museum,” which indicated that this was more a museum than a library. However, both the library and the museum functions were neglected. In 1908, the collection of the museum was removed and the library was renamed Koloniale Landsboekerij. Due to the scientific quality of the collection, it was not useful to the general public. Therefore, in 1957, the Surinamese government decided to dissolve the Koloniale Landsboekerij, and the collection was distributed among different libraries in Suriname and the Netherlands. There are many private libraries in existence at this time, for example, the libraries of the Moravian congregation, the Roman Catholic congregation, the Teachers’ Society, and the Free Masons. However, these collections were not open to the public (Encyclopedie 67–68).

Librarianship in General Although the Ministry of Education and Community Development shares partial responsibility, the Directorate of Culture is officially responsible for librarianship. In practice, each organization is responsible for creating library policy for their individual libraries. Official records show that there are more than 50 libraries or documentation centres (Sedney and Smith). At present, there is one major university library, a public library system with branches, a school library system and several special libraries, which exist in government departments, private companies, and private organizations. There is no national library. To a large extent, the printed cultural heritage of Suriname is stored in libraries and archives not in Suriname, but in the Netherlands and the U.S. In the latter country, most of this data is available online. In 2005, the Nationale Database Suriname, a Web site with bibliographic data about Suriname, was launched. The majority of libraries and documentation centres are in Paramaribo. In the outlying districts, there are branches of the public library, some school libraries and special libraries.

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

21

Training For years, there was no formal training in the area of librarianship in Suriname. All qualified librarians obtained their professional qualifications in the Netherlands through: • Courses of the Association for Librarians in the Netherlands (until 1965) • Library and Documentation Academy (two years basic library education and one year for specialization) (1964–1990) • Courses for assistants in academic, special, or research libraries (one year) • Postgraduate courses for librarians at the University of Amsterdam (one year) These professional librarians then proceeded to train library personnel on-the-job. Despite this effort, however, the development of librarianship in Suriname was restricted because of the shortage of professional library staff. When a committee created in 1972 to implement library training did not produce the desired result, the Cultural Centre Suriname (CCS) initiated a course to provide basic training for library assistants in 1975. This two-year practically oriented course was offered four times between 1975 and 1990. The final result was an improvement of information services in most libraries, as employees were trained in library skills and general knowledge. The only advanced training for library assistants was organized in 1982. In 1997, another organization, Stichting Documentaire Informatie Opleidingen Suriname (DIOS), organized training for library personnel and management training for library assistants. Additional training on specific library subjects and automation were also organized for library assistants. At present, there is need for formal library training. This is due mainly to the high turnover of staff and an increase in the number of libraries and information centres. It is anticipated that in 2006 certificate training for library personnel will be offered.

Automation in Libraries Information professionals in Suriname over the years have acquired an awareness of and skills in library automation and library information systems through workshops, reading relevant literature, and training. The library information systems currently in use are CDS-ISIS (Computerized Documentation System/Integrated Set of Information System), WINISIS (the Windows version of CDS/ISIS), CARDBOX, and ADLIB. The Nationale Database Suriname utilizes WINISIS. Although not all libraries are equipped with computers, the use of the Internet has been widely adopted.

22

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

PUBLIC LIBRARIES The CCS Library, established in 1949, is the only public library system. The CCS has coordinated all cultural activities since 1947 and became a foundation in 1948. STICUSA (Stichting Culturele Samenwerking), a foundation for cultural cooperation aimed at strengthening cultural ties among the Netherlands, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles, is the organization responsible for sponsoring the CCS. For example, in 1948, CCS received a collection of Dutch literature, spanning the years 1885 to 1948, and subscriptions to journals from STICUSA. The CCS Library was relocated several times, until 1953 when a new library building was opened at the Gravenstraat in the centre of Paramaribo. Because of the increase in loan activities from 1959 onwards, especially in the circulation of youth literature, the first of many library branches was established in 1964 and a bookmobile was introduced in 1973. In 1960, the CCS Library inherited what was formerly the task of the Ministry of Education and Community Development, the task of providing the suburbs and the districts with rotating collections. A rotating collection service was established in 1971 because of the great demand for literature in schools in the districts. After the liquidation of the Koloniale Landsboekerij in 1957, public librarianship became the responsibility of the CCS Library. At present, the CCS Library consists of a main library, where the youth library is housed, and some branches in the districts. The branches in the suburbs are not in use.

Library Staff As in all libraries in Suriname, there was a need for qualified library staff in the CCS Library. In 1954, STICUSA recruited qualified librarians from the Netherlands to manage the library and to train the administrative staff onthe-job. Some Surinamese library employees were sponsored by STICUSA and trained in the Netherlands. As a result of this training provided by the CCS for library assistants, the need for qualified personnel was markedly reduced.

Library Collection Initially, the CCS Library collection was developed with financial aid from STICUSA. Books, journal subscriptions, and newspapers were part of the early collection. In the library, a documentation centre was set up to meet the demands for reference material. This collection consists of photocopies of reference books, newspaper articles, and magazines. In the main library, there are books and journals for adults and a separate collection in the youth library. The reference collection includes popular reference books and the Caribbean collection, which consists of information about Caribbean countries. Books about Suriname are a very important part

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

23

of the present collection. Some old and valuable volumes from the collection of the Koloniale Landsboekerij are also available. The bookmobile collection was developed mainly for the youth and the elderly as a result of the regular visits to schools and the homes for the elderly.

SPECIAL LIBRARIES Special libraries are located at ministries, corporate companies, and organizations. It is a common trend that there are no library personnel employed in these institutions, and responsibility for individual libraries falls under the purview of the secretary’s office. This has proven to be a grave disadvantage, as most activities relating to archives and librarianship are probably nonexistent. At some ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Justice and Police, the library is perceived as a valuable resource and this is reflected in the frequent use of its services. The Educational Library (Algemene Onderwijsbibliotheek) at the Ministry of Education and Community Development has a collection on educational subjects for use by secondary school students. Many of these special libraries provide a service mainly to their staff and are accessible to the public only by appointment. Examples of special libraries that are accessible to the general public in need of special information include the library of the Suriname Museum (Stichting Surinaams Museum), which has a valuable collection on Suriname subjects, and the library at the Centre for Agricultural Research in Suriname (CELOS). Other special libraries worth mentioning are the Library Staatsolie (State Oil Company), the Library of the Central Bank of Suriname, and the Library Telesur (Telecommunication Company).

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES The Koloniale Bibliotheek (mentioned earlier) was the first academic library in Suriname. With the proclamation to establish the University of Suriname in 1968, the scientific collection from the Koloniale Bibliotheek was relocated and stored at different locations at the University of Suriname campus. After being closed for 10 months as a result of the political turmoil in Suriname, the University was reopened in October 1983 and it was renamed the “Anton de Kom University of Suriname.” The University Library is the only academic library in Suriname. It consists of the Central Library and the Medical Library. The collection was housed in several locations until 1983, when the library building on the University campus was completed. With the exception of the medical collection, all other collections are in the University Library. The Medical Library is in the building of the Medical Research Institute.

24

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

Library Staff The library staff consists of a librarian, library assistants, and paraprofessionals. All library assistants are graduates from the CCS or DIOS library training. Paraprofessionals are educated by means of in-house training they receive at the start of employment. As the library is opened until 9 P.M. weekly, and on Saturdays, nonlibrary personnel are hired to work part-time. Additional training is offered by the library to improve the quality of information services provided.

Library Collection The collection of the University Library supports the three Faculties at the University, namely the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Technological Sciences. An important part of this collection is publications about Suriname. The University Library has the status of Depository Library for the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations (UN). As the national coordinator or focal point for some regional and international networks, the University Library contributes bibliographic data to databases and offers electronic information through these databases. The turbulent political situation has also had an impact on the University Library. Before the military period, there were no problems with collection building. Shortly afterwards, the University Library suffered because of discontinued foreign aid and new import regulations. Unfortunately, at the moment, the majority of the library’s acquisitions are obtained by gifts and exchanges and there are relatively few purchases. In 1990, the library’s catalogue was first automated using the CDS/ISIS software. Currently, the library’s collection is accessible via an online catalogue, which is based on the WINISIS software. The University Library also coordinates activities to guarantee the online accessibility of information about Suriname via the Nationale Database Suriname. Nonconfidential information regarding Suriname is processed by the participants and sent to the University Library, which is responsible for uploading the data on the Web site.2

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY IN THE 21ST CENTURY To identify the future challenges and opportunities, it is important to provide an overview of libraries in Suriname. The information for this overview of the major libraries was gathered by this author through personal interviews with librarians. Table 2.1 presents factual information on the major libraries in Suriname.

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

25

Table 2.1on Major Facts oninMajor Table 2.1 Facts Libraries Suriname Libraries in Suriname Personnel

Public library

Special library

Special library

Academic library

(CCS Library)

(Library, Central Bank of

(Educational Library)

(Library, Anton de Kom

Suriname)

University of Suriname)

Total number

28

7

50 (mostly teacher-librarians)

44 (inclusive of part-time staff)

Qualified personnel

7

4

6

12

On-the-job trained

10

2

None

21

Continuing

No formal structure in place

• Correspondence courses

None

Regularly, when necessary

Education, CE

for CE training

• Read specialized literature

Fiction (youth literature) and

Literature on financial matters,

Science (all fields of study),

Literature which supports the

non-fiction (literature for

economics, banking, and law

literature

curricula of the University

Approx. 320,000

Approx. 10,000

Approx. 30,000

Approx. 100,000

• loan

• loan

• loan

• loan

• reference

• information mediation

• study facilities

• study facilities

• PCs for Internet access and

• reference material

• photocopy facilities

• information mediation

• current contents

• documentation

• photocopy facilities

• information mediation

• photocopy facilities

• school library service

• reference material

• bookmobile

• study facilities

(additional training) Collections Composition

adults) Number of volumes

Services

data-processing

• PCs for Internet access and data-

• PCs for Internet access and

processing

data-processing Library Users Type of users

General public (youth and

Bank employees, students (by

Students and teachers

University community: students,

adults)

appointment)

(primary education to higher

lecturers and scientists

education) Major target group

Youth

Bank employees

Students secondary education

Students

Number of users

11,837

2,035

56,315

Approx. 90,000

No

Yes (ADLIB)

No

Yes (WINISIS)

Circulation

No

Yes (ADLIB)

No

No

Other activities

Partner: Nationale Database

Partner: Nationale Database

Partner: Nationale Database

Partner: Nationale Database

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Automation Catalogue/Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION Many libraries in Suriname maintain interlibrary loans with various institutions, locally and abroad (mainly in the Netherlands).

Cooperation within Suriname Little documentation on cooperation among library staff is currently available. In March 1976, the Centrale Vereniging van Werkers in Archieven, bibliotheken en andere documentatiediensten, a foundation for employees in

26

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

archives, libraries, and documentation centres, was formed. The aim was to join forces in order to improve communication, creation of an information policy with emphasis on the division of job responsibilities and protection of the employees’ interests. In 1976, there was a second attempt to unite professionals with the establishment of ALVABED, the Association of Archivists, Librarians and Documentalists (Vereniging van archivarissen, bibliothecarissen en documentalisten). The objective was similar to the first attempt to bring library personnel together, but with one difference, namely that of centralization of services, for example, the creation of a central catalogue. From the two committees of ALVABED, the first, the Archive Committee, became a joint committee of government departments in 1981. The second one, the Library Committee, started with matters concerning librarianship, for example, the position of librarians and library assistants, manpower planning. But, similar to the first attempt to come together, ALVABED has also petered out. In 1986, a few librarians made a frantic attempt to regroup to improve librarianship in Suriname. The Association of Library Personnel in Suriname (Vereniging van Bibliotheekpersoneel in Suriname) (VBS) was founded. The purpose of this association was to improve librarianship in Suriname. The VBS organized educational and informative activities with the maintenance of relationships with governmental institutions (regarding library training and library rank system) and with regional and international library organizations being identified as a priority. Regrettably, this association is also currently inactive. Since 2005, there has been a new collaborative effort among information centres in Suriname, that is, the establishment of the Nationale Database Suriname. As there is no national library, information is located in various centres all over the country. Unfortunately, this information is not only unknown, but it is also inaccessible to the general public. For this reason, Surinamese libraries joined forces to make information about Suriname more accessible. After a Train-the-Trainers course that focused on library techniques for nonlibrarians, WINISIS (adapted from Caribbean Information System for Economic and Social Planning [CARISPLAN]), and developing a Macro thesaurus, the participants (from 25 institutions) are currently processing documents about Suriname using the knowledge and techniques learned at the course to ensure that the database is updated regularly. Monthly meetings are held to discuss the project’s successes and problems encountered. The data is sent to the University Library, coordinator of the Nationale Database Suriname.

Cooperation in the Dutch Caribbean Regrettably, there are no extensive cooperative efforts in the Dutch Caribbean, although some libraries in Suriname have developed exchange relations with libraries in the Netherlands Antilles.

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

27

Cooperation in the Wider Caribbean The University Library and a few special libraries participated in CARISPLAN in the 1980s. At the moment, only the University Library collaborates with other universities in the Caribbean, as a participant in regional networks. These networks include: • CDL: The Caribbean Digital Library of the UN/Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a virtual collection of Caribbean documents on socioeconomic subjects • SIDALC: The Agricultural Information and Documentation System of the Americas, a hemispheric network of agricultural information resources found in Latin America and the Caribbean and sponsored by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) • MEDCARIB: English Caribbean component of LILACS (the Latin American and Caribbean Centre on Health Sciences Information, sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO) • PDBA: The Political Database of the Americas, sponsored by the Organisation of American States (OAS) Only the University Library and the Library of the Central Bank of Suriname are members of ACURIL at this time. Suriname is represented on the Executive Council of ACURIL for the period 2005–2008. The Library of the Central Bank of Suriname collaborates with the Library of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

International Cooperation Currently, the University Library is involved with international cooperative efforts, such as: • AGRIS/CARIS (International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology) sponsored by the FAO – The university serves as the national coordinator • PAHO (Pan American Health Organisation) Publication Centre – The Medical Library has a special PAHO collection • SIAMAZ (Amazonian Information System for Environmental Data) • KIT (Royal Institute of the Tropics) and KITLV (Royal Institute of the Tropics and Cultural Anthropology) in the Netherlands

28

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

The Educational Library and the CCS Library have an agreement to collaborate with Belgium, as per the Municipal relation Paramaribo-Antwerpen (Stedenband Paramaribo-Antwerpen). The CCS Library signed a declaration of intent in 1990 with the Nederlands Bibliotheek en Lektuur Centrum (NBLC), an organization that oversees the interest of the public library system in the Netherlands. Of note is the support the NBLC gave to the CCS Library by providing literature for the collection, professional advice, and training for library staff.

CHALLENGES FOR LIBRARIES IN SURINAME The 21st-century information society challenges libraries to keep abreast with changes. Taking all factors into account, it is simply not fully recognized that the global changes that are taking place are linked to the provision of information. The quantity of information—a massive amount of information on the Internet is accessible by every employee with a personal computer and online access—and the availability of new ICTs require new methods and approaches. Libraries can play an essential role in promoting the new ways of using this information and ICTs. But, in order to provide this service and perform other traditional functions, they must have the necessary resources—professional library personnel, equipment, and more importantly, funding. Within this 21st-century electronic environment, providing access to electronic information resources, as part of collection development, will be an opportunity and a challenge for libraries. With the development of information mediation, a proactive approach is possible and if this approach is adopted, it will result in greater satisfaction for library users. The goal of most libraries in Suriname is to become virtual libraries. The plan is to realize this objective as soon as possible, with or without the cooperation of libraries at home or abroad: • The CCS Library is now in the process of reorganization to expand its services through a decentralization plan. The aim is to provide this extended service to all districts of Suriname. • The Educational Library is working on constructing a new library building to accommodate students, and this building will have all the advantages of modern technology. • The Central Bank of Suriname Library has plans to be certified according to ISO-standards by providing the employees with relevant certification information through an intranet. • The Library of the Anton de Kom University of Suriname plans to offer up-to-date services to support the education and research activities of students and faculty.

Libraries in Suriname: An Overview

29

CONCLUSION Libraries in Suriname are challenged to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the information revolution in the context of rapid change throughout the world. Much work is needed. The Nationale Database Suriname is a promising start. Libraries that do not have the necessary resources will be able to join forces with libraries that are equipped and have the required experience. As a result of the vagaries in the socioeconomic conditions, libraries in Suriname cannot manage the challenges of the information society in isolation. Based on individual needs, close cooperation on selected areas of librarianship will be a guarantee for success. Cooperation depends on the relationship established between libraries in Suriname and their international counterparts. It is important that more libraries take advantage of the opportunities provided by membership in regional associations, such as, ACURIL, and organizations relevant to their subject area. Librarians in Suriname need to emphasize the importance of relationships with libraries in the region. This is the challenge for the 21st century.

ENDNOTES 1.

These are the main reasons the author was motivated to write an article on the development and challenges of libraries in Suriname. Because of the lack of documented information, interviews with colleagues provided the major source of data about the current state of affairs in libraries. Colleagues were able to provide some useful links to the cited resources used in this chapter.

2.

Nationale Database Suriname, 10 Sept. 2006. www.nationallibrary.sr.

WORKS CITED Afdeling Bibliotheekwezen. Jaarverslag 2004 Afdeling Bibliotheekwezen. Paramaribo: Afdeling Bibliotheekwezen, n.d. Augustuszoon, Marcella. Personal interview. 13 Feb. 2006. Bibliotheek Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname. Jaarverslag Academisch jaar 2004–2005. Paramaribo: Bibliotheek Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname, 2005. Blokland, A. Bibliotheekwerk in Suriname en de Nationale Crisis: Conceptrapport n.a.v. het werkbezoek van A. Blokland aan het Cultureel Centrum Suriname in augustus 1990. Den Haag: NBLC, 1990. Encyclopedie van Suriname. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1977. Helman, Albert, ed. Cultureel mozaik van Suriname: Bijdrage tot onderling begrip. Zutphen: Walburg pers, 1978. Het culturele erfgoed moet bewaard blijven. Kompas. (1996): 12–15. Gobardhan-Rambocus, Sabitrie Lilawatie. Onderwijs als sleutel tot maatschappelijke vooruitgang: een taal-en onderwijsgeschiedenis van Suriname, 1651–1975. Zuthpen: Walburg pers, 2001. Gordijn, W., ed., Culturele kroniek ’48–’68. Amsterdam: Nederlandse Stichting voor Culturele Samenwerking met Suriname en de Nederlandse, [c. 1968].

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Jansen van Galen, Jon. Laatste gouverneur, eerste president: de eeuw van Johan Ferrier, Surinamer. Leiden: KITLV, 2005. Kempen, Michiel van. Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur 1957–2000. Breda: Uitgeverij de Geus, 2003. Lont, Ch. R. W. Ontwikkeling van het bibliotheekwezen. In 100 jaar Suriname, gedenkboek i.v.m. een eeuw immigratie. (1973): 158–166. Mac Intosch, Anita. Personal interview. 15 Feb. 2006. Oudschans Dentz, Fred. De Koloniale Boekerij te Paramaribo. Neerlandia 23 (1919): 78–79. Pollack-Leeflang, Stella. Personal interview. 23 Feb. 2006. Runs, Alfred. Ontwikkeling van het bibliotheekwezen in Suriname. Open 16 (1984): 70–78. Sedney, Jules. De toekomst van ons verleden: Democratie, etniciteit en politieke machtsvorming in Suriname. Paramaribo: Vaco, 1997. Sedney, Vivian and Jane W. F. Smith, eds., Bibliotheek-en documentatiegids voor Suriname. Paramaribo: Vereniging van Bibliotheekpersoneel in Suriname, 1990. Tsai-Meu-Chong, Ine. “Availability of publications in Suriname.” Paper presented at the XX Annual ACURIL Conference, Jamaica, 1989. Wolbers, J. Geschiedenis van Suriname. Amsterdam: Emmering, (1970): 415–421. [Unchanged reprint of the original edition: Amsterdam, 1861].

CHAPTER 3

Historical Development of Libraries in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba Monique Alberts-Luijdjens Philipsburg Jubilee Library, St. Maarten ABSTRACT After some background on the cultural history and the languages spoken in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, an historical overview is given of the development of libraries on the Dutch Caribbean islands in the 19th and 20th centuries. Emphasis is placed on the cultural changes that the islands experienced and the effects of these changes on libraries. An account of the development of public libraries in the Netherlands Antilles follows. These public libraries, originally established by the colonial government to promote the Dutch language and culture during the last decades of the 20th century, developed into cultural centres in which local culture acquired a prominent place. In the second half of this chapter, the collections and the main activities of the academic libraries are described as well as some basic information on the most important special libraries on the Dutch islands. An account of the developments in library automation and the international contacts of the Antillean and Aruban libraries are also provided. The author concludes that the libraries have developed significantly since they have been established, but regional and international cooperation at home as well as abroad is necessary for the continued survival of Antillean and Aruban libraries.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the historical development of libraries in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba is depicted against the background of the cultural history of the Dutch West Indies. There is a dearth of literature on culture and library history of the Dutch Caribbean and there are few texts on these subjects in languages other than Dutch. Wim Rutgers, a linguist, and the historian Johan Hartog are the only academics who did extensive research on the history of Antillean and Aruban libraries and recorded their findings in some essential books and articles 31

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written in Dutch. The writings of these two men as well as local newspaper articles, annual reports of various libraries, and general works on the colonial history of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were used in developing this chapter. The author hopes to contribute to a wider knowledge and understanding on the subject of library development in the Dutch Caribbean by making this valuable information accessible to persons outside the Dutch linguistic area.

BASIC FACTS ON THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA The islands of the Dutch Caribbean are part of the Lesser Antilles and are geographically divided into two groups—the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. The former group comprises Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (the ABC-islands), and the latter group consists of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba. From 1955 onwards, these six islands were politically united to form the Netherlands Antilles, as nominally equal partners in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in addition to the Netherlands and Suriname. Suriname gained statehood in 1975. Ten years later, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles to acquire its separate status as a self-governing body within the Kingdom, the so-called “status aparte.” From January 1986, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has consisted of three partners: the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba.

COLONIAL HISTORY AND LANGUAGE IN THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA Cultural life in the Netherlands Antilles can be characterized as multicultural and multilingual. On the Leeward Islands, four different languages, Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamento (a Creole language) are spoken. On the Windward Islands, English has always been dominant, although Dutch has remained the official language. The multilingual character of the Antillean societies can be ascribed to the way the Dutch colonial administration governed its territories in the Caribbean, which were acquired in the 17th century. The Dutch colonial attitude can best be described as mercantile in character. Neither empire-building nor the dissemination of Dutch culture and language were among the aspirations of the Dutch colonial policy in the Caribbean. Creole languages, such as Papiamento (with roots in Spanish and Portuguese) in the Leeward Islands and Sranan Tongo (with roots in English) in Suriname and English in the Windward Islands, survived centuries of Dutch rule. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Dutch lost the majority of their colonial possessions. However, the Dutch East Indies, (presently, Indonesia), the six Antillean islands, and Suriname remained as dependencies. In the age of empire, towards the end of the 19th century, the East Indies were of far more

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importance to the Dutch than their territories in the Caribbean as the West Indies had less economic potential, and were smaller and less populated. The colonial policy of the Dutch in the Caribbean region can, therefore, be characterized as rather uninspired and inactive. Oostindie and Klinkers stated: the absence of an energetic and visionary approach by the Netherlands contributed greatly to the failure of the West Indies to ever rise above the status of ‘poor cousin’ to the Dutch East Indies. (57) The fairly passive colonial policy of the Dutch contributed to the weak cultural link between the mother country and the colonial possessions in the Caribbean. This led to the rather peculiar situation that, although, the islands have been in the Dutch realm since the 17th century, the Dutch language never became the dominant language. It was dominant only in the sphere of administration and education, but it played a very limited role in the everyday life of the island populations. The Papiamento-speaking Leeward-islands were traditionally focused on their Spanish-American surroundings and the Windward Islands on their own English-speaking region. In both cases the ‘mother country’ was considered far away. (Oostindie and Klinkers 62)

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARIES In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba went through different cultural phases that influenced library development in this region.

Libraries in 19th-Century Curaçao The main social groups in colonial Curaçao of the 19th century were the European settlers, the Jews and the African slaves and their descendants. The European settlers, mainly white Protestants, together with the Sephardic Jews formed the colonial elite. Some members of the colonial elite had their private book collections. The Dutch settler, Cornelis Goslinga, turned his collection into a private “lending” library operating from his home in 1842. Historical records also mention the “reading-table” of Abraham Capriles in his hotel, Concordia, which eventually became a reading association with its own reading room (Hartog, Gedrukte 23). At the end of the 19th century, reading became increasingly popular as a pastime among the colonial elite. As a result of this trend, most social clubs in Curaçao had libraries for the exclusive use of their members. There were

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also a few specific reading societies. The user records of most of these reading societies show that the monthly contributions and fees required to become a member were rather high. It is clear that these were upper-class initiatives. Another striking detail is that the membership lists of these associations do not mention any female members. Apparently, women were not supposed to read in the 19th century (Rutgers 61). The private and society libraries were not the only libraries in existence in 19th-century Curaçao. The records show that, in the second half of this century, at least two commercial libraries existed. These libraries were linked to bookshops and oriented towards the more popular genres. The bookshops charged the clients of their libraries a monthly or quarterly fee. Specific books were acquired for the library whenever 10 clients asked for the same book titles. Clients also had the opportunity, and were motivated by the staff, to purchase the books of their choice after they borrowed them. Through this early form of lease contract, there was a clear link between the bookshops and the commercial libraries. The collections of the 19th-century private, social, club, and commercial libraries reflected the multilingual character of the society. Some libraries, such as the library of the Dutch Society (de Gezelligheid), primarily collected books in Dutch. On the other hand, the commercial libraries of the “Jonckheer brothers” and the publishing house/bookstore Betancourt y hijos were oriented towards Spanish literature. All private and semi-public libraries, however, offered their clients books in more than one language (Rutgers 183). The Catholic mission developed its own collections, the so-called safe libraries. The objective of the Catholic libraries was to protect the population against the “pernicious stream of Spanish and English reading matter that threatened to ruin religious life in so many hearts and families” (Rutgers 121).

Aruba and Curaçao—The Spanish Period Towards the end of the 19th century, cultural life on Aruba and Curaçao became increasingly culturally diversified. Venezuela went through a period of severe political turmoil around 1855. This political instability had consequences for Curaçao’s Jewish elite with interests in both countries. These Jews were expelled from Venezuela and took up permanent residence in Curaçao. They were responsible for establishing Spanish-speaking highquality elite colleges, which played a major role in 19th-century cultural life on the island. A complete community of Venezuelan writers and poets-inexile came to live on Curaçao. There was even an influential Spanish magazine called Notas y Letras in which exiliado poets published their works (Rutgers 86). The publishing house and bookstore Betancourt y hijos became an important publishing centre that also exported Spanish literature published in Curaçao.

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On Aruba, as well, the Spanish/Venezuelan influence was also significant. Second to Curaçao, Aruba was a favourite haven for political refugees from the mainland. Cultural and linguistic connections to the Latin American continent were strong in all respects. Until 1849, all Catholic priests in Aruba were Venezuelan.

Growing Dutch Influence in the 20th Century A noted characteristic of cultural life on Curaçao around the turn of the 20th century was the diminishing role of the Spanish language and a sudden revival of the Dutch interest in their West Indian colonies. There were a number of political incidents resulting in tension between Curaçao and Venezuela from 1900 to 1910. These incidents fell short of outright war but, nevertheless, had repercussions on the cultural life on the islands. Venezuelan students and exiles felt obliged to return to their native country. The Spanish colegios were closed and the literary magazines in Spanish were no longer published on the island. During the same period, leading intellectuals in the Netherlands developed a renewed interest in the Antilles. They felt that the motherland, until then, had only focused on the economic exploitation of the islands and that it was time for the Netherlands to take up its responsibility for the cultural development of the islands. The Dutch Caribbean should be educated culturally and the cultural ties with the Netherlands should be strengthened. Wim Rutgers, an expert on Antillean literature, introduced the term Holandisashon for this new policy (144). The main instrument through which the Dutch colonial powers sought to promote the Dutch language was the education system. In 1907, a new law determined that Dutch would become the sole language of instruction at schools. Until then, the Catholic Church had dominated the education system with its popular education in Papiamento. The curriculum in Curaçao and the other islands now became a copy of the Dutch system. On Curaçao, the Dutch culture was further boosted by the establishment of the Dutch/British oil company Shell. The purpose of the new libraries, which the colonial government established on the islands in the 1920s, was to support the education system and to be instruments of Holandisashon. On the Windward Islands, this policy was a total failure because the population remained focused on the English-speaking neighbouring islands. World War II marked the end of the Holandisashon policy when the ties with the mother country were abruptly severed. American soldiers were stationed on the islands and, instead of Dutch literature, American bestsellers and magazines were imported and read. On the Leeward Islands, the war and the postwar periods marked the emancipation of Papiamento as a language. In the 1950s, several authors started to write short stories and poems in Papiamento and a number of literary magazines in Papiamento were published. In the

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meantime, however, the education system and the libraries remained strongly oriented towards the Dutch language.

LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA IN THE 20TH CENTURY The first semi-public libraries on the islands were the General Dutch League (Algemeen Nederlands Verbond [ANV]) libraries. The General Dutch League, an organization that is comparable to the British Council but working on a much more limited scale, had started to direct its attention to the Dutch Caribbean since 1900. The mission of the ANV was to unite Dutchspeaking people all over the world. Since 1899, ANV was represented in Indonesia and Suriname and, in 1902, the organization succeeded in finding representatives on each of the Antillean islands. In Aruba, Bonaire, St. Maarten, and St. Eustatius, the ANV representatives established small libraries. Shipping containers filled with books were sent over from the Netherlands to fill the shelves. But none of the ANV libraries ever flourished and their organization remained rather amateurish. The libraries never fulfilled their intended role as the people’s libraries. They were frequented mainly by members of the Dutch colonial elite and by the schoolchildren who had to read books in Dutch because it had become the language used in schools. The library of Bonaire even had to expand its youth department in 1904 because of the number of schoolchildren who wanted to make use of the department’s facilities (Hartog, Gedrukte 118).

Antillean Public Libraries in the 1920s and 1930s In 1920, the government of Curaçao took over a military library. The new library became part of the Department of Education, which assured its appearance of being a library, more or less, for educational purposes, but it evolved into a public lending library (Hartog , Libraries 46). This became the first public library in the Netherlands Antilles operated by the government and, in 1922, it became officially known as the Government Library. The library was successful but was frequented by only a small fraction of the island population. On the three Windward Islands (St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba), semi-public libraries were founded in 1923. These libraries were operated by private organizations but funded by the governments of the islands. The year, 1923, marked the 25th jubilee of the reign of Queen Wilhelmina and, therefore, the St. Maarten library was renamed “Philipsburg Jubilee Library” and the library of Saba “Queen Wilhelmina Library.” The new libraries on the Windward Islands did not really thrive. According to historical records, the St. Maarten library had to close in 1936 when membership dropped to a mere 14 members. The library of Saba, meanwhile, was

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criticized for being racist and only oriented towards the white colonial elite by an anonymous writer describing himself as “a bookworm” (Rutgers 186). The reasons for the lack of success of the libraries on the Windward Islands were, probably, because the libraries were very small and were managed by nonprofessionals. Another obstacle for their growth may have been that the libraries were promoted by the colonial government, which was trying to incorporate the libraries in the Dutch language education system. This effort did not make the libraries very popular among the local population (Rutgers 186).

Professionalism Since the 1950s The post-World War II years were important for the development of the public libraries on the islands. In 1949, Aruba opened its own public library. The Aruban library successfully organized a number of new activities and became a cultural centre on the island during the 1950s. The Curaçao public library also extended its activities. Another important development in the library world of the 1950s was the increasing professionalism of library staff. The management of the library was no longer left to volunteers. Professional librarians were appointed to the libraries of Curaçao and Aruba. In the early years, Dutch librarians were sent to the islands, but local librarians were trained to manage the libraries starting in the late 1950s. However, the membership records show that on all six islands, the libraries still only reached a very limited percentage of the population throughout the 1950s and 1960s (Rutgers 287). In the 1980s, there was a remarkable growth in number and in professionalism of the staff of the public libraries on the Dutch islands. Apparently, the governments made public library work a high priority, which resulted in new buildings for the libraries of Curaçao, Aruba, and St. Maarten. These new buildings were multifunctional, opening possibilities for the libraries to develop new activities. The newly established Antillean Public Library Association (APLA) organized training courses for its staff members. The libraries became active in promoting reading and use of local literature. As a result of these new activities, the number of visitors as well as membership rose.

Collections of the Public Libraries The book collections of the public libraries on the Leeward Islands still consist mainly of books in the Dutch language with English and Spanish ranking second and third, respectively. The libraries of the three Leeward Islands also strive to acquire all reading material published in Papiamento. The number of books published in Papiamento, however, remains comparatively small, as does their share in the collections of the public libraries.

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On the Windward Islands, the collections are oriented towards books in English. Apart from their regular collections, the public libraries developed special Antilliana/Caribiana collections consisting of books and other local documents published on the islands and in the Caribbean region. In this way, the libraries are preserving the written cultural heritage of their countries. Noteworthy is the valuable collection of historical maps, which is part of the Antilliana collection of the public library of Curaçao. The Arubiana/ Caribiana collection of the library of Aruba became the national collection of the country after Aruba got independent status in 1986 from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

ACADEMIC AND SPECIAL LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA The most important academic library in the Netherlands Antilles is the University Library of the University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA) on the island of Curaçao. There is also a small library at the University of Aruba. In 1950, the scientific library of Curaçao, which was the first academic library in the Netherlands Antilles, was established. In 1978, this scientific library became part of the UNA Library (Hartog, Gedrukte 51). At present, the UNA Library is primarily focused on supporting the education and research of the four faculties of the university. The Antillean room of the library houses valuable historical book collections. The compilation of a central catalogue of all scientific works on the Antilles and Aruba, which was started in the 1950s, culminated in the Bibliography Dutch Caribbean (BDC). The BDC includes publications in many forms that relate to the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, and is part of the online catalogue of the UNA library. The library catalogue is accessible via the Internet. Curaçao has three special libraries containing valuable historical collections. The library of the S.A.L. (Mongui) Maduro foundation houses huge quantities of historical materials collected over more than 85 years. This library focuses on the history of the Jewish community in Curaçao and is a member of the association of Jewish libraries (Langenfeld 15). The two other professional special libraries on Curaçao are the library of the Historical Archive of Curaçao and the library of the Jacob Gelt Dekker Foundation.

LIBRARY AUTOMATION AND THE INTERNET IN THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA The public library of St. Maarten was the first library in the Netherlands Antilles that automated its catalogue and circulation services in 1984. In 1997, the Aruban library followed. The public library of Curaçao completed its library automation project in 2004 (Fundashon Biblioteka Publiko Korsou 5). Since 2005, the catalogue of the Curaçao library became accessible via the

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Internet. The catalogue of the UNA library can also be consulted on the World Wide Web.

COOPERATION EFFORTS OF ANTILLEAN AND ARUBAN LIBRARIES Contacts and cooperation projects between the different libraries of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruban libraries are frequent and extensive. One such cooperation project, which played a pivotal role, was the training program organized by the Antillean Public Libraries Association (APLA). This association was active on the islands from 1983 to 1996. Apart from collaboration among Antillean libraries, there are international contacts. Understandably, the libraries have remained strongly oriented towards their mother country. The staff is trained, almost exclusively, in the Netherlands and the libraries have always been oriented towards the Dutch-based education system. But notwithstanding their close relationship with the mother country, the Antillean and Aruban libraries have also extended their contacts in the Caribbean. The public libraries of Curaçao, Aruba, and St. Maarten have been members of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) since its inception in 1969. In 1980, Maritza Eustatius, librarian of the University Library of Curaçao was elected president of ACURIL (Hartog, Libraries 118). Directors of the public libraries of Aruba and St. Maarten have held executive office in ACURIL during the 1980s and 1990s. Curaçao and Aruba have hosted several ACURIL conferences in the past decades.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE The libraries of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba have come a long way. In the colonial era, these libraries primarily existed to facilitate the educational and recreational needs of the colonial elites. In the 1920s and 1930s, the colonial power used libraries as instruments for the acculturation of the local population. Traditional cultural expressions of the island population as well as the Creole language, Papiamento, were disregarded in the policy of the first Antillean public libraries. Since the 1950s, there was a change in policy and the local literature, culture, and language was given greater recognition. The libraries that were already conserving the written cultural heritage of their countries observed this development and became cultural centres in which local culture acquired a prominent place. At the same time, the libraries were challenged to keep pace with technological developments in the Information Age. In most of the libraries the circulation and cataloguing processes were automated in the 1980s and 1990s. These libraries also have Web sites (see Appendix A at the end of this chapter). Microfilming and digitizing of

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important historical documents from the collections of the libraries would be an important next step in order to preserve the written cultural heritage of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Due to the socioeconomic situation of their countries, the libraries cannot take up the challenges of the information society by themselves. Cooperation between library organizations at home and abroad is a necessary requirement for the survival of the libraries. It is important that more libraries take advantage of the opportunities of the membership of regional associations, such as ACURIL. Jesse Shera, American Library theorist, stated: “the library is an important element in the total communication system by which society is held together and culture is created and maintained” (Amadi 206).

WORKS CITED Amadi, Adolphe O. Western Tradition and Colonial Brainwashing. London: Scarecrow, 1981. Fundashon Biblioteka Publiko Korsou (FBPK) Stichting Openbare Bibliotheek Curaçao. Jaarverslag 2004. Curaçao: FBPK, 2005. Hartog, Johan. “Libraries in the Netherlands Antilles.” Bulletin of the Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago 1.4 (1962): 46–48. —-. Het gedrukte woord in de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1992. Langenfeld, Els. 30 years S.A.L. (Mongui) Maduro Foundation: The Past, a Present for our Future. Curaçao: Mongui Maduro Foundation, 2004. Oostindie, Gert and Inge Klinkers. Decolonising the Caribbean: Dutch Policies in a Comparative Perspective. Amsterdam: University Press Amsterdam, 2003. Rutgers, Wim. Beneden en boven de wind: Literatuur van de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1996.

APPENDIX A LIBRARY WEB SITES: NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA ARUBA Aruba National Library, www.bibliotecanacional.aw

CURAÇAO Library Landhuis Bloemhof, www.bloemhof.an/library.php Mongui Maduro Library, www.madurolibrary.org Public library Curaçao, www.curacaopubliclibrary.an University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA) Library, www.una.an/en/diensten/ bibliotheek/default.asp

ST. MAARTEN Philipsburg Jubilee Library, www.pjlibrary.an

CHAPTER 4

Broadening the Academy’s Influence: A Glance at Two Academic Libraries in the Caribbean Willamae M. Johnson The College of The Bahamas, The Bahamas ABSTRACT Libraries are not an end in themselves but rather are the images of the political, social, and economic fabric of the societies in which they exist. Their evolution and sustainability over time are greatly influenced by the prevailing socioeconomic development of individual nations and that of the global community. The development of academic librarianship in the Caribbean had been slow until the 1960s. During this period, many islands attained their statehood and established tertiary level institutions in an attempt to shape and enhance their educational system outside the colonial past. These national education developments led to greater focus on the role of the library in the academy and the provision of resources to support the curricula and scholarship. Against this backdrop, this study examines the development of two academic libraries—The College of The Bahamas (COB) and St. George’s University (SGU), Grenada. It illustrates how these libraries have contributed to the growth of their institution’s repute. Reference is made to developments in other academic libraries, as well as to the contributions of library associations and technology in furthering the image enhancement of these higher education institutions and the fostering of collaborations and partnerships.

INTRODUCTION “Library services exist, not as an end in themselves, but as an essential part of the social and educational structure, and it is in this context that future library development should be sought and planned”(Jordan 378). Those words penned by Alma Jordan in her dissertation remain true even at this early part of the 21st century. Libraries are not an end in themselves but rather are the images of the political, social, and economic fabric of the societies in which they exist. Their evolution, and sustainability over time, is 41

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greatly influenced by the prevailing socioeconomic development of individual nations and that of the global community. Academic libraries are key contributors to the accomplishments and influence enjoyed by their parent institutions, primarily through the provision and access to resources that students and faculty use for instruction, learning, and scholarship. Use of these libraries by external patrons for a variety of research purposes further enhances their public stature. This study will, therefore, examine the contributions of academic libraries like the COB, The Bahamas, and SGU, Grenada, in this regard. Reference will also be made to developments in other academic libraries as documented in the literature in the absence of timely responses to the survey distributed by this author.

DEFINING “INFLUENCE” “Influence” is defined as “action invisibly exercised” (Fowler and Fowler 413). Thus, the influence, of which this writer refers, is that of the “presence,” which the academy exerts without deliberate effort but which it engenders as a result of the respect it has gained through the strength of its institutional programmes, resources, and graduates. The institution is known by its byproducts (graduates, research, and publications) and its affiliations.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT Up to 1895, Codrington College (an Anglican school) in Barbados was the only institution in the region offering university degrees, mainly in theological studies, through affiliation with the University of Durham in England (Bacchus 274). It was the first higher education institution in the Caribbean established in 1743 to train priests, and remained the only college offering higher education in the English-speaking Caribbean until 1921, when the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) was established in Trinidad and Tobago (Howe 2). Prior to 1948, the main source of higher education for English-speaking Caribbean students was London University’s external degree programme, while those who could afford to, or received scholarship, went to British universities. The University College of the West Indies (UCWI) (now known as The University of the West Indies) was established at Mona, Jamaica in 1948 to broaden access to higher education in the region. There has been a proliferation of institutions of higher learning from the period of the establishment of UCWI and now. The World Bank Country Study estimates that there were 75 such institutions established (153); this growth has been attributed to “the achievement of statehood by many of the nations since the 1960s and their desire to make their individual countrywide educational systems more self-sufficient” (Craig 2). New institutions included the University of the Virgin Islands, with campuses in St. Thomas and St. Croix established in 1963, the College of Arts, Science and Technology in Jamaica in the early 1970s, COB in 1974, the Antigua State College in 1977,

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the Clifton Dupigny Community College (Dominica) in 1983, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia in 1986, St. Kitts College of Further Education in 1988, the Grenada National College in 1988, the Barbados Community College and the Herman Lavity Stoutt Community College in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (Howe 20). With the establishment of universities/colleges, the expectation usually is that library facilities would be a natural offshoot. In fact, an excellent example of this is the library at the UCWI where approval for the draft library legislation was granted in its first budget (Hall 11). This speaks volumes for the crucial importance of libraries in the academy as corroborated in the World Bank Country Study: “… institutions will need to take steps to secure financing for the non-salary inputs vital for quality improvements. This may require economies elsewhere to ensure adequate supplies of library books, equipment, periodicals and scientific journals, which research has shown are key factors in quality gains” (World Bank 178). Jordan in her thesis also referenced the centrality of the academic library to national development (341, 343, 350).

DATA COLLECTION METHOD This study documents the role that academic libraries play in bringing recognition and prominence to their parent institutions. The goal was to gather details through a survey of selected institutions, representative of the English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking countries, and a review of the literature to determine the extent to which changes and choices in academic librarianship have helped to shape and propel the influence of the various colleges and universities. The author attempted to gather information on the historical and current situation by contacting selected institutions in the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking countries. E-mail addresses were sought for the identified institutions and, in most cases, were located through the institutions’ Web site.1 Another approach was contacting colleagues in the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL). Neither method yielded the desired response and, hence, research of other sources was explored and the study narrowed to developments within the COB and the SGU Library in Grenada, the only respondent to the survey.

THE STUDY Roger Prichard in his essay “Future Directions for Research in Caribbean Higher Education Institutions” throws out a challenge to Caribbean countries to embrace the world information economy. He notes that access is heavily reliant on research and that “the most important dividend from research is not the new information that is created directly, but rather the ability of people engaged in research to access and integrate information

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from around the world on a sustainable basis” (Howe 253). Libraries as learning organizations, particularly within the academy, nurture expanded thinking and collaborative learning. Research and teaching expound on old and new knowledge and ensure that the learning cycle continues. Libraries facilitate access to, integration and interpretation, and further examination of this knowledge and are, therefore, an essential component in the learning cycle. Through their dynamism, libraries provide environments and services that facilitate easy access to scholars engaged in the knowledge economy and ensure their relevance well beyond the 21st century.

THE COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS LIBRARY The history of the COB Library is as dated as that of its parent institution, which was established through legislation in October 1974. Evolving from primarily print collections dispersed across three institutions—the former Bahamas Teachers’ Colleges in New Providence, and San Salvador islands, and the Bahamas Technical Institute (Rolle 53)—the existing collection of approximately 85,000 volumes has diverse resources available in print, nonprint, and electronic formats. Though a publicly funded tertiary-level institution, the COB has over the years invested in the building of a dynamic and wellresourced library. Despite its best efforts, however, funding has not always been adequate due to other national budgetary priorities. Nevertheless, the library has maintained its central place in the academy and is highly regarded in the nation as the leader in provision and delivery of library services. The generosity of donors and the commitment and dedication of highly skilled library employees have been critical contributing factors. The Bahamas does not have a national library. In its absence, the library at the COB is regarded as the de facto national library, the one to which researchers turn in their quest for information, especially information on The Bahamas. While the primary objective of the library remains the support of the curricula, building collections of Bahamiana that support instruction and learning has been central to the delivery of the programmes, hence the notion that the library is the de facto national institution (College of The Bahamas, College/University 6). The COB Library has enjoyed strong leadership over the years. The four Chief Librarians (now referred to as Library Director) and their teams, have contributed to the expansion and strengthening of collections, services, programmes, and local, regional, and international partnerships and affiliations. The library’s membership in prestigious regional and international library associations such as ACURIL, International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the American Library Association (ALA), the Medical Library Association (MLA), and the Caribbean Law Library Association (CARALL) has provided exposure to the COB. Further, through the election of members of its professional library personnel to substantive positions on local and regional library boards and committees that provide important

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contributions to regional and global library development, the image of the institution broadens exponentially in the international arena. The library has had many milestones along the way, including the acquisition of collections like the Caribbean dissertations (more than 2,000 titles, in varied languages, e.g., English, Dutch, Spanish, and French), other West Indian resources, microforms, CD-ROM, and online periodical titles; the expansion to five branches; membership in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC); and the integration of technology into its operations. The 1970s were devoted to upgrading the knowledge and skills of library personnel with the introduction of a certificate programme in Library Studies. The 1980s brought much needed expansion of facilities and resources as collections of three small branches were merged with that at the main library and another branch was established on the island of Grand Bahama to support degree programmes. In 1991, the nursing programme was amalgamated into the COB and a branch library was established at the site of the former Bahamas School of Nursing to support offerings in nursing and allied health studies. This branch was later named the Hilda Bowen Library in honour of the first Bahamian nursing officer, Hilda Valerie Bowen in May 1994. In the 1990s, technology was more heavily integrated into the processes of technical and public services. DataTrek stand-alone automated system assisted in building an electronic database, and CD-ROM and other electronic databases such as ProQuest were acquired. This thrust with technology was strengthened with the newly acquired Voyager integrated library system, which was launched as the COBWEB online catalogue in January 2003. Through these initiatives, the college’s name was publicised as its records for library’s holdings are accessible to the global community. In 2000, the library was further expanded through the establishment of a law library to facilitate the joint COB/The University of the West Indies (UWI) programme, which commenced in September 2000. During that same year, the government mandated that the COB assume responsibility for training in the area of tourism and hospitality studies, and this resulted in the acquisition of a small library, which became the fifth branch of the college library system. Both the law and hospitality libraries are in the complex that was the former Bahamas Hotel Training College. The main library has also been providing materials for a small centre through which the COB offers offshore certificate and degree courses on the island of Exuma since the late 1990s. In these times of shrinking financial resources, access to resources has become equally as important as ownership. Through the advances in technology, the role of intra-library cooperation has become easier and a more feasible option. Influentially, then, the library through its automated system has created a gateway for the COB to bring exposure to materials in which it has invested its limited financial resources and, at the same time, collaborate with other organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), and the Caribbean

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA). This gateway enables the library to respond to general inquiries about the COB and the islands of The Bahamas, and the library’s requests to other libraries can be facilitated with much ease and immediacy. Further, the library’s Web page has been linked to Web sites of libraries that use the Voyager automated system, such as the Library of Congress. The library has sought to introduce programmes and services that might strengthen the COB’s community outreach. Such services include facilitation of internships by library students (local, regional, and international), hosting of the Meet the Writer Forum, regional conferences, administration and distribution of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) programme, acting as the clearinghouse for WTO resources and as a deposit library of collections from the UN, WHO, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The library administration agreed to partial depository status for UN documents since March 1977, during the tenure of librarian Ruth Mason. ISBN service was introduced at the COB in 1995 and, since then, a proliferation of interest in indigenous writing has been observed. More recently in 2005, the COB library was one of three local centres at which the Caribbean Trade Database [supplied by the Foreign Trade Information Systems (SICE) and the Organization of American States (OAS)] was established and ground was broken for the Harry C. Moore Library and Information Centre purposely built to support the COB’s evolvement to university status. Of course, developments of the nature described above are not unique to the COB Library. One such example is provided from the SGU, Grenada.

ST. GEORGE’S UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SGU, a private educational institution, was established in 1977 when its School of Medicine was founded by Charles Modica, a lawyer by profession, who became its first chancellor. Soon afterwards, the first library, called the Marion Library—named in honour of the mother of Chancellor Modica— was established. A new library was planned in the late 1990s and this facility, named Founders Library in commemoration of the group that assisted Modica with the establishment of the university, was opened in January 2000. In responding to the survey questions on the influence of the Founders Library, John McGuirk, Library Director, noted that the library is perceived as the outstanding library in the island of Grenada, offering facilities and an environment far in advance of the national library and the community college library. He states “… membership is sought by many more than can be accommodated. As a library of recent origin and whose purpose is specifically to support the programmes of the university, it is not known to have either regional or international impact.” While McGuirk’s perception of his library’s low impact may seem correct, his viewpoint is not held by everyone. Based on his disclosure of the library’s contributions nationally through the availability and access to collections,

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the introduction of modern technology, and the appointment of library personnel on local and regional boards, it appears that the impact is more positive and far-reaching than he imagines. Though the contributions may seem miniscule, they render tremendous value in broadening the institution’s reputation in the local, regional, and international communities.

DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS OTHER ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE CARIBBEAN In the absence of responses from other institutions to the survey, visits to Web sites and consulting documentation in annual reports, conference proceedings, and other supporting literature provided the writer with an insight of developments within other academic institutions. For instance, the various campuses of UWI have built reputable special collections like the West Indian Reference Collection at Mona, Jamaica and the Eric Williams Memorial Collection at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Further, many of the academic librarians are participating and facilitating conferences, publishing, being appointed to prestigious leadership roles in the library community regionally and internationally, as well as serving on consultative committees. All such activities benefit their institutions—broadening their image and reputation. Addressing the Library and Information Association of Jamaica in February 2006, Rex Nettleford, former Vice-Chancellor (UWI), spoke highly of librarians in Jamaica and drew reference to the contributions of academic librarians: “It is all the more remarkable that the Jamaica Library Service has been effectively manned by a crew of formidable women who have brought distinction to the profession, professional commitment to the outreach dimension of public service, and intellectual authority honed in institutions like The University of the West Indies”(1).

INFLUENCES IN THE AREA OF TECHNOLOGY Advances in technology have tremendously influenced the evolution of modern-day tertiary level institutions over the past 20 years. The provision, nature, and range of library services have been impacted, existing at varying levels across academic libraries as suggested by McGuirk’s comments “several times we have suggested or responded to consideration of a regional consortia for electronic system and information but no progress has been seen. At the local island level, our institution is seen as leading the way.” Despite this lack of follow-through to facilitate the better use of resources, it is evident that the larger institutions have maximised use of the available technology. The presence of academic libraries on their institution’s Web site and the use of Internet and e-mail facilities are enabling them to have a more global outreach and appeal, especially as it relates to intralibrary cooperation. The idea of consortia in relation to maximising limited and shrinking

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

financial resources is one that can have profound regional sustainability, and such initiatives ought to be pursued vigorously. However, there are challenges of which Daphne Douglas reminded us when she commented that “resource sharing just does not happen; the infrastructures can be costly, and what we need is to give thought to how we are going to achieve the optimum conditions” (Douglas 46). Resource-sharing experiences in Puerto Rico, fuelled by use of technology, are well-documented. Academic libraries in Puerto Rico have since the beginning of the 1950s championed the cause of interlibrary cooperation, despite a complete absence of tools facilitating interlibrary loan processes. In 1959, Josò M. Lázaro, director of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), General Library at Rio Piedras, met with the library directors of the UPR Mayaguez campus, Catholic University, and the Inter-American University. They reached some agreements concerning the organization, functioning and maintenance of a union catalogue that should represent the collections of all four institutions. The proposed union catalogue was “to facilitate the bibliographic control of both the collections and the interlibrary loans” (Maura 75).

ROLE OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS In countries throughout the region, librarians in the different types of libraries have united and formed national library associations. These associations serve as vehicles through which libraries are promoted and issues related to the profession of librarianship are addressed. They also facilitate professional development activities and intra-regional cooperation. Most of these associations are affiliated with ACURIL, the regional library association, which was founded in 1969 (Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries 2). The Bahamas Library Association (BLA), founded in June 1979, emerged from the amalgamation of the Bahamas School Library Association and the Bahamas Public Library Association both of which had been established in 1975 (Bahamas Library Association, Celebrating 1). Though not as vibrant as it has been in the past when it sponsored annual conferences and workshops for professional development and summer reading programmes in support of literacy development, this association developed standards for school media programmes, which were adopted into Ministry of Education schools in 1992 and drafted the Bill for an Act to establish a national library and a national library and information system in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.2 Members of the COB library were actively engaged in these initiatives, with several of the librarians having served as President of the Association. ACURIL has contributed to the broadening of the influence that libraries bring to their institutions. Many of the librarians have held prestigious positions within this regional association, made presentations at various conferences as a result of their affiliations with this body, and contributed to

Broadening the Academy’s Influence

49

building the literature base of the region through publishing efforts such as CARINDEX, sponsored by ACURIL and disseminated by the UWI Library, St. Augustine Campus (Greene 557). Through IFLA, ALA, Seminar on the Acquisitions of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), and other library associations, librarians continue to have opportunities for publishing and presentations. This is our charge as stated by Alma Jordan, ACURIL’s first President: “the responsibility to contribute professionally …, and by other university service to the library profession is perhaps most significant. In particular, the university’s academic staff as a large and influential group of educationists, could, and should play an important part in promoting the development of library services throughout the region” (Jordan 351).

LOOKING AHEAD Academic libraries have progressed exponentially from the small 900square-foot room, which comprised the library and reading room space at Codrington College and even smaller spaces at many of the teachers’ colleges. The infusion of technology into the functions and operations of the libraries have made routine tasks easier and more efficient. Additionally, the establishment of numerous regional associations has provided opportunities for networking and collaboration. Nevertheless, there is still more that can be done to meet common challenges like that of regional consortia in acquiring expensive databases and automated systems. McGuirk is correct in voicing this as a concern and others probably share similar views. Such collaboration can only benefit all positively, especially those libraries that are struggling to provide automated library services or access to essential databases. Pooling all our limited resources would make better sense than continuing to try to meet individual needs that are often delayed due to financial limitations. Cooperative ventures have benefited libraries and librarians over the years, and a renewed commitment in this area is even more crucial to providing timely and easy access to information for library patrons. Just as collections, facilities, and training methods have changed, so have the needs of library users, who now have greater exposure to technology. Finding ways to offer different tools to these users and to demonstrate how these tools can be integrated with their existing knowledge and skills will be the challenge. Perhaps that transition for libraries and librarians in our region has already begun and is being observed and appreciated, even when not openly expressed as in this quote, “… I have been impressed with the growth of the profession in acquiring the texture needed to deal with the growth … to deal with what is referred to as the knowledge-economy of this 21st century….” (Nettleford 1). Academic libraries’ relevance and influence can well support their institutions in meeting the associated challenges that this knowledge economy presents.

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

ENDNOTES 1. 2.

Web sites of institutions that proved useful have been added to the reference list. The Bill has been drafted and revised several times, but it has not been enacted.

WORKS CITED Association of Caribbean University, Research, and Institutional Libraries. A Proposal for a Feasibility Study of Information System Capabilities for Linkage Among Caribbean Libraries. Paper presented at the XXIII Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries. Barbados, 1993. Bacchus, M. Kazim. Education for Economic, Social and Political Development in the British Caribbean Colonies from 1896 to 1945. London, Ontario: Althouse Press, 2005. Bahamas Library Association. A Bill for an Act to Establish a National Library and a National Library and Information System in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Nassau, Bahamas: BLA, [1985]. —-. Celebrating 5 Decades of Professional Development and Information Provision in Bahamian Libraries Awards and Recognition Ceremony Programme. Nassau, Bahamas: BLA, 2003. —-. Standards for School Media Programmes. Nassau, Bahamas: BLA, 1991. —-. Unpublished Typewritten Minutes, Papers and Other Documents of the Association. Nassau, Bahamas: BLA, 1979. College of The Bahamas. The College of The Bahamas Celebrates 20 Years of Academic Excellence 1974–1994: A Glance. Nassau, Bahamas: COB, 1995. —-. College/University of The Bahamas: Harry C. Moore Library and Information Centre. Nassau, Bahamas: COB, 2005. Craig, Dennis, ed. Education in the West Indies: Developments and Perspectives 1948–1988. Mona, Jamaica: The University of the West Indies, 1996. Douglas, Daphne. “Strategies for Resource Sharing.” In Caribbean Collections: Recession Management Strategies for Libraries. Ed. Mina Jane Grothey. Papers of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Seminar on the Acquisitions of Latin American Library Materials held jointly with the XVIII Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean University, Research, and Institutional Libraries, James L. Knight International Conference Center, Miami, Fl, May 10–15, 1987. Madison, WI: SALALM Secretariat, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, 1988. Fowler, F. G. and H. W. Fowler. The Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Greene, J. E. “Two Reports from the Caribbean: Research and Information Support Systems.” International Social Science Journal 32.3 (1980): 555–559. Hall, Douglas. The University of the West Indies: A Quinquagenary Calendar 1948–1998. Kingston: UWI Press, 1998. Howe, Glenford, ed. Higher Education in the Caribbean: Past, Present and Future Directions. Barbados: UWI Press, 2000. Howells, Eyrie. Barbados Community College Home Page. Feb. 8, 2006. www.bcc.edu.bb. Jordan, Alma. The Development of Library Service in the West Indies through Interlibrary Cooperation. New York: Columbia University, 1966. Layne, Anthony. “Educational Reform in Barbados in the Post-War Period.” In Educational Reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Ed. Errol Miller, Washington, DC: OAS General Secretariat, 1999, 119–148.

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The Main Library, The University of the West Indies. The University of the West Indies. 1 Feb. 2006. www.mainlib.uwi.tt. Maura, Mariano. “Resource-Sharing Experiences in Puerto Rico and Possibilities for Expanding Resource Sharing in the Caribbean.” In Caribbean Collections: Recession Management Strategies for Libraries. Ed. Mina Jane Grothey. Papers of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Seminar on the Acquisitions of Latin American Library Materials held jointly with the Eighteenth Conference of the Association of Caribbean University, Research, and Institutional Libraries, James L. Knight International Conference Center, Miami, Fl, May 10–15, 1987. Madison, WI: SALALM Secretariat, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, 1988. Nettleford, Rex. Challenges of Intellectual Property System. Paper presented to the Library and Information Association of Jamaica. 18 Feb. 2006. Office of the Vice Chancellor Home Page. University of Guyana. 28 Feb. 2006. www.uog.edu.gy/VC/ar.htm. Roberts, Vivienne, and Nigel Brissett. Pathways to Tertiary Education in the EnglishSpeaking Caribbean. Barbados: The University of the West Indies, 2003. Rolle, Vanrea. “The Library.” Tenth Anniversary Booklet. Nassau, Bahamas: COB, 1985, 53. Walker, Berthamae L. “Casting into the Deep: A History of Library Technology in The Bahamas.” Computers in Libraries 20.10 (2000): 48–53. World Bank. Caribbean region: Access, Quality and Efficiency in Education. Washington, DC: Organisation of American States, 1993.

APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE BROADENING THE INFLUENCE: CONTRIBUTIONS OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES TO THE ACADEMY, 1950–PRESENT 1. Does your library have a unique name? Why was that name selected? Has this had an impact on how your library or institution is used and/or viewed? If so, how? When was your library established? Please provide some brief historical details. 2. How has your library contributed to the strengthening of your institution’s reputation over the years (a) locally (b) regionally (c) internationally? (For example, specialised collections, programmes, etc.) 3. What has been the single most effective programme of the library that has enhanced the institution’s reputation and success? 4. How have library personnel contributed to the broadening of the institution’s influence (a) locally (b) regionally (c) internationally? (For example, librarians serving as representatives on local/regional/international boards, research and publications, etc.) 5. What have been the greatest challenge(s) to your library’s development and how were they addressed? 6. How has technology assisted in broadening the influence of your institution in the local, regional, and international communities? 7. What do you see as the challenges facing regional academic libraries now and in the next decade? 8. Other comments that describe or outline the library’s contribution in broadening the influence of the institution. Thank You for Your Valuable Time!

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PA R T I I

Management of the 21st-Century Library— Collections, Staff, and Services

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CHAPTER 5

Transformation and Impact: The Experience of Two Academic Libraries in Jamaica Hermine C. Salmon University of Technology, Jamaica

Heather Rodriguez-James Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica ABSTRACT Many colleges are seeking to achieve university status. The article proposes to share the experience of two academic libraries whose respective institutions evolved from college to university in the 1990s. The University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, formerly the College of Arts, Science and Technology and Northern Caribbean University (NCU), formerly West Indies College, achieved this status. The transition of a college to university requires careful planning, enthusiastic implementation, and critical review of goals and objectives. The political, social, economic, and intellectual environment in which the institution operates must always be studied and anticipated in order to be appropriately responsive. The article will discuss how the UTech–Jamaica and the NCU libraries managed this change, some of the challenges faced and choices made. It will examine the transformation of physical, material, and technological services and human resources in the libraries as the librarians worked assiduously to meet acceptable standards to satisfy the needs of their institutions.

INTRODUCTION In Jamaica today, many colleges are seeking to achieve university status. Colleges such as Mico Teachers’ College and Excelsior Community College are developing programmes and activities towards accomplishing this goal. UTech and NCU led the way, having attained this status in the 1990s. One cannot discuss the history of an academic library without mentioning the history of its parent institution. UTech was established in 1958 as the Jamaica Institute of Technology, whereas NCU dated back to 1907, having started as the West Indian Training School. The universities began with student 55

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

populations of 56 and 12, respectively, each institution having a different focus. The Jamaica Institute of Technology provided tertiary-level training for technical and middle management professionals for technical schools, business, and industrial entities. A year later, its name was changed to the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST). CAST quickly became a household name in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Its graduates were well received by commerce, industry, and schools. The college awarded its first degree, the Bachelor of Education, in 1986. The West Indian Training School was established to train missionaries for the West Indies and Africa at the secondary school level. In 1919, there were fewer than 30 students. Since then, the institution’s name and status changed a number of times: first to West Indies Training College, offering associate degrees, then to West Indies College, awarding four-year undergraduate degrees. West Indies College also became a household name and, like CAST, was eagerly sought after by students in Jamaica and the Caribbean. The transition from college to university involved a lengthy process of preparation and planning, and attainment of this status was a great achievement. The process included continued scanning of the political, social, economic, and intellectual environment to determine appropriate responses in terms of types and levels of programmes to be offered, number of students to cater to, and the anticipated duration of courses. In addition, courses must be regularly reviewed to ensure their continued relevance. An important consideration was the need to achieve a standard to meet and maintain accreditation requirements of the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) and other accrediting bodies. After years of careful preparation and planning, enthusiastic review of goals and objectives, and the development and implementation of relevant programmes, CAST was granted university status in 1995. It had the distinction of being the first national university in Jamaica. By this time, the student population had grown to approximately 7,000. The university underwent an exciting period of transition offering more than 100 courses at certificate, diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate degree levels. UTech declared its mission as follows: “Our Mission is the promotion of learning. To this end, we are committed to providing an environment that supports: Excellence in teaching, scholarship, research and service; creativity and innovation; an ethic of service and professionalism; the effective application of knowledge; and new technologies through research and development” (UTech, Strategic Plan 54). West Indies College, too, after much planning and preparation, achieved university status in 1999, becoming NCU, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. Student enrollment increased to more than 5,000. As the institution evolved, so did its mission. The university stated its mission as follows: “quality Christ-centered education achieved through academic excellence,

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social interaction, physical and spiritual development and a strong work ethic, thereby fitting each student for committed professional service to country and to God” (NCU, Master Plan 6).

IMPACT ON LIBRARY SERVICE The quest for university status impacted the libraries in a major way. It involved a number of changes in which the library played a significant role. During the process, goals and strategies were developed in tandem with the universities. The librarians at UTech and NCU were fully involved in the development of plans and activities related to the transformation, from proposal to implementation. Baba postulates that: “change is inevitable and can be brought about by internal or external factors. If organizations do not anticipate or plan strategically for change and change is not managed, it will have to react to, or accommodate changes exerted by external preserve” (377).1 This article shares with readers how both libraries managed the change from college to university status, some of the challenges faced, and choices made as the institutions evolved. It looks at the role the librarians played in the transition process and examines the transformation of resources to meet acceptable standards and to satisfy the needs of their respective institutions. The Calvin McKain2 Library was established at the inception of CAST. Over the years, the library made significant progress in its physical facilities, information and material resources, human resource management and development, technological capability and services. Initially, the library could only accommodate 15 persons and was staffed by a clerical worker. In 1970, facilities were greatly improved with a new reading room to seat 100 clients, an office for a librarian, and a small workroom for staff. The first college librarian was also appointed, and this signaled the beginning of growth and development. In 1984, a new library, 1,500 square meters, was constructed under the Government of Jamaica/World Bank III Programme. Three reading rooms were provided for stacks and seating for clients, a faculty reading room, a technical services division, audiovisual centre, archives, seminar room, and offices and facilities for library staff. West Indies College also had a library from its inception. In the 1950s, the entire second floor of the administrative block was allocated to the library. In 1992, the library was relocated to a 3,065-square-meter building and named the Hiram S. Walters3 Resource Centre. The library established branches in Kingston, Montego Bay, and Brown’s Town as well as a special library for economic development on the main campus.4 The transition to university impacted both libraries in many, often similar, ways. In anticipation of the future changes, the Calvin McKain Library developed its own mission statement and prepared a self-study to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the unit. It also

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demanded that the university librarian complete a 10-year development plan based on the college’s objectives for the period 1990 to 2000. The library’s mission was “to provide current resources and quality service to support the information needs of the university community as well as stimulate intellectual thought and academic scholarship” (UTech, Library self study 3). The university librarian was an integral part of all the committees that prepared the institution’s strategic and upgrading plans and was designated an officer of the university. In keeping with the library’s mission and plan, a systematic drive was undertaken to upgrade all aspects of library service. The plan evolved into a five-year strategic plan aligned to the university’s strategic plan and was periodically revised simultaneously. These and the changes indicated above were direct results of the anticipated new status of the college. In early 1998, it was decided to change the status of West Indies College to that of a university. The library was intricately involved in preparations for the change and the director of library services was part of a committee convened to prepare a self-study. As the committee met, completed evaluations, outlined goals, and set standards, the director became increasingly aware of how much was needed to be done for the library to be able to adequately support the curricula of the university. Each department had to create departmental mission and vision statements. The library’s mission statement, “As the locus of current, relevant print and non-print media, Hiram S. Walters Resource Centre provides quality, Christian service to all patrons, supporting the larger mission of NCU by stimulating academic excellence and spiritual development” (NCU, Master Plan 92) clearly reflected that the library wanted to be a central location where current and relevant information could be accessed. An educational institution is constantly adjusting, fine-tuning, or completely revamping its curricula to meet the needs of the global environment. The vision statement of the H. S. Walters Resource Centre was fine-tuned to: “To become a first class library facility that can adequately support the needs of the university’s undergraduate and graduate programmes; the research expectations of the faculty, as well as the expectations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church” (NCU 5-Year 50). At NCU, the creation of the social and economic lecture series is one of the many changes that took place. Other changes included crafting a mission statement for the library, acquisition of an integrated automated library system, opening of branch libraries/reading rooms, the librarian’s inclusion on the faculty senate, and recognition by the administration of the importance of the library to the viability of the university’s programs. These changes resulted in a major budget increase, professional development of staff, changes to the facility, and adoption of technology.

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ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE Both institutions had to make changes in administration, organization, and reporting structure to accommodate the shift to university. Likewise, the libraries had to make internal changes. Following a restructuring exercise at UTech in 1995, the library was placed in the academic affairs division with the university librarian reporting to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. This arrangement was very appropriate, although there was a greater degree of bureaucracy than previously existed. The university librarian continued to sit on the academic board and was appointed chair of its Educational Services Committee. The university librarian was also named to the newly established Faculty Boards and to all other relevant academic and administrative committees. The new structure formally recognized the library’s four divisions: Collection Development, Client Services, Library Information Systems and Outreach Services (LISOS), and Instructional Media Services, and the heads of these divisions were compensated as such. There was interesting debate about the nomenclature of the library and head librarian. Some, especially faculty, argued for a change to Library Learning Resources and Director, while others suggested Information Services and Director. In the end, the choice was to retain university library and university librarian. When Internal Audit of the Office of the University President began to review activities of units, the library was included. This was a welcome development as recommendations made were helpful guides in establishing certain policies and guidelines. The NCU library also experienced internal changes. As a small college library, it was able to function efficiently with one librarian in charge of all public services. Another librarian was responsible for technical services and the audiovisual department. The director of library services chaired the library committee, took care of acquisitions, did bibliographic instruction, and liaised with administration via committees and reports. As the institution moved towards university status, the clientele increased, and so did research requests and resource demands. The library had to change its infrastructure to keep pace with the demands being placed on it. New positions were created to include a librarian for the open stacks area, a librarian for acquisitions and serials, another for technical services and audiovisuals, and a fourth for public services. In 2004, the chairmanship of the library committee was removed from the director of library services and assigned to an “academician” who it was believed would be better able to assess the library’s inventory and acquisition needs. Fortunately, that academician was also a vice president, and represented the library’s case, in tandem with the vice president for academic administration, to the university council. The director of library services was secretary of the committee. This arrangement received better response from

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

the university community. However, one of the challenges the library faced was determining to which vice president the director actually reported.

HUMAN RESOURCES A university library needs suitably qualified professional and support staff to assist clients in their research activities and to select appropriate materials, with assistance from faculty, to support the university’s curriculum. The staff must also provide educational aids for lectures and tutorials and offer information literacy instruction for students and lecturers. The previously mentioned restructuring of the Calvin McKain Library resulted in an increase in the number of staff on the establishment to enable the library to achieve its goal of becoming a world-class library, which was also a major goal of the university. By the year 2000, there were 10 librarians, including the university librarian, four librarian assistants, one media specialist, one computer application specialist, and 26 support staff in various categories of the establishment. Two part-time posts for subject specialists were later approved. In anticipation of the restructuring, the then college librarian voiced the need for a united body to speak for members of the nonacademic staff, and with the encouragement of colleagues, became the founding president of the CAST Administrative and Support Staff Association (later the University of Technology Administrative and Support Staff Association) in 1994, and led the team that negotiated with the government in 1996 and 1998. A requirement of the new university was that librarians should hold a master’s degree in library and information science or a first degree in library science and a master’s in a relevant subject. In 1995, however, only the media specialist possessed a master’s degree. The response of the staff to the change of qualifications was spectacular, and UTech’s commitment to training and development enabled many staff to qualify for their respective posts. Currently, 80 percent of all librarians possess postgraduate degrees, all librarian assistants and administrative supports possess first degrees and approximately 85 percent of library supports, technicians, and library clerks are enrolled in bachelor degree programmes (see Table 5.1). In the past, the library utilized the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust (HEART)/National Training Agency (NTA) Programme to provide trainees with on-the-job training as library supports and library clerks; however, this arrangement ceased when the qualifications’ bar for these categories of staff was raised. The library was very appreciative of the assistance of those trainees who were assigned to the library, and was proud of its contribution to their development. Many obtained higher qualifications and moved to responsible positions in the university and elsewhere. Student workers, under the university’s Earn and Study Programme, have also contributed significantly by manning the bag check, and clearing and shelving materials.

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Table 5.1 Educational Status of Library Staff at UTech

Table 5.1 Educational Status of Library Staff at UTech Description

Library Clerk

Librarian

Graphic Artist

Librarian &

Assistants

& Technicians

Other

Library and

Professionals

Administrative Support 1995 Present

1995

Present

1995

Present

1995

Present

0

0

0

7

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

8

0

1

3

3

0

2

0

8

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

7

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

Hold Diplomas/ Associate Degree in any subject area Pursuing/Diploma/ Associate Degree in any subject area Hold Bachelor’s Degree in any subject area Pursuing Bachelor’s Degree in any subject area Hold Master’s Degree in any subject area Hold Master’s Degree in Library Science Pursuing Master’s Degree in Library Science Pursuing Doctorate

Regrettably, inadequate and anomalous compensation stymied efforts to recruit and retain staff, especially paraprofessionals, and this was a major challenge for the library. Librarians, although dissatisfied with salaries and benefits, remained committed to the institution because of their belief in what they did and in the plans for further development of the library and the university. Another difficulty faced was winning the approval of the Ministry of Education and Youth for librarians to be on par with faculty. Over the years, administration and faculty supported the call but the Ministry did not. That demonstrated a clear difference between UTech, a national institution, and NCU, a private, denominational university.

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At NCU, the situation was similar to UTech’s in some respects. In 1999, Hiram S. Walters Resource Centre operated with three librarians, one with a master’s degree, and four library technical assistants, none of whom had a first degree. All staff members recognized the need for higher qualifications and improved professional development, and they resolutely set out to acquire them (see Table 5.2). Two librarians are now each pursuing a master’s degree in library science. One library technical assistant completed an associate’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science. The library also relied heavily on student workers, and in 1999, employed approximately 55 students. In 2006, there were about 85 students employed in the library.

INFORMATION RESOURCES In developing the UTech library collection, special focus was placed on weak areas highlighted by the self-study. The advent of visits by the recently established UCJ contributed to the urgency with which the task was carried out, and since 1995, UTech significantly increased the library’s budget to facilitate this effort. Between 1995 and 2005, the book collection grew from 65,604 to 110,478. Growth was reflected in breadth and depth of coverage of subject areas as the library sought to build a good core collection of materials especially at the undergraduate level. The Caribbean collection also increased rapidly and more materials were purchased in electronic formats. Journals are critical for up-to-date information and, since 2001, attention focused on subscribing to a range of online databases providing access to more than 9,000 full-text journals. Due to budgetary constraints, however, Table 5.2 Educational Status of Library Staff at NCU

Table 5.2 Educational Status of Library Staff at NCU Description

Library Technical

Librarians

Assistants 1999 Present

1999

Present

Pursuing Associate’s Degree in any subject area

1

1

0

0

Completed Bachelor’s Degree in any subject area

0

2

3

6

Pursuing Bachelor’s Degree in any subject

0

1

0

0

Completed Master’s Degree in any subject

0

0

1

0

Completed Master’s Degree in Library Science

0

0

1

1

Pursuing Master’s Degree in Library Science

0

1

0

2

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the library was severely challenged to maintain a reasonable number of print subscriptions. The development of an art and architecture video archive, through the initiative of Canadian artist Ann Buttrick, became a great asset to the university, particularly the Caribbean School of Architecture and the Department of Liberal Studies. The collection was made available to students of tertiary and secondary institutions in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. The library has been the beneficiary of generous contributions of valuable materials from individuals and institutions, and in 2000, became a depository for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) publications. These added significantly to the collection. Challenges of collection development include: budgetary restraints for the purchase of journals, getting more members of faculty to participate in collection building, and the paucity of subject specialists for the technical areas. As NCU prepared for university charter, the library performed an inventory to determine how close it was to meeting standards set by authoritative bodies such as the American Library Association (ALA) and the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA). In 1999, the library had a total of 40,701 items in the collection. That amount fell short of the standard by 29,000 items. By the end of 2005, the number of items in the collection was 214,025. The library supported the programmes of the university and the collection should reflect the course offerings. Librarians’ awareness of and access to the syllabi for courses was therefore very important. That sometimes proved to be challenging. Another challenge was getting a white paper from the faculty, listing recommended titles to support courses. However, the advantage of reporting to two vice presidents who meet academic deans in various councils was invaluable in this regard. Between 1999 and 2004, the task of ordering library material was shared among the library director, technical services librarian, and the library secretary. In 2005, the university hired a full-time librarian for acquisitions and serials. This person was responsible for liaising with faculty to obtain lists of source materials for the library. Other librarians assessed their areas and informed the acquisitions librarian of weaknesses. The library director provided assistance when needed.

PHYSICAL FACILITIES The extension of the Calvin McKain Library building in 2001 further increased the space from 1,500 to 2,000 square meters. This added a reading room and stacks for the Caribbean Collection, cyber lab, conference room, graphics lab, more spacious archives, and greatly improved working and lounge areas for staff. The Client Services Division was redesigned to facilitate the implementation of the Library Information Management System (LIMS) circulation module. Seating increased from 300 to 400 with the capacity to

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add another 110. Another 40 seats were available in the three service points operated by the library, at the Slipe Pen Road campus and two faculties on the main campus. The archives, collection development, and periodicals benefited most from this expansion. The building was air-conditioned and professional assistance was obtained for arrangement and aesthetics to ensure greater attractiveness and comfort. These improvements helped to meet the university’s objective of creating an optimum learning environment for students and brought the library closer to standards recommended by LIAJA. The challenges for physical facilities ranged from a need for more space to accommodate the growing collection; space for reading room, meeting rooms, and exhibitions; theft detection device5; adequate maintenance to keep the library attractive; and a lift to facilitate physically challenged clients and move books and equipment upstairs to meet the need for better disaster prevention/management measures. NCU made a number of physical changes to its campus. They included a complete entrance makeover; construction of a gymnasium/auditorium, affectionately known as the “gymnatorium”; construction of an information science building, four field view classrooms, and administrative offices for the Montego Bay campus; renovation and relocation of the Kingston campus; renovation of the institution’s first building, an historical site, now “the President’s Office” or “the White House”; addition of a north6 and east campus7 to the Mandeville site; and a St. Ann campus. The library also benefited from the changes. The university president, a visionary with an eye for aesthetics, directed the redesign of the lobby to create a baggage room that operates through a window on the outside of the library. A Circulation/Reserves Department was created and the security area relocated, allowing more space for the mounting of displays outside of the library. The Reference Department had a complete makeover being enclosed, air-conditioned, painted, carpeted, and named after one of the university’s former educators, the late Merle Bennett. A lounge was created for patrons who desired a more relaxed atmosphere. In 2004, the library acquired a new reading room courtesy of one of its alumni chapters.8 The technical services/acquisitions area was also redesigned to streamline the processing of materials, accommodate the anticipated increase in volume of acquisitions, and a section assigned for the treatment of books.

SERVICES Calvin McKain Library and Hiram S. Walters Resource Centre both offer a wide range of services, including literature searches, Online Public Access Catalogue (CALCAT and WebVoyage, respectively) through the Internet, interlibrary loan, document delivery, and information literacy classes. Calvin McKain Library offers journal routing, and librarians teach aspects of the research methodology module. One of the challenges shared is the need to ensure that

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students who pursue courses at their extension campuses enjoy equal access to library services as their counterparts at the main campuses. The advent of new technology greatly facilitates this goal of ensuring equal access.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES In order to keep pace with increasing demands, both libraries acquired integrated library management systems to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery. NCU purchased Voyager from Endeavor in 2003, and UTech, after a thorough, though lengthy evaluation and selection process guided by the university’s Information Systems Department, purchased Unicorn from SIRSI, Canada in 2004. In UTech’s case, acquisition, cataloguing, serial control, circulation, media booking, and archives modules were acquired and most of the modules were activated. A 28-station cyber lab, student and staff kiosks at all UTech sites facilitated client access. The implementation of these systems in both libraries significantly improved operational efficiency, effectiveness, and access thus strengthening client/provider relationship and increasing the libraries’ visibility in the university community. Audiovisual equipment was also updated to support activities of the distance education unit that was being developed by UTech.

BUDGETARY SUPPORT From its limited resources, UTech expended approximately 5 percent of its annual budget on the library. The university librarian and heads of divisions participated in the university’s annual budget preparation exercise and the former attended meetings of the Finance and Operations Review Committee. Prior to 1999, the budget of the Hiram S. Walters Resource Centre was approximately 2.5 percent of the college’s operational budget. As the institution moved towards university status, the administration reaffirmed the importance of the library for the support of its programmes and increased the allocation. In 2000, based on the university’s decision to place a minimum of 50 books per undergraduate course and 200 books per graduate course in the library, a commitment was made to increase the library’s budget to 5 percent of the capital budget to meet the library standards within the next five years. In 2004, the university voted to double the library’s budget over the next three years to purchase much needed material to support its growing programme offerings. At 10 percent of operational budget, the library’s annual budget rose to 63 million Jamaican dollars for 2005–2006.

CONCLUSION The lessons learnt by both libraries from the experiences discussed above were many. They include:

66

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century • The importance of librarians participating in various working groups/committees formed to plan for the transformation of the institution. • Librarians must be proactive when necessary; for example, in forming the administrative staff union, the librarian was able to participate in negotiations for staff salaries and benefits following the first restructuring exercise. • Communication is important. Staff members understand the reasons for the new qualification requirement and they will readily embark on study programmes viewing this as an opportunity for development. • The importance of presenting a positive attitude towards the auditing of library services, viewing it as a way to improve policies and procedures. • The importance of aesthetics to client comfort, recognizing its appeal in encouraging clients to use the facility. • The importance of being able to read building plans in order to ensure that the plant is able to accommodate the services that will be housed there. • The importance of research in an academic environment, making the clients need to access relevant information from anywhere, at anytime, a matter of urgency, therefore, the library must be technologically equipped to provide such access. • Qualified staff must be dedicated to the implementation of the library management system being installed. • Librarians need to be conversant with the budget process of the university and must be able to defend proposed expenditures. They must be able to match plans with budget.

As Brophy aptly states “… change is virtually constant in higher education and in librarianship, one of the library manager’s most important task is to ensure that change is managed and does not just ‘happen’ (169).” Both the Calvin McKain Library and Hiram S. Walters Resource Centre have sought to anticipate and manage the many changes and new developments in their respective institutions.

ENDNOTES 1.

Farley, et al. had put forward a similar argument to Baba’s. (Zawiyah Baba, A regional approach towards organizational transformation, Library Review, 50 (2001): 238)

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2.

Calvin McKain came to the College of Arts, Science and Technology in July 1958, on secondment from Kingston Technical High School where he was vice principal. His task was to set up and operate the Engineering Department. He became the first Jamaican Head of Department at the college in 1967, and in 1973, the first Jamaican vice principal. He retired in 1977 but continued to contribute to the College. He was appointed to head the archives in the library in 1984 and the Library was named in his honour in 1986. He died in 1997.

3.

Hiram Sebastian (Tim) Walters (born in Panama, lived 1917–2001), though not Jamaican by birth, was Seventh-Day Adventism personified in Jamaica, and his influence had a worldwide ripple effect on the global Seventh-Day Adventist community. At age 32, he was the youngest Adventist conference president in the world. He gave all he had in cash, kind, and influence for the advancement of education in Jamaica. Among his goals was to have an Adventist high school in each parish and to see to the expansion of West Indian Training College, now Northern Caribbean University. He also served as chairman of the board of West Indies College.

4.

This unit assumed responsibility for coordinating an annual university lecture series on social and economic issues of the region.

5.

The lack of a theft detection device seriously compromises security.

6.

Five park-like acres of beautiful greenery, which is home to the College of Graduate Education and Leadership.

7.

Formerly married student housing, renovated to house nutrition and dental labs.

8.

The Burgess Reading Room is named in memory of Dr. Ralph Burgess, one of the institutions’ distinguished alumni.

WORKS CITED Baba, Zawiyah. “A Regional Approach Towards Organizational Transformation.” Library Review 50.7/8 (2001): 377–381. Brophy, Peter. The Academic Library. London: LA, 2000. Farley, Thea, Judith Broady-Preston, and Tim Hayward. “Academic Libraries, People and Change: A Case Study of the 1990s.” Library Management 19.4 (1998): 238–251. Northern Caribbean University. 5-Year Strategic Plan: 2005–2010. Mandeville, Jamaica: NCU Press, 2005. ---. Master Plan 2000–2005. Mandeville, Jamaica: NCU Press, 2000. University of Technology, Jamaica. Library Self Study Report for the Septennial Review Committee. Kingston, Jamaica: UTech, 2004. ---. Strategic Plan 2000–2004. Kingston, Jamaica: UTech, 1999.

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CHAPTER 6

Collection Development and Management in Small Academic Libraries in Jamaica: Where Is My Budget? Dorothy M. Palmer The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica ABSTRACT Collection development and management take place both at the macro as well as the micro levels. The decision faced by all libraries concerns what is to be collected and how management of this collection should be done. Within academic libraries, the dilemma is even greater as these libraries are faced with the growing demands and expectations from their clientele and stakeholders but encounter very stringent budgets. Library policy is influenced by the mission statement of the institution as well as the various stakeholders. This chapter will look at some of the crucial components of collection management, especially those that are relevant to academic libraries in Jamaica.

BACKGROUND Globalization with its many facets has affected all avenues of the society resulting in unprecedented changes in all aspects of our lives. The use of technology and its continued development may be regarded as one of the dynamic changes that have had a direct impact on the lives of many individuals on a daily basis. For example, the electronic media brings to us, immediately, events as they happen in any part of the world, events such as the Olympics, images of various hurricanes, demonstrations, and even wars as they are taking place. The Internet is one of the most powerful tools, which has helped to break down many barriers especially in the spheres of learning and information. Within this global arena, academic institutions in the Caribbean region face many challenges that affect the way these institutions operate, the services they provide to their clientele, and how these services are marketed to prospective students and users. There are also many learning opportunities that arise within this new environment. One such recent challenge is the 69

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increasing competition with other international academic institutions to enroll new students. In Jamaica, there has been an increasing number of offshore universities that, either by themselves or in conjunction with a local institution, now offer degree courses to local students and these are usually marketed in very attractive packages to individuals, institutions, and in the local media. These offers may include financing at competitive rates, providing computers, textbooks, and online access to the library facilities of the host institution. Students can now study for the most part within the confines of their homes. The libraries within these academic institutions are especially vulnerable, as in addition to the challenges previously mentioned, they also have to face the issue of reduced budget allocations. Another dilemma relates to the question of what resources should be acquired and how these resources should be efficiently managed, given the growing demands and expectations from clients and stakeholders. This chapter will look at some of the crucial components of collection management, especially those that are relevant to academic libraries in Jamaica.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Collection Management One of the primary functions of an academic library is the development, acquisition, and management of the library’s collection. It is fair to say that library users will judge the effectiveness of the service by the quality of the collection and its ability to satisfy their needs and expose them to trends in new and existing subject areas. Management of a collection within this technological age is very critical and challenging but this is sometimes a neglected aspect within libraries. The importance of collection management cannot be overstated, especially in academic libraries where the students and staff have to work within a specific time frame. There is also the challenge of collecting the traditional print as well as the new electronic formats. The crucial decision is whether to have both formats, or because of a stringent budget, the decision has to be made to acquire one format over the other. There are various components of collection management that must be examined: These include a collection development policy (referred to as policy in subsequent paragraphs), selection, and evaluation. The policy is influenced by the mission statement of the institution as well as the inputs from the various stakeholders. Rowley and Black describe the 1960s and 1970s as the years that provided the growth of large collections and also the employment of subject specialists within libraries. It was also during that time that there was an emphasis on the quality of collection-building, especially as this relates to academic libraries (3). Collection management has various definitions and is, sometimes, used interchangeably with collection development. Gessesse in differentiating

Collection Development and Management …

71

between these two concepts defines collection development as “comprising planning, goal-setting, decision-making, budgeting, and acquisition of materials and evaluation of materials.” The process involves library policies, budgeting, looking at the types of materials for collection, selection, and acquisition and collection evaluation. Collection management is seen as an all embracing concept, which would encompass more than a policy of the acquisition of materials and their storage, rather it “emphasizes the systematic maintenance and management of a library’s existing collection.” This would involve “the planning, composition, funding, evaluation, and use of the library’s collection over time so as to meet the specific goals of the library” (2).

LIBRARY COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY Research has shown that the inclusion of a collection development policy within an academic library is an essential tool. This policy provides basic guidelines or the direction to the selection, acquisition, and evaluation of the types and formats within any collection development plan. Because of the complexity and the volume of the information, it is important that the library selects the relevant information or provides access to the information that meets the needs of its clientele. In formulating a policy, certain aspects must be taken into consideration, and these would include the selection criteria, scope of the information, language, date of publication, types of resources whether print or electronic, and of course, in the case of academic libraries, the research and teaching interest of faculty and students (Gessesse 2). According to Wortman, policy should be reviewed regularly as the need arises; this is especially relevant as dynamic changes are taking place so rapidly (124). Policy can be written either in a formal way or in statements and so can be constantly reviewed. The literature shows that some academic libraries do not have a formal written policy, but there is some sort of unwritten rule or guideline as to the various operations. The policy must take into consideration the types of resources whether print or electronic and whether both will be integrated. It may also consider how much will be spent on electronic resources, as this sometimes takes up some 10 percent of the materials budget (Breaks 108). Whether the resources will be shared is important because in the contractual agreement, this will have to be spelt out.

SELECTION PROCESS This activity is a very important aspect within any library, as it involves identifying and evaluating the available resources, and then choosing what is relevant to the various stakeholders. The criteria for the selection are usually based on the needs of the students and faculty whether teaching or researching subject to budgetary constraints. The Dearing report on higher education found that one of the areas of dissatisfaction among students was the unavailability of required material in the library. The selection plan articulates the

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policy in a coherent and practical way. In some libraries, there is a selection committee that makes the final decision regarding what is to be selected and acquired. In the case of acquiring electronic resources, usually this would involve the information unit or a representative with the required skill. Much research has been devoted to the selection of print vs. electronic. In many academic libraries, these two formats have often been combined, but because of budgetary restrictions, there are times when one is selected over the other. Research has shown that in the selection of electronic resources certain areas must be taken into consideration such as access whether physical, intellectual, or technical (Kovacs 340–341).

BUDGET Budget consideration deserves special attention in collection management. During the 1960s, academic libraries were able to spend, without much restriction, on books and other materials. But with the decrease in funding within these libraries, they were faced with the question of rationalizing their budgets. Academic libraries are, therefore, forced to evaluate all the available resources and to analyze the effectiveness of these resources. Specifically, there is the traditional print vs. the electronic resources, and these will have to be looked at in terms of cost-effectiveness (Gessesse 4). Academic libraries because of timelines and demand for resources are usually required to spend a significant portion of their budget on areas that can access information such as the databases. The costs of acquiring these resources must be looked at in terms of short, medium, and long-term, so in addition to the subscription costs, one must include the maintenance costs. A good budget must be able to give the support to the library’s goals and also to reflect the mission of the organization but it is important that this budget is formulated from within the library (Wortman 131).

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN JAMAICA Academic libraries in Jamaica face many challenges as they try to respond to the various needs of all their clientele. The budget within these libraries has been steadily decreasing, and some libraries are not allocated their own budget and remain dependent on the generous goodwill of the institution’s principal and the bursar. Continuing devaluation of the local currency in relation to foreign exchange often results in severe problems for the users of this commodity. Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, in its White Paper on Education, looks at the development of human resources as the primary tool for “personal, social and economic development”(2). It envisaged that there would have been a 15 percent rate of increase in tertiary education by 2005. The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, Department of Educational Studies, since 1952, has been given the primary responsibility of

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training secondary school teachers. The training of teachers and the establishment of “teachers colleges” in the English-speaking Caribbean can be traced to the 1830s with the founding of the Mico College in 1836 (Gordon 169). These colleges were established to focus mainly on the training of primary level teachers. Over the years, there have been many significant programmes that have affected the landscape of teacher education. At present, teacher education is provided by 11 public institutions and the education departments at three universities in Jamaica: The University of the West Indies–Mona, University of Technology (UTech), and Northern Caribbean University. The latter-named university is privately owned. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture through its draft policy paper on “New Directions on Teacher Education” proposed that colleges for training teachers should be upgraded to offer degree programmes. As part of this proposal, the facilities at the various institutions are being upgraded, staff are being encouraged to upgrade their qualifications, and curricula are being revised and rewritten. It is therefore imperative that the library resources be upgraded to facilitate this process of development. The government of Jamaica recognized that with the establishment of so many offshore universities and also with so many local institutions upgrading their facilities as they prepared to offer degree programmes, there needed to be a mechanism in place to maintain a certain quality standard. The University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) was therefore established in 1987 as an “accrediting, awards and academic development body for degree, diploma and certificate programmes for approval at the tertiary institutions.” UCJ lists that its functions include the registration of institutions offering tertiary education, providing accreditation for degree programmes, and assurance that the quality of programmes being offered in Jamaica is of a certain standard. The criteria for registering students include: adequacy and suitability of the physical facilities and the adequacy of resources, which includes the library. The UCJ has listed some standards that the institution must implement. These standards include: adequacy of library services for the various stakeholders, students, faculty and administration; written plan; annual budget; and at least one professional member of staff. Since 1995 there has been a reduction on the recurrent budgetary allocation to tertiary education, which can be attributed to the maintenance of the levels of allocation to primary education (Miller 100).

PURPOSE OF RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY The research sets out to ascertain the current practices pertaining to collection management within small public tertiary academic institutions, which offer teacher training programmes and the libraries within these teacher training institutions. The sample included only the entities that are presently upgrading their facilities to offer undergraduate degrees. These upgrades include those to the physical facilities, curricula, and staff. More

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century

than 6,000 students are registered in these teacher training institutions. The methodology used included questionnaires administered by e-mail or telephone interview. Based on the criteria just mentioned, 10 libraries were selected. Of the 10 libraries selected, six responded to the questionnaire.

Library Collection Development Policy Is there a library policy? Who influences the policy: faculty, students, or library staff? Thirty-three percent responded that there was no library policy. Not all of the respondents who answered in the affirmative had a formal written plan as described in the literature but a plan that provided a basic guideline to the selection and acquisition of materials. In response to the question on who influences the policy, 80 percent of the respondents answered the question, and from these responses, it was determined that faculty and library staff had a direct influence over the policy more so than students. Only one response stated that all the categories noted in the question—that is, faculty, library staff, and students—influenced the policy.

Selection Committee Is there a selection committee? Who makes the final decision? Only one response stated that there was a selection committee and, within this committee, the librarian had responsibility for making the final decision. Seventy percent of the respondents said that faculty influenced the selection and to a lesser extent the librarian. Only one respondent stated that the librarian made the final approval; all the other respondents stated that the principal was the final authority.

Budget What is the present budgetary support? What percentage of the budget relates to the overall budget of the Institution? All the respondents stated that they did not know the level of budgetary support that they received from their institution. All the respondents stated that the financial resources were inadequate.

Collection Building What are the types of materials acquired? All the respondents stated that the bulk of the collection comprised books and other printed materials. Thirty-three percent stated that there are other formats such as CD-ROMs and videocassettes. How many current periodical titles are presently acquired? How many of these are electronic?

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The response to the current list of periodicals shows a range from three to 30. Less than 50 percent of the respondents stated that they were able to access some titles that were offered free-of-charge electronically. Do you have access to any international database? All the respondents stated that they did not at present have access to any international database. What percentage of the collection represents local material? The answer to the question ranges from 10 percent to 40 percent, and one respondent stated that 75 percent of the library’s collection consisted of local materials. Local material is usually difficult to access. This is exacerbated by the lack of knowledge of what is available locally, especially when these materials are unpublished, for example, government reports, policy papers, and even conference proceedings.

RECOMMENDATIONS The findings show that the libraries’ within the teacher-training institutions surveyed are at different stages of development even as they prepare for the implementation of the various degree programmes that will be offered to the students. Based on these findings the following recommendations are being proposed: • Libraries with collection-development policies whether written or verbal based on existing practices should regularly review and revise these policies. Libraries without a policy should start the process of articulating one. • The collection development policy should emphasize the mission, goals, and objectives of the library. It is also important that the policy in an academic library defines its community of users and analyses its existing collection with a view to covering all the subject areas that will be offered. • Each faculty should contribute to formulation of this collection development policy. The policy must also address the types and formats of material to be collected and the role that the library has to play in this process. • Within this collection-development policy, there must be a section on electronic resources and how these will coexist with print resources. Questions such as selecting one format over the other and the possibility of having them integrated within the collection must also be addressed. All the libraries are operating within budgetary constraints and, therefore, this process must be viewed as urgent.

76

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century • The selection process must also be looked at very carefully. None of the libraries stated they had implemented this practice in a formal way although this author suspects that an informal selection process was in operation. • A selection committee should include faculty, library staff, and students. It is very important, especially within a limited budget, for the library staff to have an overview of what the resources are in all the various disciplines. • The allocation of a budget cannot be overemphasized. The library’s budget should be treated as a separate item from other budgets within the institution and should be controlled by the librarian. • The budget must also reflect the mission and programmes that are being offered by the particular institution. Thus, it is important in devising the budget that the librarian not only costs individual activities but also outlines the objectives to be realized. It must be borne in mind that other departments within the institution are also competing for the limited resources within that institution. • The libraries all need to increase their intake of journals— whether this format is print or electronic. Journals play a critical role in any collection and these are very important within an academic library because of the research and learning components. Serial prices have skyrocketed over the years, and with the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar in relation to other foreign currency, this puts additional financial pressures on the budget. It is essential that the libraries embrace some level of cooperation as far as the acquisition of titles is concerned. Libraries should as far as possible avoid any duplication of titles. (It is commendable that all the libraries reported that they are presently negotiating to acquire the licence to one of the international databases.) • All the libraries reported that they were able to purchase a fair amount of local materials with their existing budget and this was done through visits to local bookstores. The collection of local unpublished materials, such as conference proceedings, reports, and, in some cases, ministry publications are difficult to obtain since there is no systematic way of knowing that these materials exist. There should be a clearinghouse that provides this service, maybe at a cost to the users. This clearinghouse would provide access to valuable local materials that have not been formally published.

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• Libraries that do not have their holdings available online should initiate this process as a project. Funding may be sought to make this project a reality. This is an important step because patrons do not always physically visit the library, and if the library provides access to its holdings online, these patrons will know what is available in the library’s collection.

CONCLUSION Although the libraries are at different stages in their collection building, the various stakeholders have needs and expectations that should be satisfied immediately. The libraries have to work assiduously with all the stakeholders to devise various strategies to improve the collections and, certainly, to find funding for online databases. There should be some short-term strategies and plans that are result-oriented to show how the services can be improved. This could be done through the College Libraries Information Network (COLINET). This is one of the sectoral units that fall under the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) that has responsibility for the sectoral networks consisting of the library and information units in the public and private sectors. COLINET through its focal point, University of Technology, seeks to ensure that the units have access to each other, knowledge of the college library standards, and encourages the collaboration and integration of the units. Communication with all the stakeholders must be ongoing.

WORKS CITED Breaks, Michael. “Management of Electronic Information.” In Clare Jenkins and Mary Morley (Eds.). Collection Management in Academic Libraries. 2nd ed. Hampshire, England: Gower, 1999, 107–134. Davis, Rae. Task Force on Educational Reform in Jamaica: A Transformational Evaluation System. Kingston, Jamaica: Ministry of Education, 2005. Dearing, Ron. The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. United Kingdom (Dearing Report), 1995. Gessesse, Kebede. “Collection Development and Management in the Twenty-first Century with Special Reference to Academic Libraries: An Overview.” Library Management 21 (2000): 365–372. Emerald 10 Nov. 2005. emeraldinsight.com/ Insight/html Gordon, Shirley. A Century of West Indian Education. London: Longmans, 1963. Jamaica. Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture. The Way Upward: [White Paper on Education]. Kingston, 2001. —-. Report of Task Force on New Directions in Teacher Education. Ts. Kingston, 1996. Kane, Laura Townsend. “Access vs. Ownership: Do We Have to Make a Choice?” College & Research Libraries 58 (1997): 59–67. Kovacs, Diane K. and Angela Elkordy. “Collection Development in Cyberspace: Building an Electronic Library Collection.” Library Hi Tech 18 (2000): 335–361. Miller, Errol. “Teacher Education: The Partnership between The University of the West Indies and the Teachers Colleges.” Caribbean Journal of Education 23 1 & 2 (2001): 71–98.

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—-. “The University of the West Indies, Mona and Tertiary Education in Jamaica.” In Revisiting Tertiary Education Policy in Jamaica. Rhema Holding and Olivene Burke (Eds). Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 2005: 66–103. Nisonger, Thomas. Management of Serials in Libraries. Englewood Cliffs: Colo Libraries, 1998. Norman, O. Gene. “The Impact of Electronic Information Resources on Collection Development: A Survey of Current Practice.” Library Hi Tech 15 (1997): 123–131. Rowley, Gordon and William Black. “Consequences of Change: the Evolution of Collection Development.” Collection Building 15 (1996): 22–30. Emerald 27 Oct. 2001. zaccaria.emeraldinsight.com. University Council of Jamaica. The Accreditation Process. Kingston, Jamaica: UCJ, 2002. Wortman, William A. A Collection Management: Background and Principles. Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.

CHAPTER 7

Ephemera and the Academic Library: The Response of the Main Library, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados Beverley A. Wood and Barbara A. Chase The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados ABSTRACT The question of whether there is a place for ephemeral items in academic libraries is at the source of some debate locally. This chapter argues that the Main Library has a mandate and a responsibility to the region to collect ephemeral items of the region. Using the experiences of the Main Library at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, it looks at the role of the academic library in the collection of ephemera, and highlights the value of ephemeral material to research and teaching and to the preservation of cultural heritage. The acquisition and management of these materials are also discussed.

INTRODUCTION The UWI comprises three campuses at Cave Hill in Barbados, Mona in Jamaica, and St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago. As the premier university in the English-speaking Caribbean territories, supported by the governments of the region, the UWI has a mandate to meet the higher education, social, intellectual, and human resources needs of this area. Several of its libraries play an important role in the UWI executing its mandate and responsibilities. At the UWI, Cave Hill Campus, the Main Library has as part of its vision statement to become “a vital force in the creation, development and dissemination of information services and products with particular emphasis on Caribbeana.”1 In this chapter, we focus our discussion on ephemera to show why it is necessary for the Main Library, UWI, Cave Hill (hereinafter referred to as the Main Library) to undertake the role of collecting and making available for use ephemeral materials of and about the Caribbean. 79

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DEFINITION There are many definitions of ephemera so it is important to establish an understanding of how ephemera are defined in this chapter. The literature notes that, like its nature, ephemera are difficult to define.2 In recent times, the generally accepted definition has been the “minor transient documents of everyday life.”3 It has been equally recognised that this definition may not be adequate and that each library needs to define the area for its own collection. For the purpose of this paper, ephemera are defined as: A printed or electronic document which captures a moment in time, records an event or activity, and which is of cultural or other importance to the UWI and/or its constituents. Ephemera may be any item, programmes, posters, tickets, announcements, etc., which are not generally intended for long-term use.4 This definition allows for the inclusion of a wide variety of items in both print and nonprint formats.

TYPES OF EPHEMERA Very often when the definition of ephemera is provided, a listing of examples is also given to illustrate the concept. This listing of the various types is used to inform the definition provided above and is usually quite broad. Young notes that the list “includes most anything that is printed and isn’t bound in a traditional book format.”5 The forms of ephemera are just as varied as the reasons for them. Young’s list includes “keepsakes, invitations, theatre programs, tickets, rewards of merit, trade cards, billheads, pamphlets, chapbooks, broadsides, catalogues, postcards, brochures, advertising novelties, posters, certificates, graphic Americana, labels, dance cards, scrapbooks, die cuts, automobilia, memorabilia, almanacs, jest books, tracts, and other commemorative items.”6 Although the Main Library’s ephemeral collection currently only includes about half of these types, there is a steady movement towards the widening of the collection to include all available formats. Unlike formally published items, which are subject to several review processes, and because they are often unadulterated in form, ephemera speak of history and are the embodiment of history. They are some of the purest historical documents available. The changing face of entertainment preferences by the Barbadian masses provides such an example of the value of ephemera. In the 1960s and 1970s, dances7 were very popular in Barbados. Dances as they were known then, evolved through several types of entertainment to emerge today into the “bashments” and “dubs.”8 The evolution of printed ephemera associated with these events clearly illustrates the change in the Barbadian society over 30 years with regard to the choice of entertainment, lifestyles, and the changes in the use of language. The technology used

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to produce the dance ticket of the 1960s/1970s might be considered primitive now. The simple ticket announcing the dance contrasts sharply with the more artistic and graphical one produced for the bashment/dub. Incidentally, the advertisements for the latter have moved to the Internet, a space foreign to the early producers of the dance ticket. In addition to being representative of the changing mores of society and the varying influences on the lives of the people, the two types of tickets are indicative of technological evolution and advancement. While the history book sets down dates, events, names, etc., the ephemeral item presents a visual, three-dimensional and, oftentimes, vivid account of history as it happens.

EPHEMERA: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY? Should the Main Library be collecting these materials, and secondly, should the institution actively take responsibility for acquiring them? One school of thought believes that the collection of these items is outside the ambit of an academic institution. It is their belief that this is the role of the country’s national library. Although it is true that the collection and preservation for posterity of the country’s output is a vital role of national libraries, it must be recognised that these institutions in the Caribbean region often lack the resources—infrastructure, staff, and capital—to execute the mandate effectively. The problems associated with national libraries in the Caribbean are widely discussed. Cheryl Ann Peltier in her thesis, Meeting the Challenge: Public Libraries as National Libraries, examines the role public libraries in the Caribbean play as national libraries and the problems they have in being what Frank Francis calls “the mind of society…a live depository of cultural past.”9 At the time of her study in 1995, only one country in the English-speaking Caribbean had an established national library. In the other countries, the public library performed a dual role and battled with the associated problems.10 In Barbados, the public library has a national library mandate by gazetted order, but there is no legislation to support this mandate. The library, under normal circumstances, would have difficulties enforcing writers’ and publishers’ compliance with the legal deposit requirements for formally published items. Those items produced informally would be even more difficult to acquire. This problem is not unique to the Caribbean. It has been noted that for national libraries in Europe constructing national bibliographies, the desired degree of exhaustiveness will be very difficult to achieve, even by the national library, in listing all types of material, books, periodical articles, official publications, ‘semi published’ documents, unpublished documents, and documents published by other than traditional printing methods…11

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With the problems associated with national libraries, there is a need for another institution to actively fill the gap. The natural choice is, therefore, the major academic institution with a vested interest in the region, the UWI. The institution’s libraries have a mandate to support the research agenda of the institution and they have more resources to achieve this. Bandara, in examining the emergence of national libraries out of university libraries in several countries, notes that university libraries in Nigeria and Ethiopia were first given the legal deposit rights and performed the role of national library in this regard before the establishment of the substantive institution.12 He cites the recommendations of the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) model legislation on legal deposit which states that “The University of Guyana and The University of the West Indies should continue to be designated as depositories in respect of the publications of the state in which their libraries are located.”13 From as early as 1978 when this legislation was produced, it was recognised that the UWI had an important role to play in the collection of the region’s resources with or without the national library’s involvement.

WHY WE COLLECT EPHEMERA There are several convincing reasons to collect ephemera. However, for the Caribbean, it is a critical need not just because the region is attractive to the rest of the world, as evident in the proliferation of departments, institutes, and degrees on or about Caribbean Studies, but we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge and recognise the importance and impact of ephemeral publications to our society. This need is even more acute in the Caribbean where the publishing and printing practices are so erratic. Published items in the region suffer two major ills: small print runs that make them go out of print relatively quickly if they are popular, and lack of publicity that makes the items for all intents and purposes nonexistent. When we consider that often the only means by which information is communicated is by a pamphlet or flyer, that the resources to produce even these items are so limited, and that many of these items are virtually the only “official” communications from and by Caribbean people, we cannot ignore the need to collect whatever resources we encounter.

Support for Teaching and Learning Cultural studies is a relatively new discipline introduced to The University of the West Indies at the Cave Hill Campus. Several degree options are being offered. By nature, culture is not static. It is constantly changing and evolving. Terry Eagleton speaks of “the constant sliding of the concept.”14 Recognising the transient nature of cultural activity, one course offered, Caribbean Popular and Creative Culture (CLRT6230), states that students will study inter alia, graffiti, and cartoons. Here, ephemeral items will be critical,

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as the material to be covered in this particular course is not the norm and is constantly in flux. As the teaching of cultural studies develops and the area becomes more popular and recognised on campus, the library will need to provide more materials in “nontraditional” formats to support the curriculum. The library will need to be proactive in its collection drive to support learning, teaching, and research in this area.

Long-Term Intrinsic Value Some ephemeral items attain significant value as the years pass. When Derek Walcott’s 25 Poems15 appeared in 1948, produced in limited quantities by a commercial printer, no one knew the significance that these early writings would have in later years. The economic and the literary value of this work has soared since Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Likewise, the Main Library has received a number of poems by A. J. Seymour, a Trinidadian living in Guyana, on loose typewritten sheets. These poems date from the 1960s and 1970s. It is important for the Main Library, as an institution devoted to stimulating and supporting research, to collect these items. Using the writer’s typescripts, a researcher is able to trace the development of the poet as he moves through the years, just as Walcott’s early offerings can now be compared to his later pieces.

Preserving Historical Events Mother of Maurice16, a poem by Grenadian David Omawale Franklyn, was recently added to the collection. The poem appears on a single coloured sheet with a border reminiscent of ditties circulating on the Internet. A note attached to the document stated that the item was acquired from a shopkeeper who believed it to have been produced sometime in the early 1990s. Taken upon face value, the item would certainly have been designated as of little worth. Upon closer examination, it would be noted that the poem is, in fact, about the death of the former Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Its content portrays a mother’s loss, a family’s pain, a nation’s tragedy, and a region’s history.

Providing Valuable Sources to Otherwise Obscure Information Also added to the collection recently was a concert programme. This item titled Tribute to Irving Burgie17 contains biographical information about Burgie, the author of Barbados’ national anthem, as well as the lyrics and musical scores to some of his songs. The Main Library’s holdings of lyrics and musical scores are limited. When a keyword search on Burgie’s name was entered into the library’s OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue), only six hits were retrieved, including this item. Again the information contained in this

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item would have been lost to the institution, and perhaps the nation, had not the library acquired this concert programme.

Providing an Alternative Medium for a Subject Area White Skin, Black Kin: “Speaking the Unspeakable”18 is a catalogue produced for an art exhibition with the same name, held at the Barbados Museum. While the public reviews acknowledge this was a highly enlightening and well-received but unusual exhibition, it only lasted two months. By way of this catalogue, the visual impact of the work displayed is preserved for “a significant life span,” and the pieces are kept together in one “place” even after they have been dispersed. In addition, this item contains a number of essays written to complement the artwork displayed. There is information about the author, the social history of Barbados, and racial and class prejudices of the country. In itself, the catalogue provides a fresh approach to a much discussed subject. Through the essays and pictures of the works, the researcher is able to experience another perspective of our history. This is particularly significant, as art is not taught on this campus.

If We Do Not, Others Will At the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) 2004 conference, university libraries based in the U.S. presented a number of electronic information initiatives involving Caribbean materials. These initiatives included a joint project between the University of the Virgin Islands and the University of Miami—where they collected and Web-enabled among other things, funeral booklets. These booklets were recognised for their biographical and genealogical value.19 Another project did the same for book jacket covers of West Indian literature books. This latter presentation showed how these covers could be used to understand the social values and ideologies of the day. For instance, in one image a black man, back scarred, faces a white woman, who though well dressed, gives a hint of some sexual provocation. Incidentally, the jacket bore no relevance to the matter in the book but that image was used to capture the attention of the target audience. Often discarded by libraries or kept simply for new books display shelves, book jacket covers have been used by the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago to initiate research in the Department of English on the campus.20 With these projects, others recognise the value of “seemingly insignificant” Caribbean ephemera and have used them to promote their libraries and collections on the Internet. We need to claim our culture, stamp our Caribbean image/ownership on it and, as in the case of these two projects, quickly ensure that our cultural items/ resources are accessible to all. Although it is difficult to predict how a particular item will fit into the scheme of things in the future, librarians will need to err on the side of caution

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and collect what might very well be trivia, at the risk of not collecting any at all and losing an item or items that have intrinsic value.

ACQUISITION OF EPHEMERAL MATERIALS Librarians, therefore, must be vigilant and aggressive in the collection of regional literature. Newspapers, magazines, and other media announcements must now become the finding guides and tools for these items. Social events that are not documented in the formal book, pamphlet, or serial format are recorded on programmes, tickets, and flyers, and in electronic format and, therefore, must be part of our collection effort. If you miss a publication announcement in the media, you may or may not catch it at the local bookstores and you are hardly likely to see it on Amazon’s Web site. Acquiring the item is an entirely different matter. These items tend to be associated with an activity or event and are produced in limited quantities. Often, obtaining a copy means attending the event, begging other persons to collect, or contacting in advance the organisers/producers (if they are known and contact information is available), to secure the item. Persons outside the library field and even some members of the profession find it incredible that a library, much less the university library, would want these items for its collection. This scepticism means that sometimes a request is not taken seriously or is ignored. Gifts and donations often prove to be a good source of ephemeral materials. The human inclination is to collect something that is a reminder of an event, place, or moment. These items then form part of one’s personal collection. Several such items were among the gifts received for the Nita Barrow and Eugenia Charles collections by the Main Library. Another individual, an artist, recently donated a variety of items to the library. Amongst these are several catalogues for local and regional art exhibitions, documenting the art, artists, and artistic activity of the region for more than four decades.

MANAGING AND PROVIDING ACCESS TO EPHEMERA There is no clear indication of the number of ephemeral items in the Main Library as these items are integrated into the various collections of the library. Some items are housed in special collections, some are part of the main collection and other items are kept in a vertical file. For the academic year 2002–2003, the library added 349 pamphlet items to the collection.21 Although this is not an indication of the number of ephemeral items received, it is reasonable to deduce that some of these items, perhaps as many as one-third, could have been ephemeral items. Ephemeral items slated for the general collections are processed in the same way as any other item. These items go through formal acquisitioning

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and processing before being catalogued. These items get full-level cataloguing according to Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) standards, whether it is done for OCLC’s union catalogue or in-house only. Library of Congress Subject Headings List (LCSH) and Library of Congress Classification schedules are used to assign descriptors and call numbers respectively. The items are then interfiled into the collection. The special collection items are also processed and catalogued in that section the library. They are assigned unique call numbers—derived from the Master File Number (MFN) number in the database and the major subject area. Subject headings are assigned using LCSH and/or the Thesaurus of Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) descriptors. A CDS-ISIS (Computerized Documentation System/Integrated Set of Information) database is used to provide access to the items (including the ephemera) in this collection. Items destined for the vertical files are simply property stamped and then assigned to subject folders. They are not included in official library statistics, and at present, there is no record for them in the library’s OPAC. For items not yet entered into the database, a contents list is provided for access to these items. No special treatment is given to ephemeral items and, as such, the library avoids many of the pitfalls associated with managing these items as discussed in the literature.22 However, it is recognised that as the collection grows and a wider variety of items are added, more attention will have to be given to how these items are handled.

THE FUTURE The number and variety of items, size, slightness, and fragility of ephemeral items can make them challenging to manage. Digitisation is a viable option for making these items more accessible to the public. Currently, the Main Library is examining its collections to see what digital initiatives can be explored. As the libraries of the UWI system embark on more collaborative endeavours, one of the issues to arise will be standardisation of policies and practices. The Main Library of each campus treats ephemeral items differently. Best practices will have to be developed to benefit the three campuses so that the resources available are deployed most efficiently.

CONCLUSION Ephemera document a moment in time, an event, or activity. Ironically, it is this documentation that gives ephemera its value. It captures something that would otherwise have been lost amidst the myriad of other moments, events, and activities—a movie stub is kept as a reminder of a first date; a napkin is kept as a reminder of a restaurant opening; a ticket is kept as a reminder of a fantastic vacation experience; and so on. Time capsules are

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created with minor, seemingly insignificant items, which are preserved so that the next generations (for some, the next inhabitants of this Earth) can have an indication of life as was experienced by previous generations. Each item of ephemera has the ability to trigger the recollection of an experience that in some way impacted a life, a community, a nation. In the book Watch Me Fly, Myrlie Evers-Williams speaks of presenting producer Rob Reiner with one of her late husband Medgar Evers’ poll tax receipts. Of this small item and gesture, she says: My gift was a statement and a reminder, not only to Rob but to the public, of why Ghosts of Mississippi was made in the first place…I wouldn’t allow anyone to forget that because Medgar fought for his right to be a first class citizen, because he spilled his blood, justice was pursued and justice prevailed.23 Ephemeral items have meaning beyond what is seen and experienced now. These are our “hieroglyphics,” which the future will use to study and research our lives, and from which the clues that they uncover will inform about who we were and who they are. And that is perhaps the best reason for us, the Main Library at the Cave Hill campus, to actively acquire and provide access to ephemeral items.

ENDNOTES 1.

Vision Statement, 16 Feb. 2006. The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Main Library Web site. 24 Sept. 2004. mainlibrary.uwichill.edu.bb/aboutus.htm# vision.

2.

Timothy G. Young provides a comprehensive discussion on definitions in his 2003 article: “Evidence: Toward a Library Definition of Ephemera,” RBM 4.1 (2003): 11–26.

3.

Chris Foges, “Far From Ephemeral,” Print 53.2 (1999): 165.

4.

None of the several sources that were consulted quite captured the essence of what we wanted to circumscribe so we derived this one.

5.

Young, 12.

6.

Young, 12.

7.

These were social gatherings where fashionably dressed individuals would pay an entrance fee and spend the rest of the night dancing to music originating from Europe and North America. Food and drink are “part and parcel” of the event.

8.

Like the dances, dubs and bashments are social gatherings, frequented by the young who dress in the fashionable styles of the day. These events feature music originating from neighbouring Jamaica and are more closely aligned to the subterranean culture.

88 9.

Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century Cliff Lashley quotes Frank Francis in “West Indian National Libraries and the Challenge of Change,” Libraries and the Challenge of Change: Papers of the International Library Conference Held in Kingston, Jamaica, 24–29 April 1972. Eds. K. E. Ingram and Albertina Jefferson. (London: Mansell, 1972) 47.

10. Cheryl Ann Peltier, “Meeting the Challenge: Public Libraries as National Libraries: The Caribbean Experience,” MLS thesis, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, 1995. 11. S. B. Bandara, “Can University Libraries Serve The National Library Role in Developing Countries?” Libri 29.2 (1979): 130. 12. Bandara, 132, 139. 13. Bandara, 139. 14. Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture (Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2000) 112. 15. D. A. Walcott, 25 Poems (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Guardian Commercial Printery, 1948). 16. David Omawale Franklyn, Mother of Maurice (N. p.: n. p., [199-?]) 17. Tribute to Irving Burgie (Oistins, Barbados: Committee for Positive Prevention, 2003). 18. Joscelyn Gardner, White Skin, Black Kin: “Speaking The Unspeakable” (St. Michael, Barbados: The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2004). 19. Judith Rogers, Catherine Marisek, and Erich Kesse, “Digital Library of the Caribbean: a Working Group,” Electronic Information Resources in the Caribbean: Trends and Issues. Proc. of the ACURIL XXXIV Conference, May 23–29, 2004, Trinidad and Tobago, Eds. Shamin Renwick and Jaishree Kochhar. Trinidad: UWI, 2005. 140–141. 20. Nancy Cirillo, Nancy John, and Ellen Starkman, “Book Jacket Imagery as a Cultural Resource: a Digitisation Project with the H. D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies,” Paper presented at ACURIL XXXIV Conference, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, May 23–29, 2004. 21. “Statistics,” 16 Feb. 2006. The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Main Library Web site. 24 Sept. 2004. mainlibrary.uwichill.edu.bb/stats.htm. 22. These problems are summarised by John Feather and Paul Sturges, eds. International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (London: Routledge, 1997) 135. 23. Myrlie Evers-Williams, Watch Me Fly: What I Learnt on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant To Be (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1999) 122.

WORKS CITED Bandara, S. B. “Can University Libraries Serve the National Library Role in Developing Countries?” Libri 29.2 (1979): 127–143. Cirrillo, Nancy, Nancy John, and Ellen Starkman. “Book Jacket Imagery as a Cultural Resource: A Digitisation Project with the H. D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies.” Paper presented at ACURIL XXXIV Conference, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, May 23–29, 2004. Eagleton, Terry. The Idea of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2000.

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Evers-Williams, Myrlie. Watch Me Fly: What I Learnt on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant To Be. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1999. Feather, John and Paul Sturges, eds. International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. London: Routledge, 1997. Foges, Chris. “Far From Ephemeral.” Print 53.2 (1999): 164–167. Franklyn, David Omawale. Mother of Maurice. N. p.: n. p., [199–?]. Gardner, Joscelyn. White Skin, Black Kin: “Speaking The Unspeakable.” St. Michael, Barbados: The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2004. Lashley, Cliff. “West Indian National Libraries and the Challenge of Change.” Libraries and the Challenge of Change: Papers of the International Library Conference Held in Kingston, Jamaica, 24–29 April 1972. Ed. K. E. Ingram and Albertina Jefferson. London: Mansell, 1972, 47–50. Peltier, Cheryl Ann, “Meeting the Challenge: Public Libraries as National Libraries: The Caribbean Experience.” MLS thesis, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, 1995. Rogers, Judith, Catherine Marisek, and Erich Kesse. “Digital Library of the Caribbean: A Working Group.” Electronic Information Resources in the Caribbean: Trends and Issues. Proc. of the ACURIL XXXIV Conference, May 23–29, 2004, Trinidad and Tobago. Eds. Shamin Renwick and Jaishree Kochhar. Trinidad: UWI, 2005, 140–141. Statistics. 16 Feb. 2006. The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Main Library Web site. 24 Sept. 2004. mainlibrary.uwichill.edu.bb/stats.htm. Tribute to Irving Burgie. Oistins, Barbados: Committee for Positive Prevention, 2003. Vision Statement. 16 Feb. 2006. The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Main Library Web site. 24 Sept. 2004. mainlibrary.uwichill.edu.bb/aboutus.htm#vision. Walcott, D. A. 25 Poems. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Guardian Commercial Printery, 1948. Young, Timothy G. “Evidence: Toward a Library Definition of Ephemera.” RBM 4.1 (2003): 11–26.

APPENDIX A SELECTED EPHEMERA This annotated list provides a selection of items in the collection under the headings discussed in the article.

PROVIDING AN ALTERNATIVE MEDIUM FOR A SUBJECT AREA 1. There is a Meeting Here Tonight: A Series of Paintings by Stanley Greaves This is an art catalogue (23cm x 25cm) depicting a series of 14 paintings for an exhibition. The paintings are about elections in Guyana and the catalogue provides a visual interpretation of the subject. This booklet also includes a poem and a monologue in keeping with the subject. 2. Learn, Enjoy, Read: 2004 Calendar [by] British Virgin Islands Public Library Services Department. [Road Town, Tortola]: Ministry of Education and Culture. This card calendar has eight leaves (20cm x 28cm) with 12 printed pages. It pictures citizens in various professions and of various walks of life. The backdrop to each month is one of local scenery and/or culture. For each month, there are details of the programmes offered by the library. This calendar, an

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ordinary card object used in everyday life, is a good way to market the library’s services and to promote reading. 3. Migration and the Caribbean Diaspora Another art catalogue (glossy, soft cover, 23cm x 28cm) with 24 pages, featuring fine art pieces on a theme; this time the subject is migration. The coloured drawings and paintings show people and locales and are interspersed with informative text discourse on the history and culture surrounding migration. 4. West Indies Cricket and South African Apartheid by Allan Rae A programme for the third Barclays/Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture at the New Teaching Complex, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, held Monday 22nd April, 1996. This is an interesting eight-page booklet (14cm x 21cm), which while it does not include Rae’s speech, provides an excerpt from “Cricket: the Great Captains” edited by John Arlott, 1972, and speaks to a topic hotly debated at the time and which was very important to the discourse on the social development of West Indian cricketers. Of note is that it emphasizes the resourcefulness, resilience, pride, and passion for the game, of the Barbadian cricketer in particular. The booklet includes photographs of Sir Frank Worrell, (who was a Barbadian), his wife, the “3Ws” (Clyde Walcott, Frank Worrell, and Everton Weekes), as well as one showing Sir Gary Sobers coaching Caribbean children. 5. Archaeological Museum Aruba This leaflet (24cm x 45.7cm), folded into five sections, is a guide for visitors to the museum. Every section is a printed page, which is augmented with vivid illustrations of exhibits that highlight the various periods in Aruban archaeological history; thus providing an alternative format for written work in this area.

PROVIDING VALUABLE SOURCES TO OTHERWISE OBSCURE INFORMATION 1. Combermere School, C.S.O.S.A, PTA Calendar, 2005. This relatively large (28cm x 35.5cm) 2005 light card wall calendar is four pages of information about the history of the school and about prominent citizens of Barbados. One notable image is that of the Combermere crest. There are also pictures and dates of important people in the life and history of the school. These pictures include the patron Lord Combermere and many of the headmasters from 1897 to present. Achievements in the year 2004 in academics, sports, and the arts are documented. 2. Cot Printery Limited is Proud to Announce the Inaugural Production of Postage Stamps Through a Commemorative Issue Titled ‘The First Recipients of the Order of the Caribbean Community. Great West Indians.’ The above is the title on the cover of a glossy beige folder (23cm x 30.5cm) housing a slim brochure and an envelope with stamps. The images of three

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great West Indians (Sir Shridath Ramphal, Honourable William Demas, and Honourable Derek Walcott) are featured on three of the illustrated stamps. Other stamps produced by Cot Printery are included in the insert and on the front cover of the folder; there is a short paragraph on the history of Cot Printery. Caribbean history, political personalities, stamp production activity, and the history of a Caribbean company are all depicted in this two-leaf card item. 3. Barbados Rifle & Pistol Federation: Be Smart, Enjoy Your Shooting A small four-leaf, eight-page leaflet (10cm x 23cm) meant as information for members, it documents in the absence of other material, the existence of this organisation in this space and time. Glossy in nature, the leaflet gives information on the shooting range, types of membership, price lists for various items used in the discipline, calendar of events, opening hours, and instructs on training and range safety rules. At present, there is no other information in the library on this club. 4. Brazilian Cartoons This is four-page booklet with a glossy soft cover showing a colourful sample of Brazilian art. It is the brochure for an exhibition of Brazilian cartoons, held at the Queens Park Gallery in Barbados. The exhibition was in celebration of the art form and to showcase and educate Barbadians. The booklet (15cm x 23cm) profiles five colour prints of the cartoons and messages from the Brazilian Ambassador and the chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation (Barbados) at the time. Pictured adjacent to each other on both the front and back covers are the Brazilian and Barbados flags highlighting the cultural cooperation between Barbados and Brazil in 2004.

PRESERVING HISTORICAL EVENTS 1. Administrative Building, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. Photograph by Ricki Jennings This is a (10cm x 15cm) colour photograph on the front cover of a “homemade” postcard. It shows the front view of the Cave Hill Campus’ administrative buildings, including the lobby, as they were before the current modifications. This is an important historical document as the area was significantly changed in 2004. 2. Mary Seacole Hall … Presents an Evening of Excellence This is a piece of black card (23cm x 29cm) folded in three sections to make up an eight-page programme meant for participants attending a celebration. The occasion is the 196th anniversary of the birth of Mary Seacole, and the 43rd anniversary of the Mary Seacole Hall student dormitory at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. There is a brief biography in bulleted form of Mary Seacole’s honours and a history of the Hall and its significance on the campus. We were informed that various artists and art were showcased at the event. 3. Kensington Oval: World Cricket Since 1895

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This folded mauve-and-white (21.6cm x 28cm) leaflet with printing on three pages addresses plans for restructuring Kensington Oval, Barbados, for Cricket World Cup 2007. One short paragraph addresses the significance of Kensington Oval in the cricket world and another discusses the reasons for rebuilding the Oval. On the front cover of the leaflet, there is an artistic rendering of what the completed Oval is expected to look like. Two aerial views are shown inside. This leaflet has a place among the literature of the history of the time leading up to the World Cup to be held in the Caribbean in 2007 and of Kensington Oval, a famous cricket ground. 4. International Cycling Classic: The Barbados Cycling Union Presents West Indies vs The World This is a 40-page (15cm x 21cm) programme booklet that addresses the details of the venue, date, and time of each event in this meet. It contains bits of information on the sport of cycling, on the Barbados Association and cycling regulations, and it lists participants’ names, countries, and categories. There is a message from each of the following: the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport, the President, Barbados Olympic Association and the President, Barbados Cycling Union, putting this event in its space and time in the Barbadian and Caribbean context and also in the calendar of world cycling events. 5. Challenge International de la Ville de Fort-de-France 2005 Blue, white, and yellow art adorns the front of a softcover booklet (15cm x 20cm) of 22 pages, celebrating ‘25 ans de tir sportif ’ in Martinique. This is a programme of a shooting tournament, which took place in Martinique from 25–28 March 2005. The document states that the tournament featured participants from across the Caribbean and Latin America including Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Guadeloupe. The information in this leaflet is important as it speaks to the whole question of regional integration across the language barriers through the discipline of sport. It also shows the level to which the sport of shooting has reached in the region.

LONG-TERM INTRINSIC VALUE 1. Codrington College St. John Barbados A single duck-egg green irregular sheet (23cm x 40cm) is folded into four sections. Opened, one side displays a diagram of the layout of the buildings and grounds of the college. Four printed sections address Christopher Codrington and the history and educational functioning of the college then and now. There is a discourse on the Codrington Woods, their extent and trees found there with biological names of plants given. On one section, drawings of the “Principal’s Lodge” and the college buildings are enhanced by images of the majestic cabbage palm trees in the background. 2. The Esso Arts Festival 1986: Dance

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A National Cultural Foundation Presentation, this brochure, a large booklet (21.6cm x 28cm) with nine newsprint leaves, documents dance presentations that took place in Barbados over a three-week period. It features several dance groups performing various types of dance forms and originating from Barbados, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Martinique. It documents dance groups at the time, names of dancers, choreographers, names of pieces, and costume designers in addition to other information about times and venues, and there is a centre spread of colour pictures. 3. Errol Gladstone Hill. August 5, 1921 – September 15, 2003: A Tribute This is a small nine-page booklet (13cm x 21cm) celebrating the life of a famous Trinidadian playwright, up to the time of his death. This item has biographical elements and traces Hill’s professional development both as a playwright and as an academic. Included are several tributes by colleagues past and present. A smiling photograph of the late UWI professor who ended his teaching career at Dartmouth College adorns the front cover; this complements photographs of his family on the back cover. 4. Short Biography – [Professor the Honourable Oliver St. Clair Headley] This is one legal-size sheet printed on one side, celebrating the life and work of the professor up to this time. The sheet documents details of his birth, schools, and his work with solar and renewable energy. It gives a list of his publications/writings and talks about his academic position at The University of the West Indies (at the time) and about his affiliations.

SUPPORT FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING 1. Round de Tents: Kaiso 2001 This is a narrow booklet (21cm x 10cm), vital to the history of calypso tents in Barbados and the local festival, “Crop Over.” Names, history, and composition of calypso tents as well as biographies of calypsonians and little snippets on the culture surrounding the art form, is documented here. This booklet will prove useful to a researcher in cultural studies wanting to recreate the scene of a typical night at the tents (venue, start time, names of instrumentalists/backing band as well as production team, lighting, etc.). It will also be invaluable to the social historian, who can place people, the art forms, and the festival in a time and place in tracing their history. 2. Jamaica National Dance Theatre Company This is a programme [1994] for a presentation by this group. The singlecard sheet (23cm x 61cm), folded in an irregular pattern, is itself a work of art placing one at the scene of the performance. The black background highlights the mostly white images of dance figures. The programme gives a detailed write-up on the artists: dancers, singers, musical and sound directors, choreographers, costume designers, photographer, chorus master, and management committee. The pieces performed at the event show various themes of interest to the Caribbean society.

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3. Edgar White’s World Premiere, Marcus Garvey and the Captivity of Babylon One of the performances of Stage One Theatre’s season of the production of this play took place at the Frank Collymore Hall in Barbados and is documented in a useful 23-page booklet (15cm x 23cm); the programme guide for the play was written by Caribbean playwright Edgar White and directed by Earl Warner. There is a very short biography of this director, where he taught, and his affiliations. It speaks of his accomplishments, plays he wrote, and where these were performed. There is documentation on each member of the cast and of production teams including musicians, actors, sound and lighting crew; information all useful to cultural studies research in this area. 4. The Pink Mealybug in the Caribbean This is a broad two leaf, four-page leaflet (23cm x 29cm) released as part of the regional action programme for control of the Pink Mealybug, in February 1996. The item gives information on the insect’s arrival in the Caribbean, identification, symptoms, habitats, distribution mechanisms, biological control, and precautions one should take. Six colour pictures, illustrate various details of the bug, the infestation, and preventative treatment. A chart and map of Mealybug distribution and pictures of plants attacked by the bug, add to the facts and information helpful to the study and eradication of this pest in the region. 5. Special Collections in the National Library (Guyana) by Gwyneth Browman This is a very informative booklet on what this library has to offer in these special collections, particularly significant as it is a Caribbean library. Here, items in various media available for consultation are advertised. Catalogued and included in the library’s collection, this booklet would inform patrons of yet another useful collection. There is the inclusion of a list of other special collections held in institutions in Guyana. This is a small (14cm x 21.6cm) light-blue paper booklet with leaves held together by a thin piece of darker blue rexine (material used in the binding and repair of books), with simple word processing. It is obvious that the library used whatever it had at its disposal to get its message across at this time.

CHAPTER 8

School Libraries in the Caribbean: A Jamaican Case Study Cherrell Shelley-Robinson The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica ABSTRACT This chapter presents an overview of the historical development of school libraries in the English-speaking Caribbean. It shows that these libraries were based on the British model, which established this kind of library as extensions of the public library system. Although there are definitely some advantages to this approach, it can also be seen as a contributory factor to regional governments’ persistent unwillingness to develop specific policies for the establishment and operation of these libraries as well as to provide more direct financial support. A survey was made of most of the current literature available on the topic, identifying major challenges and constraints facing these libraries as well as some of their achievements over the years. This is followed by the presentation and discussion of the results from a national survey of school libraries in Jamaica, which provides a case study for broadly commenting on the current state of school libraries in the Caribbean region since many of the countries share a common historical background. Based on findings, recommendations are then made for the future development of school libraries in Jamaica and the wider Commonwealth Caribbean.

INTRODUCTION The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions/ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (IFLA/UNESCO) School Library Manifesto sees the school library as an integral part of the educational process in that it provides information and ideas that are fundamental for functioning successfully in today’s information and knowledge-based society. The Manifesto further states that the school library equips students with life-long learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens. This declaration recognizes the valuable contribution the school library can make in producing a community of learners who are not only information literate but are also capable of adapting to a constantly changing social environment. However, in order to translate such a vision of the school library into reality, certain prerequisites 95

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must be met, fundamental to which is the establishment by government of a national policy to systematically guide the planning, development, and maintenance of such a service within any given country. Other essential requirements for the effective functioning of this facility include: the availability of a wide range of print and electronic resources geared to meet the information needs of staff and students of varying levels and abilities; proper physical facilities to accommodate administrative tasks as well as a variety of user activities and services; professional and support staff in the appropriate numbers and having the required training commensurate with their role and functions; and very importantly, the consistent allocation of funds in keeping with the economic realities of the time and the quality of service being demanded. For developing countries, like those in the Caribbean, attaining these standards is quite a challenge given the limited resources. Nevertheless, due to the disappearance of national borders and the growing competitiveness in trade, all countries—developed and developing—find it necessary to reposition themselves in order to survive in a globalised economy. One response to this challenge is to develop a knowledgeable and skilled work force capable of continuous, self-directed learning. Education then becomes the key for creating such a society of learners and this means that government must accept responsibility for establishing the most favourable conditions under which this goal can be achieved. Faced with an information-rich world driven by technology, emergent nations have little choice but to try and keep abreast as best they can, and in order to do so, demand creative and innovative planning. A valuable precursor to any such action would be conducting an audit of existing social institutions to see how their operations can be streamlined for greater efficiency and effectiveness in order to maximize the use of scarce resources. The second purpose for such an exercise would be to use the findings as a basis for setting clearly defined long-term objectives with the specific strategies for their achievement. It is with this in mind that this chapter will look briefly at school library development in the Commonwealth Caribbean before reporting on a stateof-the-art survey of school libraries in Jamaica. The main findings from the study will then be discussed not only with reference to Jamaica, but also to the wider Caribbean since all the English-speaking countries share many common features of school library development. Finally, some recommendations will be made as to the way forward.

PATTERN OF SCHOOL LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT Within the English-speaking Caribbean, also known as the Commonwealth Caribbean, due to the fact these islands were former British colonies, the development of school libraries has been uneven for various reasons, one of which is the original pattern of their establishment. During

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the late 1940s onwards when the colonial government decided to establish libraries in the region, the practice was to first set up a national public library system, which would then extend its services to schools. The latter usually took the form of deposit collections delivered periodically to schools where teachers were assigned responsibility for the circulation and care of the books. One of the long-term effects of the school library service being developed under the aegis of the public library is the perception held by the school community that such a service is little more than a branch of the public library operating in a school setting, hence it having little to do with the school’s educational programme. In the early days, this misconception would have been reinforced by the nature of the service where the collections were very often small, largely recreational, and bore slight relevance to the curriculum. The teachers were seen as little more than custodians conscripted to administer the service, and the books were frequently accommodated in any available space ranging from shelves on a corridor or cupboards in a multipurpose space to the occasional small ill-equipped one room library. The rudimentary nature of the service maintained by supplementary grants to the public library mainly for the purchasing of books seems to suggest that from the beginning government did not conceive of the school library service as independent of the public library. Therefore, the former did not require its own provisions in terms of staff, resources, and physical facilities tailored to suit the particular requirements of the educational environment. This might, in part, explain the continued absence in most countries of a set of specific government policies geared to the needs of the school library. Such a short-sighted view of the nature of a school library service on the part of government has not only constrained the library’s development from the beginning, but it has also reduced its potential effectiveness and helped to obscure the true value of this service. Government’s continued reluctance to change the situation seems to stem largely from the fact that such a move would demand a greater financial commitment than it is either not willing or able to make. It must be noted, however, that in a few countries like Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica where government has arrived at some level of understanding of the importance of school libraries, a fairly reasonable national service exists, although not without difficulties. For example, Trinidad and Tobago made an important move in 1978 by establishing a School Libraries Division with responsibility for developing these facilities. Resulting from a booming oil economy, several new schools were erected with libraries and qualified librarians were assigned responsibility. Other positive moves by Trinidad and Tobago since then include the publication of a set of standards for school libraries, the organization of training for school library personnel, and the creation of a curriculum for information skills. The results from these initiatives are some very functional school libraries with

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spacious facilities stocked with multimedia resources and administered by professionals. These developments in Trinidad and Tobago indicate what can happen when there is some degree of political will translated into concrete funding. Challenges still exist but development continues under two new projects to improve primary and secondary education, including libraries (Abraham). Antigua has a centralized service with a coordinator and service aimed at all schools. All secondary schools have libraries and computer technology is being introduced on a phased basis. The government also seems committed to the development of school libraries as they provide consistent though limited funding and there are still problems with inadequate accommodation and insufficient professional staff (Lake). The other handful of countries with any sort of established service also experiences much of the same difficulties. Unfortunately, governments in too many Caribbean countries seem not to recognize the significance of school libraries and even where they do, little effort is made to properly develop these facilities.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE A review of the available literature on school libraries within the region gives a clearer picture of the general nature of school library development over the years as well as reflects the level of government’s commitment to these facilities. Not many empirical studies exist that collectively examine school libraries in the region, but information was gleaned mostly from a series of individual country reports compiled at different times for presentation at conferences and seminars. In the late 1960s, Robertson conducted one of the earliest documented surveys of school libraries in the region and discovered that only five out of the 10 countries that responded had any semblance of an established national school library service. For the rest of the countries surveyed, the public library extended some sort of service with small collections, housed in bookcases and supervised by teachers (221–222). Again, in writing about youth libraries in the region, Robertson found that many school libraries were still plagued by poor accommodation and a shortage of funds and staff (107). A little over a decade later, a compilation of country reports by Mungo and Robertson submitted during a regional workshop for librarians on the development of policy guidelines for Caribbean school libraries revealed that the situation had not changed much. A summary of conditions reflected a general absence of explicit government policy for the establishment and maintenance of school libraries, and in the few cases where such policy existed, it was not implemented primarily because of lack of funding. Additional problems included insufficient staff that was mostly untrained and some countries still had no organized service. In others, where a form of school library service was being provided by the public library, in several instances, there

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was an absence of either firm organizational patterns or sufficient finances to make it effective (10–11). Other librarians have also commented on the state of school libraries within the region. Douglas lamented that these libraries were “…the most sadly neglected of all areas, probably because of the enormity of the needs for provision baffles even the most stalwart planners…” She further reported that Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, and Jamaica were the only islands with some semblance of a national school library service (577). Ferguson, in an article on libraries in the Caribbean, described school libraries in many territories as rudimentary with the tendency for primary schools to be served by the national service, where one existed; secondary schools were to be left to develop on their own, which has contributed in part to the variation in quality of service so often found in many countries (47). Brown, in his detailed report on secondary school libraries in St. Lucia, commented that although every school in the country had a space that is called the library, in most cases, the educational role of the school library has never been nurtured, and the perception that students need school libraries as learning tools has been pushed aside (6). Such a description is also reflective of many other countries in the Caribbean. An IFLA/UNESCO Seminar that was convened in 2003 to discuss the guidelines for public and school libraries provided yet another opportunity for a regional look at the state of school libraries. Although there were some positive developments in government planning and provisions leading to a better quality service, these were mainly confined to few countries like Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica. However, for the majority, as indicated in the summary of the challenges facing school libraries, it was a reiteration of problems pertaining to policy, staffing, finances, and physical facilities (Robinson). The perception of the school library held by policymakers and educational administrators will certainly affect government’s support for these facilities and the literature reflects a tendency of these officials to accord little priority to school libraries and the vital role they can play in the delivery of quality education. Repeatedly, the general plans for national development or those specifically for education either omit libraries altogether or give them only passing reference. For example, the government of Jamaica’s education plan for the 21st century makes no direct reference to school libraries, further reinforcing Henry’s point made years earlier after investigating the state of school libraries in Jamaica (Jamaica. Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture). Henry noted that “… these libraries have never been given priority in many of government’s five-year plans … despite the fact that these facilities exist in schools ...” Trinidad and Tobago is one of the few countries, from as early as the 1960s, to include school libraries in its educational plans (Draft Plan for Educational Development 1968–1983).

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Robinson’s review of the literature on education emanating from Commonwealth Caribbean countries between 1940 and 1985 revealed only 11 articles on school libraries suggesting that such a facility was of little relevance to educators (291). Curriculum developers have also overlooked the potential contribution of the school library to the educational programme as reported by Davis-Nembhard. She examined library provisions for a new secondary curriculum in Jamaica and discovered that despite a major thrust towards resource-based and student-centred learning, which made increased demands on the library, almost no provision was made to integrate the library into the educational programme (65). Baker-Gardner studied education officers’ perception of the school library, which revealed that besides many of them holding the traditional view, members of the Ministry of Education provided little or no guidelines for evaluating these facilities (95). One can only conclude that they were not considered important enough by the education authorities. This brief overview of the literature gives some insight into the developmental dilemma facing school libraries from their earliest inception to the present and indicates the nature of some of the issues that must be addressed in planning the way forward.

THE JAMAICAN STUDY This study was undertaken in view of society’s demand for lifelong learners, the significant role that school libraries are called to play in the process, and government’s responsibility for creating the framework and providing the support for the proper establishment and maintenance of these libraries. Given the general unevenness in school library development and the absence of any recent study of the situation in Jamaica, it was felt that this investigation was timely for assessing the situation in order to make recommendations for improvement. Finally, since Jamaica shares many features in common with the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean, it was thought that the findings would also provide a basis for a general discussion on school library development in the region.

Historical Overview The Schools Library Service in Jamaica was inaugurated in 1952 by a Ministry of Education mandate for the public library to establish a national service for primary schools. In its earliest stages, the service took the form of deposit collections housed in a variety of available spaces in the schools and under the supervision of a teacher as there were no librarians in the schools at the time. Centralized acquisition, processing, and distribution of the books island-wide were carried out from the headquarters situated in Kingston. With the introduction of bookmobiles a few years later, the service was reorganized into five regions, each having its own headquarters that allowed for

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the decentralization of the distribution process as the schools were now served from a regional location. Each bookmobile, staffed with a library assistant, visited the schools once every term to exchange or add to the book stock, to give advice on the choice of materials, and to discuss problems with the administration of the library (Robertson, School Libraries 214). Twelve years later, Warmington reported that the service was still restricted to primary schools, it had no professional librarians, and funds did not permit the provision of training. The collections were small and mostly accommodated in “…small bookcases tucked away in a corner of a classroom, although in recent years, small library rooms have been provided in newly constructed schools…” (40). From the 1960s to the present, while the pattern of service has remained basically the same, several improvements have been made. The service has expanded to include some secondary schools starting with the 50 schools constructed under a World Bank Project and all of which had reasonablesized libraries and were given permanent collections. Quite a few new primary schools also have specially designed library facilities and attempts are constantly being made to increase the size and quality of the collections and relate them more closely to the curriculum (Warmington, Robinson, and McLaughlin; Wallen, School Library Service; Wallen, State of School). Over the years since then, limited but consistent funding from government and the financing of several projects by international agencies have allowed the Schools Library Service to improve the physical facilities and resources in many of these libraries and to mount more extensive training programmes for staff. Therefore, despite the existing constraints, from its inception the organisation has steadily increased its provision of library services to schools to more than 90 percent coverage at present. Among the less than 100 schools not served by the Schools Library Service are most of the older high schools, which have nevertheless managed to establish their own libraries, many of which now have well-equipped facilities in spacious quarters, have reasonable-size collections including computers, and are administered by professionals. With regard to training of library personnel, the Schools Library Service in recent years has run a series of annual workshops island-wide (Jamaica Country Report). The organization has also published and distributed a manual for managing the library, which should help to standardize administrative routines. In 2001, to improve efficiency and effectiveness the service, the renamed School Library Network has been reorganized into six instead of the original five regions, with the regional librarians having greater responsibility for supervising the school libraries within their own area. Other developments that have impacted positively on school libraries include the establishment of a schools section of the Jamaica Library Association and its publication of a set of standards and a handbook for administering the library. The introduction of training programmes at the

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teachers college and university levels has contributed to an increased number of professionals administering these libraries. Despite these advancements, because of the large number of libraries and the limited financial resources available, provisions for libraries still vary considerably from tiny collections in ad hoc spaces to single rooms with mostly print resources to properly designed buildings with reasonably good collections, including electronic resources.

METHODOLOGY A national survey consisting of a randomly chosen sample of 320 of the 1,005 primary and secondary schools in Jamaica was undertaken to find out the state of their libraries with regard to the physical facilities, resources, services offered, staffing, and funding. Sixty-five percent (209) returned the questionnaire (see Appendix A at the end of this chapter), which should provide a fairly representative picture of the situation. The only previous national study on this scale was done by Henry, who concluded overall that “school libraries are clearly at a developing stage displaying inadequacies in funding, staffing, physical facilities, resources and services…” The present study conducted more than 20 years later should indicate how far these libraries have come since then.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Physical Facilities For a school library to successfully execute its programme of services, there must be adequate physical facilities specially designed to accommodate administrative as well as user-oriented activities. Queries were, therefore, made about the existence of a purpose built space for the library, whether it occupied one or more rooms and the actual size of the available space. Seventy-six percent of the 209 schools had a specially designated space for a library, and although the remainder had none, their completion of the rest of the questionnaire suggested that they still had some form of a library since they were still lending books and providing other related services. It could, therefore, be deduced that more than likely they were operating out of some of the cupboards, corridors, and other ad hoc spaces described by Robertson and Henry as typical of primary schools. Responses to the size of these libraries tended to confirm this conclusion, in that they ranged from a mere 18 to 7,000 square feet, with 50 percent under 900 square feet and a sample mean of 405 square feet. Clearly 18 square feet is less than the size of any average room and indicates something more like a part of a room or just cupboard space. For the larger spaces, the measurements most likely matched those for one large or two medium-sized classrooms, which coincide closely with the reported 62 percent that said they occupied only

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Table8.1 8.1 Availability of Space Space for Table Availability of for Activities Activities Number

Percent

Separate office for librarian

24

11.5

AV room

12

5.7

Workroom for staff

18

8.6

Room for teaching information skills

28

13.4

Room for teachers’ use

8

3.8

Study carrels for students

17

8.1

one room, while 8.6 percent had a separate building, which explains the higher square footage at the upper end of the range. Table 8.1 shows responses to the question about the different types of space available for the various activities in the library. Given the generally small sizes of the libraries, it was not surprising to discover that apart from the general reading area very few had special spaces for many of the expected activities. Space for teaching information skills was the most commonly available yet 13.4 percent represents a very small number, which means that more than likely for the other school libraries, this activity took place in the open library to the inconvenience of other users. The small percentage shown as having any of the different spaces listed above suggests mostly one-room libraries where all activities are carried out in a single space with little provision for teachers, the production and use of multimedia, and individual work. Additional information gleaned on the seating capacity of the libraries also revealed that the majority could accommodate on average 28 persons even though most of the schools (49 percent) had enrollment of more than 500 with a good number having 1,000 or more and class sizes ranged from 30 to as many as 50 in the primary schools. According to the Jamaica Library Association standards, a school library should be able to seat at least one class plus 20 extra students (7), which is an unlikely possibility for most of these libraries. These findings regarding the inadequacy of space provisions mirror the situation in other Caribbean countries (Henry; Mungo and Robertson; Brown), and thus while some school libraries in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are well designed and spacious, this is the exception and not the rule throughout the region. One of the library profession’s maxims is “form determines function” in that the nature of the available space will decide the scope of services a library is able to offer. With the obvious lack of proper physical facilities in many of the libraries in Jamaica and the wider

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Caribbean, these libraries cannot be expected to deliver the range of services required for them to make a meaningful contribution to the educational process.

Resources The resources of the school library form the foundation of its services, and in today’s technological environment, ownership of resources along with the provision of access to information available elsewhere must also be considered as a part of any collection-development strategy. The items on the questionnaire under this section related to the number and types of resources, print or electronic, held by these libraries, the sources from which they were acquired, and whether these materials were catalogued. Questions about the availability of computers for regular use and access to the Internet as a service were also included under resources. From the 131 schools that replied, although the size of collections ranged from 500 to 15,000, as many as 55 percent had collections of 2,000 or less with only seven schools having in excess of 10,000. The collections were predominantly print-based with less than 20 percent having such common multimedia formats as audiocassettes, CD-ROMs, and videotapes—all of which are valuable media formats for teaching and recreational use. Previous studies found library collections in schools very often consisted mostly of fiction, were largely print-based and sometimes proved to be unattractive, obsolete, and irrelevant (Nembhard 64; Baptiste 70). The major source for most of the materials was donations (95 percent) and the usual problems arising from such a source include inconsistency in supply, lack of choice on the part of the library, the irrelevance of many items to the curriculum, and their unsuitability for the ages and interests of the children. The Schools Library Service (67 percent) was the second main source for books, which meant that these items were centrally acquired and processed before delivery to the mostly primary schools. Individual purchases accounted for little over a third (39 percent) and this limitation is due, no doubt, to the unavailability of funding as will be borne out in later responses to questions about funding for the libraries. With the collections already of such small size and the majority of them based on donations, there can be little doubt of inadequacy in terms of the quantity and quality of the materials. With the increasing application of information technology to all areas of life, including education, libraries can no longer avoid adopting these technologies for administration and as a form of service to users. In Jamaica, there have been several drives by government and the private sector to place computers into schools but, as will be seen later in the discussion, this does not necessarily mean the library. Of the 209 schools that answered the questionnaire, 42 percent reported that the school had a computer laboratory and only 66 (32 percent) had computers in the library. The majority of libraries

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had only one or two machines with only 15 libraries having between four and 10 computers, which suggest that these would be able to offer electronic services to the users. It seems, however, that such services would have to be confined mainly to document creation and other such activities, since only 27 libraries (13 percent) had Internet access. Twenty-two of these libraries must be commended for making sure that all of their service groups—teachers, students, and administrators—and the library staff were allowed to use the Internet. Understandably, more libraries might not have computers because the technology is expensive to acquire and maintain, and also there is the tendency in some schools that establish computer laboratories to consider it unnecessary to have computers in the library. Such an attitude reflects ignorance about the gains in efficiency for the librarian when technology is applied to administrative tasks and the ability of the Internet to greatly extend access to information for all users. With reference to the organization of the library collections, only 35 percent of the libraries had catalogues and of this only 12 had an online version, which is to be expected given that so few libraries had computers. Reasons for the absence of a catalogue could be the fact that most of the staff were not professionals and, therefore, lacked cataloguing skills. On the other hand, where qualified staff exists, this is usually a single professional who is likely to be overburdened with user services and thus have little time left for organizing the materials. The lack of an organized index to the collection will certainly affect the quality of service since, through ignorance of what exists, users will be unable to fully exploit the range of resources available. To provide intellectual access to ideas in all formats to the school community, the library must carefully develop a collection that matches the curricular and personal needs of the user community. Focusing on the nature of such a collection, the Canadian School Library Association standards state that all such resources should be current, in good repair, be catalogued, and reflect a balance of print, nonprint, and electronic resources (Asselin, Branch, and Oberg 26–27). Apart from the number and wide variety of formats expected in the North American situation, these criteria are equally valid in the Caribbean, even if collections are small. With regards to quantity, the Jamaica Library Association School Library Standards, though dated, did set guidelines it considered as practical, based on the local realities at the time, by recommending an initial collection of five books per child with a view to increasing this to 6–10 titles within three years (13). In this study, it was observed that most schools had 500 or more students, and 55 percent of these same schools had collections of less than 2,000, making it obvious then that from a numerical standpoint most of the collections did not meet the minimum local recommendations. The inadequacy of library collections, both from the numerical and qualitative aspects, is one of the most serious problems affecting school libraries in the region. Without adequate resources, it becomes almost impossible for

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the library to offer any kind of meaningful service, and this recurrent lack makes many libraries dysfunctional. Several reasons can be cited for the parlous state of library collections. A few include distance from source of supply, which leads to increased costs, and means that in many instances, the library staff is unable to review the actual materials for suitability before purchase. In addition, the often heavy reliance on donations does not allow for the careful development of a collection responsive to the needs of the school clientele. However, one of the primary causes for the poor state of these collections seems to be a lack of consistent funding arising from the unsound financial base upon which many of these libraries stand, as will be subsequently observed in the findings on this topic.

Services The typical school library is expected to deliver a full range of services built around the information needs, abilities, and interests of the users. The ability to do this will be largely determined by the school’s view of the role of the library in the educational programme and the availability of human and material resources. With this in mind, a list of typical services for both teachers and students was circulated to participants for them to indicate which ones their libraries provided. Table 8.2 shows the findings. The most frequently offered services to both students and teachers were circulation and loan, reference and current awareness—all standard items in almost any kind of library. After this, the pattern changes with fewer libraries offering the rest of services and a greater variation between service to teachers and students. Some of these differences were due to the nature of the sample, which consisted mostly of primary school libraries, which are usually the least well-catered to and so would not have the space or the staff to offer the level of services of a properly functioning library to either teachers or students. Services to teachers were very restrictive in terms of the number of libraries that offered them. In almost every instance, except for consultation and lesson planning (34 percent), less than a third of the libraries provided bibliographies (30.6 percent), continuing education information (20.5 percent), and production of learning resources (10.5 percent), which are all key services for teachers. Caribbean school libraries tend to cater overwhelmingly to students to the neglect of the teachers, according to James; even principals expect it to be so (60). Such a lopsided view on the part of administrators is bound to thwart efforts by the librarian to develop a meaningful range of service for teachers and to encourage them to work as partners with the librarian to make the library central to the teaching/learning experience. Various factors could be responsible for the emergence of this tendency to overlook the information needs of teachers. Among these factors could be the ignorance of untrained school library personnel; the types of materials

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Table 8.2 Services Services Offered Offeredto to Teachers Teachersand andStudents Students Table 8.2 Teachers

Students

Circulation and loan

144 (68.9%)

146 (70.0%)

Reference and information

151 (72.2%)

146 (70.0%)

Current awareness

101 (48.3%)

70 (35.5%)

Consultation and lesson planning

71 (34.0%)

0 (0.0%)

Bibliographies

64 (30.6%)

55 (26.3%)

Information on continuing education

43 (20.5%)

0 (0.0%)

Collection on careers

42 (20.1%)

64 (30.6%)

Photocopying

35 (16.7%)

71 (34.0%)

Reading guidance

30 (14.3%)

90 (43.0%)

Information skills instruction

25 (11.9%)

76 (36.3%)

Internet use

24 (11.4%)

27 (12.9%)

Production of learning resources

22 (10.5%)

27 (12.9%)

Interlibrary loan

21 (10.0%)

20 (09.5%)

curriculum and education theory etc.

received, which cater primarily to student needs; and the general limitation on resources that prevents an extension of service to teachers. For students, the leading service after loans and reference was reading guidance (43 percent), which fits well with the emphasis on reading and storytelling in the primary school and the largely recreational nature of many collections. Information skills instruction (36.3 percent), photocopying (34.0 percent), and career information (30.6 percent) followed in rank order. It may be assumed that less of the information skills instruction took place at the primary level since the situation in these schools did not furnish much scope for this activity unlike the secondary schools, which have more professional librarians and many have scheduled classes for information skills. The extension of information skills instruction to teachers by a small number of the libraries (11.9 percent) reflects awareness on the part of a few librarians that this need also exists. In the drive for students to become information literate,

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more emphasis must be placed on teachers acquiring these same information skills, especially if any attempt is going to be made to integrate these same skills into the curriculum, which anticipates the collaboration between the librarian and the teacher. Not many countries in the Caribbean have paid much attention to information literacy as a prerequisite for citizens to live successfully in the Information Age, so there is little emphasis on it in the education system. A few countries have made a move in this direction. From the late 1980s, St. Lucia developed a syllabus for information skills (Lynch Forde 54) and Trinidad and Tobago has been very proactive from as early as the 1990s. The School Libraries Division organized a series of workshops for librarians and later developed a syllabus for information literacy (Abraham). In Jamaica, a set of workshops for school librarians were also held from 2001–2002, and a formal course on information literacy is now included in the undergraduate degree offered by the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica. The objective is to equip graduates to model and teach information literacy in various library settings. The importance of this topic is evidenced by UNESCO’s Alexandria Declaration issued in 2005, which has stated that information literacy is now “a basic human right” and consequently, the organization is encouraging governments to pursue policies and programmes to promote information literacy and lifelong learning. In keeping with its view of the importance of the matter, UNESCO has also included information literacy as one of their targeted project areas for funding over the next few years. This is an opportunity regional governments should embrace by making information literacy a part of their national development plan. Hopefully, in the process of developing and implementing national information literacy programmes, any attempt by policymakers will realize that the school library is one of the main agencies for creating an information literate populace.

Staffing The employment of staff with the requisite knowledge and competencies is one of the most important factors in the delivery of quality service. The staffing pattern for school libraries in the Caribbean has been to place teachers or other persons without formal library qualifications to administer these facilities, and usually only one person is assigned to the library. For these reasons, the respondents were asked about the number of persons who worked full time in the library and the qualifications of the person in charge. The majority of libraries had either one (43.5 percent) or two (23 percent) persons working full time and only seven (4.5 percent) had three or more. No doubt the higher numbers would apply to the handful of schools with large libraries, including those with separate buildings. The tendency towards a single person administering the school library is the norm in the Caribbean and is largely responsible for many of the complaints about excessive workloads resulting in the librarian’s inability to carry out all the essential services.

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Table Qualifications Persons in Charge of School Libraries Table 8.38.3Qualifications of of Persons in Charge of School Libraries No.

Percent

Teacher’s College Diploma without library education 66

31.7

Teache r’s College Diploma with library education

30

14.4

High School Certificate only

28

13.3

Other

25

11.9

Bachelor’s in Library Studies

19

9.0

Bachelor’s not in Library Studies

17

8.2

Bachelor’s in Education

15

7.2

Library Technical Assistant Certificate

4

1.9

Master’s in Library Studies

4

1.9

Master’s not in Library Studies

1

0.5

TOTAL

209

100.0

The situation is further exacerbated by the large number of untrained persons who hold these positions and are incapable of performing at the expected standards. Table 8.3 displays in rank order the type of qualification the persons in charge of the libraries possessed. Based on the data, the largest number of persons responsible for the school library was teacher’s college graduates (46.1 percent) with the majority being teacher’s without library qualifications (31.7 percent). The clustering of teacher’s college graduates in these libraries is consistent with the social reality where in primary schools (which represent most of the sample); the teachers employed at this level come mainly from the colleges. This finding also conforms to the pattern of assigning teachers responsibility for the school library. Approximately 25 percent of the sample had library education at either the college or university level and of this group only the teachers’ college graduates with library education (14.4 percent) could be identified as dually qualified in education and librarianship as is so frequently cited as the norm for the ideal school librarian. Of concern were the 28 (13.3 percent) persons with only high school qualifications managing these facilities.

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The presence of professional librarians in these libraries can be largely attributed to the introduction in the 1970s of a teacher/librarianship programme in teachers’ colleges and the establishment of the DLIS, UWI, Mona, Jamaica. The only other country that has a large number of qualified professionals is Trinidad and Tobago, which over the years has invested heavily in the education of librarians. However, in these countries and elsewhere, the need for professional staff in adequate numbers remains a perennial problem as demonstrated by the findings from studies by Marshall; James; and Baptiste.

Funding Funding is one of the most serious issues affecting Caribbean school libraries and it is usually taken as one of the main indicators of government’s level of commitment to the development of these facilities. The respondents were asked about the sources of their funds. Table 8.4 shows the replies. The majority (73.6 percent) admitted to getting no funding, which is not unusual since the sample consisted mostly of primary schools that receive books directly from the Schools Library Service, usually with no additional funds allocated to them by the government. Donations, therefore, become the chief source of funding and when added to fundraising shows that, of the remaining 59 schools that got some form of funding, the majority depended on nongovernmental sources. Cost-sharing means that parents are asked to share the expenses for education by paying a portion of the sum, somewhat akin to a reduced school fee. The school uses these funds for various purposes and here only 13.8 percent of them allocated some to the library. The most striking observation from the data was that generally government provided very little direct funding to school libraries. Whatever the justification, it is difficult to understand the thinking that informs such action because the policymakers must realize the negative consequences of such

Table 8.4 Source SourceofofFunding Funding School Libraries Table 8.4 forfor School Libraries No.

Percent

Gets no funding

154

73.6

Donation

46

22.0

From Ministry of Education

39

18.6

Fundraising events

35

16.7

Money from cost-sharing programme

29

13.8

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action. In Jamaica, wherever good school libraries are found, these are usually either the result of private and individual efforts or government projects funded by international development agencies like the World Bank. Private funding is likely to fluctuate, and the problem with projects is that very often after they end, the libraries deteriorate due to a lack of sustained support from the government. In contrast to many of the other countries, Trinidad and Tobago, through government policy and funding, has been pursuing an ambitious programme for the development of school libraries, which accounts for it having some of the better equipped school libraries in the region. Although other countries might have equally ambitious plans, they remain largely on paper because of lack of funding. The consistent underfinancing of school libraries by government is symptomatic of the wider Commonwealth Caribbean and one finds it difficult not to interpret this as a lack of commitment on the part of regional governments.

RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings, the following recommendations are being made for the regional development of school library services: Physical facilities – Given the inappropriateness of much of the accommodation for school libraries, the respective Ministries of Education in each country should see to it that building plans for all new schools include purpose-designed spaces for libraries based on accepted standards. Furthermore, provisions must also be put in place to prevent the conversion of these facilities into classrooms or appropriation for other uses, as often happens. For existing schools, efforts should be made to convert available space into a proper library or add these facilities, where feasible. Resources – Library collections must be developed on sound professional principles that will take all the major factors into consideration leading to a current, relevant collection in good condition. This will require proper funding and the input of the total school community. Furthermore, in this age of information technology and the benefits accompanying its use for learning and personal development, libraries need to incorporate multimedia formats into their collection. Projects for submission to funding agencies can be developed as one way of making this possible. Additionally, the collection should not be limited only to physical ownership of resources but should also include online access to information, primarily through the Internet. Librarians and other educators should lobby government to establish agreements with telecommunications companies or make it a part of service policy for

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century them to provide Internet access free or at a reduced rate to schools, including the libraries. Services – The concept of the need to integrate the library into the school’s total education programme must form the basis for the nature and the types of services to be offered since this is the only way that the library can fulfill its primary mission of facilitating teaching and learning. For this to happen, there must be equal focus on services to teachers as there is for students since the former are instrumental in the integration process. At the same time, librarians and educators need to recognize the importance of information literacy skills for learning and adopt an across-the-curriculum approach that will ensure that all students are taught these skills in a systematic manner and preferably by integration into the curriculum. Staffing – The education and training of staff for school libraries must assume utmost priority in all countries, whether through already existing avenues, such as the library school at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica or within teacher’s colleges, or through distance mode. The objective should be to produce a cadre of staff dually qualified in education and library studies who can function effectively in a modern education environment.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS On a more general note, a set of standards should be developed, preferably on a regional basis, starting from what is minimally acceptable to what is highly exemplary for school libraries, with due consideration given to the social and developmental conditions within the Commonwealth Caribbean. These criteria will be useful not only for evaluation but also for providing realistic and attainable goals towards which libraries can aspire. Finally, in light of the general inadequacy of so many aspects of school library services in the region, and since national policy provides the essential legislative framework within which an effective school library service can be developed, there is an overarching need for the creation and implementation of national policies by regional governments to ensure the proper establishment and subsequent maintenance of these facilities through meaningful, regular funding. Such a policy should be formulated as part of the national educational policy for maximum effectiveness.

CONCLUSION For too long Caribbean school libraries have been relegated to the periphery of the curriculum. The IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto states

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that “…the school library is essential to every long-term strategy for literacy, education, information provision and economic, social and cultural development.” If this is the case, then it should be central to any national education plan. However, for this to happen, librarians will have to form strategic alliances with pressure groups to strengthen their case as they continue to lobby government to recognize the important contribution these libraries can make in helping the society to produce information-literate citizens capable of functioning successfully in an information society.

WORKS CITED Abraham, Marie. Country Report: Trinidad and Tobago School Library Services. 2003. 9 Sept. 2006. www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/ttschools.htm. Asselin, Marlene, Jennifer L. Branch, and Diane Oberg. Achieving Information literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian School Library Association & the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada, 2003. Baker-Gardner, Ruth. Education Officers’ Perception of the Role of the School Library in the Educational Programme. MLS Thesis. The University of the West Indies, 2003. Baptiste, Mary A. School Libraries in St. Lucia: State of the Art Survey. MLS Thesis. The University of the West Indies, 1999. Brown, Gerald. Comp. St. Lucia, West Indies. Ministry of Education. School Library and Information Services: A Status Report with Recommendations. St. Lucia: Ministry of Education, 1997. Davis-Nembhard, Laurel. Library Provisions for the ROSE Curriculum: A Case Study of Three Schools. MLS Thesis. The University of the West Indies, 1997. Douglas, Daphne. “British Caribbean.” Ed. Miles Jackson. International Handbook of Contemporary Developments in Librarianship. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981, 567–589. Education: The Way Upward: A Path for Jamaica’s Education at the Start of the New Millennium. Kingston: Ministry of Education and Culture, 2001. Ferguson, Stephney. “Caribbean.” International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. Eds. John Feather and Paul Sturges. London: Routeledge, 1977. 46–48. Henry, Ruth Cassandra. Dilemma of Development: School Libraries in Jamaica. Diss. Columbia University, 1982. IFLA/UNESCO. Alexandria Manifesto on Libraries, the Information Society in Action. 2005. 28 Mar. 2006. www.ifla.org/III/wsis/AlexandriaManifesto.html. IFLA/UNESCO NALIS Seminar on School and Public Library Manifestos and Guidelines. 2003. 8 Sept. 2006. www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/iflaguide.htm. Jamaica Library Association. School Library Standards. Kingston: JLA, 1971. Jamaica Library Service Country Report: Presented at Seminar on IFLA/UNESCO Manifestos for Public and School Libraries. May 2003. 8 Sept. 2006. www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/iflaguide.htm. Jamaica Library Service. Working in a School Library: A Manual for Teacher/Librarians in Jamaica. Kingston: Jamaica Library Service/Schools Library Service, 1998. Jamaica. Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture. White Paper: The Way Upward. 2003. 7 July 2006. www.moec.gov.jm/policies/whitepaper.htm. James, Janet. School Administrators’ Perception of the School Library: A Survey of Select Secondary Schools. MLS Thesis. The University of the West Indies, 1999. Lake, Daisy. Report on School Library Services in Antigua and Barbuda. 2003. 9 Sept. 2006. www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/iflaguide.htm.

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Lynch Forde, Janet. “School Libraries in St. Lucia: A State-of-the-Art Report.” School Libraries Worldwide 4.2 (1998): 52–58. Marshall, Eileen. “School Library Programme and Personnel.” Jamaica Library Association Bulletin (1991–1992): 7–11. Mungo, Katie and Amy Robertson. Comps. Policy Guidelines for School Library Development: Workshop for Caribbean School Librarians 1985. Kingston: JLA/COMLA, 1986. Robertson, Amy. “School Libraries in the British West Indies.” Jean Lowrie, ed. School Libraries: International Developments. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1972, 212–227. —-. “Libraries and Youth with Special Reference to the Caribbean.” Libraries and the Challenge of Change. Papers of the International Library Conference held in Kingston, Jamaica, January 24–29, 1972. Eds. K. E. Ingram and Albertina Jefferson. London: Mansell, 1975, 104–114. Robinson, Cherrell. “The School Library a Valuable Partner in the Search for Educational Excellence.” Proc. of the 1990 Cross-Campus Conference on Education, 3rd–6th April 1990. Comps. Ed Brandon and P. N. Nissen. Mona, Kingston: Faculty of Education, UWI, 1991, 291–296. Shelley-Robinson, Cherrell. The Role of the School Library in the 21st Century: A Developing Country’s Perspective. IFLA/UNESCO/NALIS Seminar on School and Public Library Manifestos and Guidelines. 2003. 9 Sept. 2006. www.nalis.gov. tt/IFLA/crobinson.htm. Trinidad and Tobago Government. Draft Plan for Education Development in Trinidad and Tobago, 1968–1983. Port of Spain: Trinidad and Tobago: Govt. Printery, 1968. UNESCO/IFLA School Library Manifesto. 2000. 9 Sept. 2006. http://portal.unesco.org/ ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=4646&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Wallen, Joyce. “State of School Libraries in Jamaica.” Libraries and Information: Towards a Policy for Schools. Proc. of the 15th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship. Kalamazoo: IASL, 1986, 102–105. —-. Schools Library Service: Regionalization of the Schools Library Service. Unpublished paper. JLS/SLS, Jamaica, 1984. Warmington, Cynthia. “Schools Library Service.” Jamaica Library Association Bulletin 2.1 (1965): 38–41. Warmington, Cynthia, Joyce Robinson, and Rosalind McLaughlin. Jamaica Library Service: 21 years of Progress in Pictures. 1948–1969. Kingston: Jamaica Library Service, 1972.

APPENDIX A NATIONAL SCHOOL LIBRARY SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey is being conducted in order to provide an overview of the current state of school libraries in Jamaica. You are therefore being asked to answer all the questions by placing a tick in the appropriate place or by writing your comments in the space provided. You are also being asked to return the questionnaire as soon as possible after its completion. Thank you for your cooperation.

School Libraries in the Caribbean Background Information 1. Type of school: Primary [ ] 2. Size of student population ______

115

Secondary [ ] Size of teaching staff __________

Physical Facilities & Access 3. Does your school have a library (a set apart place with an organized collection of books)? Yes [ ] No [ ] 4. What is the size of your library? (In approximate square feet) __________ 5. Does it occupy: One room [ ] More than one room [ ] A separate building only for the use of the library [ ] 6. Within the library is there provision of any of the following? (Tick all those which apply) A separate office for the librarian [ ] An audiovisual room [ ] A workroom for library staff [ ] A room for teaching information skills [ ] A special room for teachers’ use [ ] Study carrels for students [ ] 7. How many students can the library seat at one time? __________ Resources 8. Indicate the types of resources and the approximate number of each that the library has: Resources Number Books __________ Magazines (no. of titles) __________ Audiocassettes __________ CDs __________ CD-Roms __________ Videotapes __________ DVDs __________ Other ________________ __________ 9. From which of the following sources do you get books and other materials for the library? (Tick as many as apply) Jamaica Library Service [ ] Donations from overseas [ ] Local donations [ ] Purchase from bookstores [ ] 10. Does the school have a computer lab? Yes [ ] No [ ] 11. Does the library have any computers? Yes [ ] No [ ] If yes, how many? 12. Does the school have Internet access? Yes [ ] No [ ] 13. Does the library have Internet access? Yes [ ] No [ ] 13a. If yes, who uses it: (Tick as many that apply) School Administrators [ ] Library staff [ ] Teachers [ ] Students [ ] Others (please indicate) ________________________

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14. Are the resources in the library catalogued? Yes [ ] No [ ] 15. Does the library have a: Computer catalogue [ ] Card catalogue [ ] No catalogue [ ] Services 16. Which of the following services does the library provide for Students and Teachers? (Please tick under the right heading)

a. Circulation and loan of library material b. Reference and information service c. Information about newly received materials d. Production of information resources e. Career materials f. Materials on continuing education, curriculum, education theory and practice, etc. g. Borrowing of materials from other libraries h. Lists of reading materials on request i. Information skills instruction j. Reading guidance k. Information searching via the Internet l. Photocopying services m. Consultation about resources for lesson planning

Teachers __________ __________

Students __________ __________

__________ __________ __________

__________ __________ __________

__________

__________

__________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________

__________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________

__________

__________

17. Are information skills taught to students? Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Staff 18. How many persons work in the library? __________ 19. What is the highest qualification of the person in charge of the library? [ ] “O” levels or CXC only [ ] “A” levels only Library Technician’s Certificate [ ] [ ] Teacher’s College Diploma/Certificate with library education Teacher’s College Diploma/Certificate without library [ ] education [ ] Bachelor’s Degree in Library Studies [ ] Bachelor’s Degree not in Library Studies [ ] Master’s Degree not in Library Studies

School Libraries in the Caribbean [ ] [ ] [ ]

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Master’s Degree in Library Studies University Degree in Education Other (please state) ______________________________

Funding 20. How is the library funded? (Tick all that apply) a. By money from the cost-sharing programme [ ] b. From money provided by the Ministry of Education to the school [ ] c. With money from fundraising events [ ] d. From donations [ ] e. Other (please state) ________________________________________ Thank you for participating in this important study. Kindly return the questionnaire in the enclosed self-addressed envelope as soon as possible.

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CHAPTER 9

Use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme for Legal Materials in the Caribbean Janice A. Modeste Eugene Dupuch Law School Library, The Bahamas

Yemisi Dina Osgoode Hall Law Library, York University, Canada ABSTRACT This chapter will give an historical background and account of the use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme in law libraries in the Caribbean. A questionnaire was administered to librarians and library staff of law libraries. Twenty-four questionnaire responses were received from participants. One of the results of the study is the suggestion that a separate number should be assigned for the entire Caribbean in the Moys Classification scheme because of the problems being encountered by librarians in assigning numbers.

CLASSIFICATION PROCESS Library classification can be defined as the process of organizing library materials according to their subject using a system of coding. Books and other library materials are examined to determine the nature of their content and are classified according to the type of information they contain. The analysis of the materials being classified may reveal a number of differing concepts in a single document. This could pose a challenge to the person classifying the item. The type of library and the needs of the intended users would be among the determining factors in the location of the particular library material. In recent times, the classification process has been influenced by the fact that most of the information available for retrieval by the user could also be obtained electronically. Nevertheless, the library classification question still remains whether or not access to the materials made available by the library supports the optimum use of its resources within and beyond its walls. 119

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CLASSIFICATION OF LEGAL MATERIALS The task of designing a classification scheme for legal materials could be rather complicated. First of all, the fact that most national legal systems fall into two categories, namely common law systems and civil law systems, would have to be recognized. The common law system, which is the focus of this paper, is derived from the English common law that has as its foundation judicial decisions. Countries falling within the common law system are referred to as common law jurisdictions. The English-speaking countries in the Caribbean are among the jurisdictions in the common law system, which also includes the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Second, jurisdiction having been established, there must then be a differentiation between what is referred to as primary and secondary material in the subject of law. A simple definition of primary materials is that it refers to works of law. Laws of Antigua and Barbuda is an example of primary materials. Secondary materials are works about the law. Commonwealth Caribbean Property Law by Gilbert Kodilinye falls in the category of secondary materials. Works about the law can be further subdivided into public law and private law. The challenge for the designer of the classification scheme is the manner in which primary and secondary materials are dealt with in the scheme.

ELIZABETH MOYS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOYS SCHEME For many years after classification schemes were being routinely used to organize most subject areas, numerous law libraries continued to exist without the use of class numbers. Elizabeth Moys, a British librarian, took up the challenge of devising a legal classification scheme when confronted with the need for such a scheme while working in Ghana and, later, in Nigeria between 1959 and 1965. When the publication A Classification Scheme for Law Books (Moys) emerged in 1968, it was the first of four editions. At that time, the other available schemes for the classification of legal materials included Dewey Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification, and Bliss Bibliographic Classification. There were also a number of in-house schemes tailored to meet the specific needs of the libraries for which they were designed. In 1968, the development of the Library of Congress Classification scheme’s Class K for legal materials had barely begun and it is widely believed that the impetus for the Moys scheme was the need to fill the void in the absence of Class K. In a revised version of an earlier tribute to Elizabeth Moys published by the American Association of Law Libraries in the Association’s Law Library Journal, it was stated that the classification scheme originated as a Library Association Fellowship thesis, which was then published.

Use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme …

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She attained her fellowship in 1965 and soon found a publisher. It was quickly adopted and is now used by about two hundred law libraries from all sectors—law firms, court, and academic—principally in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.K. The enthusiasm with which the scheme was taken up is witness to both the need for it and its excellence.1 The law libraries of the English-speaking Caribbean can be added to this grouping. The ready acceptance of A Classification Scheme for Law Books was a fitting tribute to the efforts of Elizabeth Moys who was one of those largerthan-life-figures in the field of law librarianship.

INTRODUCTION OF MOYS TO THE CARIBBEAN During the 1960s and the 1970s, some of the region’s court libraries were starting to emerge from locked cabinets and unsupervised rooms. This trend was noticeable among some of the libraries attached to the Supreme Courts and the Courts of Appeal. The courts were starting to introduce trained staff in their libraries at that time. One of these libraries, the Supreme Court Law Library in Jamaica, was one of the first law libraries in the English-speaking Caribbean to use A Classification Scheme for Law Books. The Supreme Court librarian started using the first scheme in 1969. More than a decade would elapse before some of the other court libraries followed. While as early as 1960, the then librarian of the Supreme Court Library in Trinidad and Tobago had started laying the ground work for the growth of that library, the Moys Classification was only introduced in the early 1980s. By 2006, with the benefit of better accommodation in the Hall of Justice and greater access to appropriate technology, this law library has blossomed into one of the leading court libraries in the region. The staff of this library presently has responsibility for more than 100,000 volumes. The results of some of this law library’s work are available at the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago Web site.2 Some of the region’s attorney general libraries followed a similar pattern with the Attorney General Law Library in Barbados starting to use the first edition of A Classification Scheme for Law Books in 1977. With the advent of a regional legal education programme in the Caribbean, the faculty of law in Barbados came into being as part of The University of the West Indies (UWI). The Faculty of Law Library became the first academic law library in the region in 1970. The law library’s first cataloguer, an Australian law librarian with exposure to Moys, recommended this classification scheme as being ideal for use in the law library because of its commonwealth background. In 1973, the Moys scheme was introduced to the libraries of the then newly established law schools of the Council of Legal Education—the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica and the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. On the other end of the time spectrum, the Eugene Dupuch Law School Library and The College of The

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Bahamas (COB) Law Library, both in Nassau, Bahamas, also chose to use the Moys scheme when they were established almost 30 years after their peers. As seen in the following outlined instances, while the decision may be taken by main libraries with departmental legal collections to opt for uniform classification, some have been persuaded otherwise, by reasons provided for using the Moys scheme in the Introduction of the fourth edition. It is not intended for any particular type of library, either for students, academic lawyers or practicing lawyers. It is designed however, to be suitable either for a specialist law library or the law section of a general library which is using either the Library of Congress Classification or the Dewey Decimal Classification for the rest of its books.3 The Library of Congress Class K for legal materials was the COB Law Library’s first choice for a classification scheme in October 2000. This was an automatic choice since the Library of Congress was already being used by the main library of the COB. However, by July 2001, a switch was made to the Moys scheme, which proved to be more amenable to the needs of the COB Law Library. The University of Guyana, which opened its doors in 1963, also has a division of law in the university library where the law collection is located. Unlike the rest of the university library’s collection, the division of law uses the Moys classification scheme. This legal collection was first developed to meet the needs of the university’s first year bachelor of laws (LLB) students. Similar arrangements for LLB students exist at the campus libraries of the St. Augustine campus and Mona campus of the UWI; however, both of these collections are classified according to the Library of Congress Classification Scheme’s Class K in keeping with a uniform approach to classification. The spread of the use of Moys among some of the other types of law libraries in the region, making it the most commonly used legal classification scheme, is attributed to some degree to the fact that the more established law libraries were already using Moys. However, it must also be noted that the introduction of the use of Moys among some of the less developed law libraries was a by-product of the initiatives of several international donor agencies supporting the improvement of justice in the region. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operating out of the U.S. and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), a Canadian agency, were two of the major donors with a history of supporting access to legal information in the region. In many instances, senior Caribbean law librarians were funded by these donor agencies to use their expertise in a consultative capacity to provide reports with recommendations for the improvement of the status of the less developed law libraries in the region. In recommending the use of Moys and, in some instances, introducing the

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scheme, these librarians ensured that the first steps were taken to organize these collections according to international standards. One such initiative dating back to the late 1980s and the 1990s was the USAID Caribbean Justice Improvement Project, USAID/CJIP. Regrettably, in some instances, very little capital has been made from these earlier gains. On a positive note, countries like Montserrat and Grenada that have suffered as a result of natural disasters are now benefiting from generous donations of law library materials, which are being classified using the fourth edition of Moys.

ROLE OF CARALL Another important factor in the use of Moys in the region is the impact and influence of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries (CARALL), which was inaugurated in 1984. From its inception, the CARALL meetings have provided the opportunity for persons responsible for the region’s law libraries to exchange ideas, relate experiences, and share knowledge. During these gatherings, the staff of libraries without the benefit of classification schemes could seek advice from the librarians in the more established libraries and, invariably, they would be introduced to the Moys scheme. Among the libraries in this category are the law firm libraries that are increasing in number in the region. During the last CARALL annual conference held in July 2005, five law firm libraries were represented. CARALL has provided training on the use of Moys, the most notable being the workshop held at its 2004 annual conference in The Bahamas. It is also quite common for members to request information on the class number of a particular title on CARALLTalk, the online user group created by the current CARALL president. Although the first online training session on the use of Moys had to be aborted because of a time conflict, CARALL has future plans for online discussions on issues concerning the use of Moys. The annual conference of CARALL was, therefore, seen as the ideal platform to launch a questionnaire on the use of Moys.

QUESTIONNAIRE: THE USE OF THE MOYS SCHEME IN THE CARIBBEAN To further determine the usage of the Moys scheme in the Caribbean, an open-ended questionnaire (see Appendix A at the end of this chapter) was designed for the purpose of this chapter and distributed at the CARALL annual conference held in Barbados in July 2005 to representatives of each law library in attendance. Eighteen completed questionnaires were received from the 29 law libraries represented at the July 2005 conference and general meeting. Several responses were received at a later date bringing the total number of responses to 24. Academic libraries, attorney general libraries, court libraries, and law firm libraries were well represented in the responses

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received. However, it would be safe to say that there was participation from each type of library listed on the questionnaire. The representatives from the five libraries that had not taken part in the questionnaire had no familiarity with the Moys classification scheme.

INTERPRETATION OF DATA AND ANALYSIS It was clear from the responses to the questionnaire that the length of time the library used the Moys classification scheme was one of the major indicators of the level of comfort with the use of the scheme. Law libraries with a long history of using Moys tended to have staff with a good working knowledge of the scheme. These law libraries were usually staffed by experienced librarians seeking to attain and maintain international standards for collection management. The librarians had little difficulty in manipulating the scheme. This was particularly true of the academic law libraries, the more established court libraries, and a few government libraries in the region. Some of the law libraries without the benefit of professional staff indicated varying degrees of difficulty using the tables (see Appendix B at the end of this chapter for the Moys Schedule). All the law libraries that adopted Moys from the first edition still had evidence of material classified from all four editions of Moys on their shelves. Because of staffing constraints, comprehensive reclassification was not always possible and the rule of thumb in some cases was that items would be reclassified in instances where the logical arrangement of the collection would be negatively impacted. Therefore, some libraries, which started with the first edition of the Moys classification scheme published in 1968, classified new items when the second and third editions appeared in 1982 and 1992, respectively. Others ignored the second edition and embraced the third and, therefore, collections reflecting the first and third editions resulted. When the fourth edition came along in 2001, it reflected the growth in legal terminology influenced by the new civil procedure rules in England and the impact of information technology among other factors. The law libraries in the Caribbean were already experiencing great difficulty with the classification of materials from these new areas and, therefore, they welcomed the appearance of the latest edition of the Moys classification scheme. From the responses to the major points raised in the questionnaire dealing with the treatment of Caribbean materials by the Moys scheme, it became clear that libraries were experiencing difficulties in classifying the increasing body of legal material in the region, in general, and at the national level, in particular. Various means were used to deal with the problem. The COB Law Library used KP for legal materials, which were Bahamian in origin, and KG for Caribbean materials. The Supreme Court Library in Jamaica also used KP but for Caribbean legal materials. The Faculty of Law Library in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago Supreme Court Library, the Hugh Wooding Law Library in Trinidad and Tobago, and a few other libraries resorted to using KJ for legal

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material from the region. KJ and KP were classes that were set aside in the Moys scheme for expansion. KP, in particular, was referred to by Elizabeth Moys in the introduction to the fourth edition as having been “set aside for use, as desired, for any preferred jurisdiction, or group of jurisdictions.”4 Some libraries ignored the fact that an item was published in the Caribbean and opted to classify legal publication from and about the region only by the subject. Others sought to operate within the narrow confines of the numbers allocated by Moys for the region, for example, attempting to find a place for the growing volume of materials on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) using KC770. For the most part, the suggested expansion for the Caribbean legal materials was largely ignored. Some librarians found the use of the tables too difficult, perhaps not having grasped the principle behind them. Others found it inadequate, hence the adoption of classes such as KJ and KP. The Norman Manley Law School and the COB Law Library were among the law libraries responding to the questionnaire indicating use of KG, which Moys specifically assigned to the Caribbean legal materials.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING COVERAGE OF CARIBBEAN LEGAL MATERIALS: FUTURE OF MOYS IN THE CARIBBEAN Without any doubt, it is evident that the scheme has been largely adopted by Caribbean law libraries, and the future will depend on a better understanding of the scheme by librarians and library staff, in general. The following suggestions are being made for the growth of the scheme and better understanding of its users in the region: 1. Involvement of a Caribbean law libraries representative on the editorial board of the Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials. The editorial board is responsible for updating the scheme and is currently comprised of librarians from the U.K., Canada, and Australia. The visible presence of such a person will address the inclusion of the latest developments in the Caribbean region. For example, with the recent inception of the Caribbean Court of Justice, it will be necessary to include persons from this organisation in developing the scheme. KC 770 is no longer sufficient to address the publications emanating from the region for such an institution. It will be necessary to consider assigning an entire class for the Caribbean as it was done for the European Community. The tables are insufficient to accommodate materials and publications from institutions such as the Caribbean Court of Justice. Some librarians have suggested borrowing and customizing KW for this purpose, but from practical experience this is somehow impossible for a library that has materials from the European community.

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CONCLUSION The Moys classification scheme, which changed its title to Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials by the third edition, is still the most useful classification scheme for law libraries in the Caribbean. Moys is not a perfect scheme. Some of its users in the U.K. and Canada have opted to use other schemes for various reasons. Such a move is not foreseen in the Caribbean, at least, not while there is continued support for the future of Moys by the editorial board. It augurs well for the future of this classification scheme that new libraries like the University of Adelaide Law Library and the emerging Caribbean law libraries are choosing to use Moys.

ENDNOTES 1.

Barbara Tearle, “Memorial: Elizabeth Mary Moys (1928–2002),” Law Library Journal 94.3: 549.

2.

Library of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago, www.ttlawcourts.org/lib_ collection.htm.

3.

Elizabeth M. Moys, Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials. 4th ed. (Munchen: Bowker Saur, 2001) xxv.

4.

Moys, xxviii.

WORKS CITED Boudinot, David, Sarah Sutherland, and Lindsay Ure. Moys: Elizabeth (Betty) M. Moys and the Moys Classification Scheme. 5 Apr. 2004. School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia. 6 July 2006. www.slais. ubc.ca/courses/libr517/03-04-wt2/projects/Moys/index.htm. The Law Library Homepage. 4 July 2006. The University of Adelaide. 5 July 2006. www.law.adelaide.edu.au./library/. Moys, Elizabeth M. A Classification Scheme for Law Books. London: Butterworths, 1968. —-. (ed.) Manual of Law librarianship: The Use and Organization Legal Literature. 2nd ed. London: Andre Deutsch Limited, 1976. —-. Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials. 4th ed. Munchen: Bowker Saur, 2001.

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Newton, Velma. “Standards for Court Libraries.” Caribbean Journal of Legal Information 5.3 (1988): 6–13. Tearle, Barbara. “Memorial: Elizabeth Mary Moys (1928–2002).” Law Library Journal 94.3: 547–552.

APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE USE OF THE MOYS CLASSIFICATION SCHEME IN THE CARIBBEAN 1. Name of Library/Information Unit ____________________________ 2. Type of library a. Academic ( ) b. Court ( ) c. Government department ( ) d. Attorney-General’s Office ( ) e. Chief State Solicitor ( ) f. DPP ( ) g. Law firm ( ) h. Commission (type) ( ) i. Other (provide details) ( ) ________________________________________________________ 3. How long has your library been using the Moys Classification Scheme? ________________________________________________________ 4. What edition of the Moys Classification Scheme is your library using? 1st ed. ( ) 2nd ed. ( ) 3rd ed. ( ) 4th ed. ( ) 5. If a combination of more than one edition of the Moys Classification Scheme is being used by your library please indicate and state why. ________________________________________________________ 6. If an earlier edition is being used please state why. e.g. Do not have the staff/time to change to the latest edition. ________________________________________________________ 7. Does your collection currently consist of classification numbers from more than one edition of Moys? ________________________________________________________ 8. How did you find the use of the tables? Easy ( ) Difficult ( ) 9. What are the difficulties you have encountered while using the Moys Classification Scheme? a. Assigning numbers for primary materials ( ) b. Assigning numbers for secondary materials ( ) c. Use of Table I ( )

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d. Use of Table II ( ) e. Use of Table III ( ) f. Use of Table IV ( ) g. Use of Table V ( ) h. Use of Table VI ( ) i. Use of Table VII ( ) j. Use of Table VIII ( ) k. Use of appendices ( ) 10. Would you support the tailoring of KG to meet the widest possible needs of the Caribbean region? a. Yes ( ) b. No ( ) 11. Would you like see a separate class for the Caribbean Region? a. Yes ( ) b. No ( )

APPENDIX B MOYS SCHEDULE (Extracted from Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials by Elizabeth M. Moys. Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials. 4th ed. Munchen: Bowker Saur, 2001) K KA KB KC KD KE KF KG KH KL KM KN KP KR KS KT KV KW KZ

Journals and Reference Books Jurisprudence General and Comparative Law International Law Religious Legal System Ancient and Medieval Law Common law, primary materials, British Isles Common law, primary materials, America Common law, primary materials, Australasia Common law, primary materials, general Common law, primary materials, public law Common law, primary materials, private law Preferred jurisdiction Africa Latin America Asia and Pacific Europe European Community Law Non-legal subjects

Use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme … Appendix 1 Appendix 2

Criminology Civil Procedure Rules terminology

Tables Table 1 Table II Table III Table IV Table V Table VI Table VII Table VIII

Primary materials Secondary materials Dates Common law jurisdiction Courts Special legal forms and topics Persons Non-legal forms and treatments

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CHAPTER 10

Out of the Darkness: Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled in Trinidad and Tobago Annette Wallace National Library and Information System Authority, Trinidad and Tobago ABSTRACT Early library service to the blind and print disabled in Trinidad and Tobago was limited to a small collection of large-print books at public libraries. The introduction of the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) Act in 1998 and the subsequent opening of a national library heralded significant expansion in facilities and services to the blind and print disabled. Awarded the Prime Minister’s “Innovating for Service Excellence— the Social Inclusion Award 2004,” this service is a model for local and Caribbean libraries. This chapter will examine the socioeconomic factors and global partnerships that led to this change as well as the past and present challenges encountered during this transition. NALIS’ use of assistive technology will be discussed together with NALIS’ membership in the Caribbean Digital Collection for the Blind and Print Disabled Committee (CDCBPD) and its current digitization project of local material, using Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) software will also be examined.

INTRODUCTION At a ceremony to mark the opening of a Visually Impaired Persons (VIPs) facility at the National Library, Trinidad and Tobago in 2001, a member of the blind community stated: “This service spells independence, progress, development and improvement, which are precious to us. Our dreams have come true” (Paul 17). “Independence” and “empowerment” are terms that were the antithesis of library service to the blind and print disabled in Trinidad and Tobago prior to 2001. Indeed, advocates of the blind may well have described library service as a nightmare. This chapter will describe major decisions taken to empower blind and print-disabled persons in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. Although access to information for the disabled is a fundamental human right included in the United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights and 133

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the UN Standard Rules of Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities,1 it remains “the most important challenge facing students, children and working age adults and seniors who are blind or unable to read print.”2 The term “visually impaired” is used to describe persons with a visual disability that cannot be corrected by spectacles. It also refers to individuals who experience difficulty reading an ordinary print newspaper and whose vision restricts mobility.3 “Print disabled” are those persons who due to blindness, partial sight, dyslexia, or physical impairments cannot access visually requested information in the ordinary course. These persons require the conversion of such information into an alternative format, which renders it accessible via their remaining senses, either through touch, hearing, or increased visibility.4 Unlike other countries, for example, the U.K., where individuals who are blind or partially sighted must register, it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of visually impaired persons in Trinidad and Tobago. However, the local nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Persons Associated with Visual Impairment (PAVI) estimates that there are 13,000 blind or visually impaired persons (VIPs) within the population of 1.3 million. Of the 13,000 VIPs, a mere 10 percent, or 1,300 persons, are employed (Paul 17). Most are employed in the craft industry of basketry. Jamaica with a population of 2.5 million reported that there were 25,836 blind persons based on the results of the 2001 census (Anderson-Pessoa 5). Apart from the factors of macular degeneration, which occurs when people age and accounts for the loss of vision in many persons, ethnicity appears to be another factor as 48 percent of the population is of African descent and studies have shown that there is a higher incidence of glaucoma in persons of African descent than in other races. However, global partnerships and technological innovations have fostered new opportunities for blind and VIPs in the Caribbean.

LIBRARY SERVICES TO THE BLIND IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES The year 1891 heralded the introduction of the public library service in Trinidad and Tobago with the opening of the Public Library of Trinidad. In 1919, the Carnegie Free Library was established through the Carnegie Foundation and the Central Library Services were introduced in 1942. The period 1950–1960 saw rapid expansion of the public library service and, by the late 1970s, there were 16 public libraries and three mobile libraries serving rural communities in the country. The three public libraries were disparate entities with separate budgets and organizational structure. During this early period the delivery of library services to the visually impaired populace of

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Trinidad and Tobago was limited to the provision of large-print books and well-lit facilities. In 2006, there were 23 public libraries in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Four mobile libraries served more than 50 communities in outlying districts. VIPs services were accessible at eight of these libraries. Therefore, at both the operational and policy levels the library authorities played an important role in social inclusiveness of this group.

THE NALIS ACT: A CATALYST OF CHANGE The introduction of the NALIS Act represented a watershed in the delivery of library services to the blind and visually impaired communities in Trinidad and Tobago. This legislation mandated the library authority to prioritize the needs of these disadvantaged groups. The Act states NALIS is “to provide a national information service to the benefit of the physically disadvantaged and persons in institutions” (Clause 4 (m) Act No. 18 of 1998).5 The Act also integrated the public libraries and brought the special and school libraries under its management and facilitated the coordination and administration of the functions of these libraries.

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY In 2001, inroads to improve service and enhance access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) began through the donation of a computer equipped with the Job Access with Speech (JAWS) software to the Carnegie Free Library by Ancil Torres of the Torres Foundation, a Trinidadian based in Washington, D.C. The Torres Foundation also provided a blind facilitator who conducted training programmes for the blind community. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 2001 published The Public Library Service IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development. This publication set the standard for public library service. It recommended that libraries should “establish ways of making library material and services accessible [to special user groups which included] special equipment and reading materials for those with physical and sensory disabilities, for example, the hearing impaired and visually impaired people…services for people with special needs can be enhanced by the use of new technology, for example, speech synthesizers for the visually impaired.”6 The opening of the state-of-the-art National Library in March 2003 facilitated the introduction of these “enhanced” services. Print Braille, recorded books, and assistive technology were introduced in libraries housed in the National Library building. Assistive technologies available at NALIS include: • JAWS software is screen-reading software, which uses synthetic speech technology to verbalise screen output for the blind and print disabled. JAWS software comes with a free software synthesizer called Eloquent.

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Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century • Magic Screen Magnification Software enlarges text and graphics that appear on a computer display for persons with low vision with magnification ranging from twice the regular size text to 16 times regular size text. • Duxbury Braille Translation Software allows the user to produce professional Braille documents that are properly formatted in a variety of languages and grades. Word documents are first translated by the Braille translation program and then sent to the Braille printer where Braille documents produced retain the formats specified. • Braille Embossers can produce Braille on both sides of a page. Braille embossers are also equipped with synthetic speech for installation and configuration. • Focus 44 Braille Displays-Refreshable Braille Display reproduces the information that appears on a computer screen in Braille. These are connected to the computer via USB parallel or serial cable and usually reside on a desk under the keyboard for easy reach. • Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Voice Recognition Software is specially provided for use by persons with motor impairments, which prevents them from typing on a keyboard. It enables the user to interface with the computer hands-free. The software works with a microphone that connects to the sound card on the computer. The patron must first be trained to understand the user’s voice pattern, and this information is kept on voice files on the computer. • Next Talk Software provides instant messaging capability for people who are deaf. This software is installed on the library’s local area network to allow deaf and hearing-impaired users to communicate with the library’s staff. It allows that person to call other users who are deaf and who have the Next Talk software. The Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Voice Recognition Software and Next Talk software are available for use by the physically challenged and hearing impaired, respectively. • Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)/Video Magnifier uses a stand-mounted video camera to project a magnified image onto a video monitor or a television screen. CCTV is used by people with low vision to read printed materials placed on the movable table under the camera. • Poet Compact allows users to listen to print at the touch of a button. When print is placed on the glass of the scanner—like on a

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photocopier—the Poet Compact automatically recognizes the page orientation on the glass, takes a picture of the page, converts the picture into spoken language and reads it aloud to the user. • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Reading Systems, which includes a scanner, OCR software, and sound card with speakers, enables users to scan and read printed materials. Reading material is scanned into the computer and OCR software then performs a recognition analysis on the scanned image. During this process, information that cannot be identified, that is, pictures, graphics, and handwriting, is discarded. The remaining data is then formatted to specification and read using synthetic speech. • Perkins Braille Writer is operated manually to produce embossed Braille. It is the Braille equivalent to a manual typewriter. • Victor Reader is a digital talking book reader that copes with complex texts. Books are recorded in audio formats on CD-ROM. The CDs also contain DAISY coding, which provides information about the book’s structure. The player offers basic navigation features like browsing the table of contents, and skipping from section to section or from page to page from custom bookmarks. These enhanced services for the blind and print disabled were extended to other branch libraries through the introduction of assistive technology at five additional service points.

SOCIAL INCLUSIVENESS AND TRAINING Libraries embarking on services to the blind should display a commitment to social inclusiveness beyond the acquisition of VIPs resources and assistive technology. They should recognize that the sustainability of this initiative lies in training its human resource personnel. NALIS places emphasis on training its staff members to interact with its blind patrons. Blind facilitators trained staff in areas such as orientation, mobility, and communication with the blind. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s (CNIB) publication, When You Meet a Blind Person, serves as an invaluable resource for this training.7 Blind facilitators of the Torres Foundation expanded its “Blind Independence through Technology,” program, which was first introduced at the Carnegie Free Library, to the National Library. In this program, the visually impaired are taught computer literacy and Internet access. The foundation also installed all the assistive technology at the libraries in NALIS network and has been awarded a maintenance contract to service them.

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PARTNERSHIPS The World Summit on the Information Society’s (WSIS) Declaration of Principles, noted that “…building an inclusive Information Society requires new forms of solidarity, partnership and cooperation among governments and other stakeholders, that is, the private sector, civil society and international organizations.”8 Extensive partnerships developed both locally and internationally have contributed to the success of the VIPs service in the Caribbean. Victoria Owen, director of library services at the CNIB, in her presentation Developing Partnerships to Serve Blind Children and Adults: The Canadian Experience, also advocated collaborations: “By proactively developing partnerships, librarians can aid in access for all and produce constructive change in libraries.”9 For NALIS, partnerships range from local corporate sponsors and Caribbean libraries to international organizations. The preliminary work for this service consisted of identifying the stakeholders and discussing their needs. NALIS found eager allies in the Blind Welfare Society (BWS) and PAVI, both of which contributed Braille books that they had received through a donation from the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). An important global partnership was developed with the employees of the CNIB, members of the IFLA Section of Libraries for the Blind (IFLA/SLB). Rosemary Kavanaugh, vice president of CNIB and chair of IFLA/SLB, and Victoria Owen were facilitators at the Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago’s (LATT) “Living Library Conference” in 2002, and presented papers on library services to the blind and print disabled. IFLA/SLB also hosted the ACURIL 2002 preconference in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, “Accommodating All: Libraries and Education in the Digital Age.” This preconference provided an invaluable opportunity to network with suppliers and agencies of VIPs service, for example, the Force Foundation, CNIB, and NLS. The CNIB, the source for print Braille and recorded books, hosted a site visit and provided general guidance for introducing a service. Another key local partnership was established with the U.S. Embassy, which sponsored assistive technology for its American Corner at the Scarborough Library, Tobago. This initiative introduced the first library service for the VIPs in Tobago. A local bank, Republic Bank, purchased assistive technology for NALIS’ Heritage Library and thus facilitated access and research to local and Caribbean materials by VIPs.

BUILDING THE CARIBBEAN DIGITAL COLLECTION FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT DISABLED The ACURIL 2002 preconference in Ocho Rios, Jamaica also served as the genesis of the digitization project that has begun in the Caribbean. The president of CNIB and the World Blind Union (WBU), Jim Saunders, in his opening

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speech at this preconference stated: “When resources are thin and poverty is everywhere, smart organizations and people do not work alone. Only by ensuring that we are working together, seeking mainstream solutions, will we be able to provide an affordable service for people who are blind that is comparable to that provided for people who are sighted” (4). The CDCBPD is an example of “smart organizations working together.” The committee was launched in November 2004 through the initiative of the CNIB, which sourced and obtained partial funding for the project from the Canadian Local Initiative Fund (CLIF). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was another source of funding. The project is guided by a steering committee comprised of representatives from the libraries and stakeholder groups in Jamaica. Trinidad and Tobago is the only other Caribbean group represented on this committee, at present, but there are plans to extend membership to other islands. Many libraries have today formed partnerships for the digitization of materials, for example, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program under the Library of Congress, which includes a partnership of eight academic libraries “digitizing and making available materials illustrative of U.S. History.”10 The CDCBPD is another collaboration of libraries and it aims to digitize Caribbean material using the DAISY Standard ANS1/N180 239.86, specifications for the digital talking book. Two basic methods are used in creating the final product of digitized materials, namely, the human narration method and the synthetic talking e-book method. DAISY allows a user to review a table of contents or index and to move to a preferred area of a document. Users can also place electronic bookmarks for future reference. DAISY books can be played on a computer or special player.11 The steering committee secured membership from the DAISY consortium and obtained the conversion software, Easepublisher, at a discounted rate. The conversion process is exclusively done at the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ). NALIS scans material about Trinidad and Tobago, which is in the public domain, onto CD-ROMs. These are then dispatched to Jamaica for digitizing.

CHALLENGES As most libraries serving the blind, NALIS has faced the problem of underutilization of this service, in spite of active media publicity. Victoria Owen remarked about a similar challenge facing Canadian libraries: “The minimal ‘traffic’ through the library…For many libraries they have not previously been serving the community members who are print disabled…the library may have had very little to offer…It takes constant outreach activity to encourage the community members to start using the library on a constant basis.”12

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Mobility of the blind is one factor, which accounts for minimal “traffic” in libraries and an aggressive marketing programme is one strategy to encourage use.

Copyright At the anniversary meeting of the CDCBPD in Kingston, Jamaica in November 2005, participants reported on the difficulties encountered to obtain digital rights for conversion of items. The target of digitizing 25 items was not realized because of copyright barriers. The plan to digitize material in the public domain raised questions of user demand. The situation was more difficult for Trinidad and Tobago because of the nonexistence of a copyright organization for printed material. Although the Copyright Organization of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) does exist, it manages the work of musicians only. On the other hand, the Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency (JAMCOPY) is the body that represents printed works and obtains permission from creators for use of their work. All members agreed that copyright laws in the Caribbean are deficient in relation to the blind. One method of addressing these barriers is the approach adopted by the Library of Congress Section 108 Study Group in the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The Section 108 Study Group is “a select committee of copyright experts, convened by the Library Congress with the responsibility of updating the Copyright Act’s balance between the rights of creators and copyright owners and the needs of library and archives.”13 John Roos, director of the South African Library for the Blind, proposed that: “An international effort to standardize statutory exceptions to copyright protection will be an important step towards affirming international trust in what libraries for the blind and those serving disadvantaged communities do. It will also contribute much towards a framework that can assist those countries that have not as yet enacted such exceptions in their own jurisdictions but who might want to do so.”14 The answer to copyright barriers in the Caribbean and the wider world may lie in this approach. Meanwhile, Caribbean libraries should approach legislators to amend copyright laws to improve access for this community.

Cost Although the committee obtained funding from both CLIF and UNESCO and membership in the DAISY consortium facilitated a lower cost for the acquisition of the Easepublisher software, the CDCBPD faced additional costs for training staff in using metadata. Staff enrolled in an online training course offered by the University of Wisconsin. Both the NLJ and NALIS operate with less than the required work force to perform the scanning of items.

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Workers in Jamaica were compensated for overtime work while in Trinidad and Tobago; NALIS contracted the services of two persons to complete the task. The committee will outsource this activity in the future since this will mitigate the responsibilities of limited staffing, but digitizing costs may increase.

Web Accessibility The NALIS Web site is a popular source for online information pertaining to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.15 As services are delivered over the Web, the ability of the blind to access information on the Web is a primary concern. NALIS is a member of the Ibero-American Digital Library (developed by the University of Colima, Mexico and sponsored by UNESCO) and is currently digitizing local images for its Web site. These images now require more detailed descriptions to ensure accessibility by the blind. The guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility are used. These guidelines establish and recommend consistent protocols for accessible designs in Web site building to provide equivalent alternatives for auditory and visual information, for example, alternative text for images and captions for files.16 The process of migrating to a content management system is ongoing. However, though the system is more user friendly, it does present some challenges for visually impaired persons. The newly designed pages will address these issues. The “alt” function is used to describe each image and the site map will provide detailed text links to all our pages. Where there are graphical menus and links, the information is provided in text format on the same pages. The possibility of restructuring the earlier Web site as a text-only site to accommodate persons with visual disabilities is being examined. Digitized newspaper clippings present another challenge. These items are scanned as images and cannot be read by the assistive technology software. There are plans to make them accessible to the VIPs by converting them to text using OCR.

FUTURE PLANS

Marketing NALIS has embarked on marketing of this enhanced service through the advertisement of the service in the new publication of the BWS and local newspapers. Other marketing strategies include use of the electronic media, cooperation with the postal agency, the Postal Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (TTPost) to provide a mail service of VIPs items and making flyers available at offices of optometrists and ophthalmologists. NALIS will also continue to lobby the School for the Blind to use the facility. The acquisition of a minibus in mid-2006 will aid with the transportation of the housebound visually impaired to the libraries.

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NALIS plans to facilitate the establishment of a Trinidad and Tobago organization responsible for printed materials. This organization will seek permission for the use of works in libraries and will also lobby government for amendments to the Copyright Act. One of the decisions taken at the WBU Conference held in Kingston, Jamaica in November 2005 was lobbying for the removal of copyright barriers at the next conference of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

Training Caribbean organizations should ensure that the English-speaking Caribbean’s only library school at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica includes courses for disadvantaged communities with specific reference to visually impaired services. NALIS will also recommend to institutes that provide training in library and information science in Trinidad and Tobago, for example, the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), the body entrusted with training of paraprofessionals, to include instructions in library science courses to the visually impaired in their courses. The results of the Opinion Leaders Panel survey conducted by Market Opinion Research Institute (MORI) between January and April 2005, which examined opinions on the national ICT strategy, “Fast Forward,” is informative for NALIS’ goal of bridging the digital divide. A mere 17 percent of the respondents revealed that they have computers at home with Internet access. Only 15 percent of the respondents used the library to search the Internet.17 NALIS will receive a digital mobile library by mid-2006. Assistive technology will be installed in this new library, which will offer VIP service to rural communities that presently do not benefit from a library service. Additionally, licenses of JAWS software have been purchased and this software will be installed on computers in all 23 libraries in the NALIS network.

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY GROUPS A programme of volunteerism may be another method to address the challenges of mobility. The CNIB reported in 2001 that there were 20,000 volunteers working with the organization. These volunteers assist with driving clients to libraries, visiting clients in their homes and reading to them, and working as mobility and orientation staff. 18 Library services to the blind and print disabled provide new opportunities for Friends of the Library groups to volunteer services in assisting libraries in the delivery of this service. Members will be encouraged to support this service and could, therefore, redirect their energies from their sole activity of fundraising.

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RECOGNITION NALIS received recognition at the highest level by winning the Prime Minister’s Innovating for Service Excellence Award in the Making a Difference to People—The Social Inclusion Award. The Prime Minister Innovating for Service Excellence Scheme was introduced by the government of Trinidad and Tobago to “encourage creativity and innovativeness” in the public service. Participants were rewarded for innovativeness in use of technology to improve service to the population.19 In Trinidad and Tobago today, Joyce Valenza’s description of library services to the blind is apt: “… there is good reason to celebrate. While barriers still exist, technology has become an equalizer for the blind.”20 This service has become a model for libraries at both campuses of the UWI at Mona, Jamaica and St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. NALIS is committed to ensuring that all differently abled persons in Trinidad and Tobago can enjoy equity to access to information. There is need to expand focus to library services for the deaf and hearing impaired and we have addressed this need by training all our staff in sign language, employing two deaf workers and upgrading the Next Talk software. There is evidence, based on the innovative and enhanced services provided in the area of assistive technologies and the new initiatives embarked on, as outlined in this chapter, that NALIS recognizes that access to information is a human right that should be enjoyed by all.

ENDNOTES 1.

United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), United Nations Generally Assembly Resolution 217A, 7 July 2006. www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/ humanrights/resources/universal.asp.

2.

John M. Robinson, address, ACURIL/IFLA SLB Preconference, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 25–26 May 2002.

3.

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Professional Guidance, Policy and Research: Library and Information Services for Visually Impaired People July 2004, 9 Sept. 2006. www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/ equalopportunities/briefings/visual.htm.

4.

J. W. Roos, “Copyright Protection as Access Barriers,” IFLA Journal 31.1 (2005): 54.

5.

Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Laws, Act No.18 of 1998. 10 Sept. 2006. www.nalis. gov.tt/Libraries/nalisbill.html.

6.

K. G. Saur, “The Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development,” IFLA Publications 97 (2001): 8.

7.

Canadian National Institute for the Blind, When You Meet a Blind Person, 2003, 7 July 2006. www.cnib.ca/eng/publications/pamphlets/when_you_meet.htm.

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8.

World Summit on the Information Society, Declaration of Principles: Building the Information Society: A global challenge in the new millennium, 12 Dec. 2003. 9 Sept. 2006. www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html.

9.

Victoria Owen, “Developing Partnerships to Serve Blind Children and Adults: The Canada Experience,” Paper presented at ACURIL/IFLA SLB Preconference, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May 25–26, 2002.

10. Library of Congress, Digital Preservation: National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, 9 Sept. 2006. www.digital preservation.gov. 11. Daisy Consortium. Developing the Next Generation of Digital Talking Books. 2006. 9 Sept. 2006. www.daisy.org/about_us/dtbooks.asp. 12. Owen. 13. Mary Rasenberger and Chris Weston, Overview of the Section 108 Study Group, 2005, 9 Sept. 2006. www.loc.gov/section108/about.html. 14. Roos, 66. 15. National Library and Information System Authority, Homepage, 2004, 9 Sept. 2006. library2.nalis.gov.tt/. 16. World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative, 2006, 9 Sept. 2006. www.w3.org/WAI. 17. Opinion Leaders Panel News Issue #5 (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Ministry of Public Administration and Information, 2005). 18. “The Canadian National Institute for the Blind,” The Toronto Star, Jan. 13, 2001. 19. Patrick Manning, “The Pivot for Development,” 21 Sept. 2004. 9 Sept. 2006. www.gov.tt/news/news_article.asp?id=2290. 20. Joyce Kasman Valenza, “Surfing Blind,” School Library Journal (2000): 34–36.

WORKS CITED Anderson-Pessoa, Halcyee. Business Plan for Accessible Caribbean Heritage Project. Kingston, Jamaica; n.p., 2004. National Information Standards Organization on Talking Books. Specifications for the Digital Talking book. 2002. 9 Sep. 2006. www.niso.org/standards/resources/z39-862002.html. Paul, Anna Lisa. “National Library Opens Facility for Blind.” Trinidad Express 28 June 2004: 17. Saunders, Jim. “Shaping Library Service for People in the Caribbean and Latin America who are Blind.” Paper presented at ACURIL/IFLA SLB Preconference, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May 25–26, 2002. United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). United Nations Generally Assembly Resolution 217A. 7 July 2006. www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/ humanrights/resources/universal.asp. Wallace, Annette. “Library Services to Visually Impaired Persons: the Trinidad and Tobago Experience.” Paper presented at ACURIL/IFLA SLB Preconference, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May 24–26, 2002.

CHAPTER 11

Reading Between the Lines in Jamaica’s Rural Libraries: Some Personal Impressions Beryl W. Johnson Nova Southeastern University, Florida, USA

Dolsy Smith The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA

Gwendolynn G. Amsbury World Trade Center, Oregon, USA ABSTRACT The rural library in Jamaica serves as both a source of information and a social institution, even more so than in cities and larger towns where wider options exist. However, the library must first surmount the tension and dysfunction that derive from a North American/British ideal of library service oriented toward literacy and canonical reading, and the strong oral nature of Jamaican local culture. Even more unfortunate is the persistence of the nationwide Jamaica Library Service (JLS) in adhering to some systems and policies that continue to be ineffective, and which deter rural libraries from developing programs and services that best serve the needs of their individual communities. Rural libraries would benefit greatly by sharing among themselves methods and best practices on how to utilize scarce resources to provide patrons with appropriate, timely, and quality services. With some autonomy, these libraries would also realize the valuable contribution of community stakeholders in the process of creating programs and services that serve and represent them.

INTRODUCTION Since its inception in 1948, the JLS has grown to govern both public and school library networks, including a bookmobile system that contains 576,399 books. The Public Library Network has 121 branch libraries (both full- and part time) and approximately 900 school libraries within the School Libraries Network. In its 2002–2003 annual report, the JLS reported a total circulation of 3,758,037 for their library collections. The report also shows an 145

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increase in circulation at the main (parish) libraries, yet a zero percent growth in the branch libraries from the previous year. The research project, from which this chapter is derived, centered on libraries in the third smallest parish of Hanover in rural Jamaica. The main library in the parish capital, Lucea, is responsible for the oversight of its six branches: Askenish, Chester Castle, Green Island, Hopewell, Jericho, and Pondside. Traveling to Jamaica as graduate students from the University of Michigan’s School of Information in the summer of 2004, the authors had read and heard much about the “digital divide” and how it negatively affects those who come from marginalized communities. During the course of our two-month research project observing rural libraries and the communities that use them, we glimpsed the divide from the perspective of people thought to be on its other side, and the ways in which they attempt to bridge this divide. This attempt is not always successful, but it causes community members to ask questions about where they stand in their own society and community. A young woman in the Jericho branch library, who had spoken insightfully about unemployment and other social problems, asked us whether we were going to do anything for her community. Later, she could be heard singing to herself fragments of a song, “I don’t know what the future holds.” This line of an anonymous song seems to be fitting for rural libraries in Jamaica, with staff often not knowing what books they will receive and when; what programs they will have the funds and time to institute; or (in, at least, one case) if they will eventually be forced to close their doors to the community with whom they have managed over time, to create a mutually sustaining relationship. The material limitations of public library service in Jamaica are manifold: a shortfall in government funding, especially for capital expenditures (Jamaica Library Service); a freeze on wage increases for government employees; an inadequate and diminishing book stock; a shortage of trained librarians; decrepit or simply incommodious buildings; and, perhaps, a generalized apathy among the adult members of communities that are subject to unremitting material deprivation, rising social problems like crime, and a dearth of prospects for the future. Moreover, it must be said that among Jamaica’s 14 parishes, Hanover stands out for its lack of urban and industrial development. It is not the site of the JLS’s most notable successes (for example, new building extensions in St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland), but yet it is a place where the resourcefulness of the branches and their staff is extraordinary.

OVERVIEW OF THE JAMAICA LIBRARY SERVICE To understand the system under which the rural branch libraries in Hanover operate, it is important to have knowledge of the central agency that governs them. The JLS is responsible for the administration of two networks,

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one of which is the Public Library Network.1 The JLS oversees more than 600 service points in the Public Library Network alone, which are comprised of 13 parish libraries (Kingston and St. Andrew are merged), 121 full- and parttime branch libraries, 11 special service points (such as those in hospitals, youth camps, and correctional institutions), and 511 bookmobile stops. The bookmobile plies routes in remote areas and through communities temporarily without the services of a branch library. The number of branches in each parish varies according to population size, demand for service, and facilities. In a 1999 article on Jamaica libraries, the following was predicted: Over the next 5 years the Ministry of Education will seek to improve the technological levels and service in the public library system. This should include the creation of an electronic network among parish libraries, computerization of the operational systems in the libraries and the creation of a database of library catalogues. There are also plans to extend the library services with the construction of more branch libraries, expansion of bookmobile services and the service to the house bound persons.2 Five years later, however, a crippling economy and severe budget cuts had resulted in a reprioritization or deferral of major projects by the JLS, including systems automation, the extension of services, and the erection of new buildings for branch libraries.3

ORGANIZATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICE The restructuring that is currently underway derives from the responsibility of a felt mandate within the JLS, as the only public library system in Jamaica, to remain relevant and keep up with the changing needs of patrons. Patricia Cuff, senior librarian and director of the National Library Network, has been with the JLS for more than 40 years, and described an epistemological shift in the organization from “knowing” to the need to know: “We are now evaluating everything we do.” The primary frame of this evaluation seems to be “cost-effectiveness” or efficiency. It is, moreover, a top-down effort, discussed in terms of “quality control” by the directorate. This shift Cuff views as correspondent to a shift in the society at large, in which people need to adapt to new job conditions and are using the library to “re-tool” themselves. In contrast to this, however, the majority of Hanover’s branch libraries are small structures scattered across rural towns, open for business, but mostly empty.

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ATTITUDES AND NEEDS OF RURAL COMMUNITIES There is a general perception of the JLS as being the authority, if only for the name of the organization and its national scope. For example, as an arm of the government, the library service is viewed with suspicion, with its resources and services seen to be more prescriptive and inflexible, rather than customer-responsive and accommodating. There is also the expectation that all library services (that is, access to the Internet) be provided free, as they were already being paid for by tax dollars. Another common assumption is that the library is mainly a place for students and study. People we interviewed in every community identified their branch library with the education of the youth: “it is there to take care of the children,” as one man said. Seeing the students’ behavior in the library attests to the social dimension of reading: working on homework in groups, or huddling around a magazine that parades the latest celebrities, or as we saw in one tiny branch, sharing an electronic word-recognition game. Children and young people of all ages fill their time in the library with a mixture of work and leisure. Some librarians find this phenomenon problematic: One librarian said that her greatest challenge was imposing a standard of disciplined behavior on a room of loud children. On the other hand, another librarian clearly seemed to have developed a close relationship with the few young girls that spent their after-school hours in her branch library, talking with them and helping them read books or play games. She told us, “I am used to the students, and they are used to me, and they are comfortable here.” Dealing with the great numbers of students every day is a drain on librarians’ time and quickly uses up one of the rural libraries’ most precious resources: space. At the same time, the fact that libraries in these communities seem to represent a less-supervised place than the school library or home, but one that receives parental sanction (and it does, in fact, “take care” of children whose parents do not come home until the evening hours, as we saw in more than one branch), it becomes a site for a multitude of social interactions and a chance for the library to connect with younger users. What of the adult users? The general assumption is that once adults leave school, they tend to stop using the library. The parish-wide statistics (2002–2003) indicate a significant drop in membership (1,334) over the previous year—much of which, by reports of the branch librarians, is due to the systematic weeding of “inactive members,” who have not used the library in years. According to the parish librarian, “adults are not using the library as they ought.” Another librarian echoed her comment, bemoaning the fact that the community does not “appreciate” its branch library.4 The focus of library service for adults in Jamaica has been squarely on leisure reading. According to Thomas Augst, this ideology of literate selfimprovement has always characterized public librarianship in North America. As in Augst’s analysis, the ideology of leisure reading in Jamaica

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intersects with the enterprise of imagining a national community and presupposes a lifestyle with sufficient time and energy for an effortful pastime like reading. The leisure model of reading derives from an economics of cultural capital under which those who have read more (or better) books occupy more legitimate positions in the social world.5 To acknowledge this phenomenon is not to contest the benefits of lifelong reading. In addition to its cognitive, emotional, and ethical effects, reading books cultivates a familiarity with the language patterns of the social elite—a cultivation especially useful for those whose native version of English is not that of the social elite. From the perspective of some of the library staff, the paperback collections, largely composed of mass-market genre fiction, are deficient in “culture,” a property more in abundance in the nonfiction and in the hardcover fiction books. One librarian labeled the paperbacks “not what we would call literary,” and she associated their reading with the watching of soap operas. Such perceptions are nurtured by an educational system that focuses on the literary classics of the British canon.6 Librarians and users alike acknowledge that the economy of reading taste in each community is based in large part on oral communication: “It’s a word-of-mouth thing…they [the readers] don’t really think about the author.” One person will read a book and then recommend it to an acquaintance, who will then request it from the library. Librarians play an important role in this, often called on by users to choose “a nice book” or a “new book” for them. And although some did express their preference in generic terms—“I like things with adventure” or “ghost stories”—other users articulated the thought process behind their choices. One woman said “I like to read about families,” and another told us that in the romance novels she reads she finds points of reference from her own experience: “When I take a look around my community I see at lot of the same thing.” An elderly man who reads the adventure narratives explained that for him reading is not for fun: “It is an exercise for your mind.” While interviewing adults at bookmobile stops, we saw many whose selection was not limited to the paperback genre fiction. For instance, one person had a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as a book titled Jamaica, It’s Nice. In reference to the latter, she lamented that the bookmobile was not stocked with “more books about reality…that tell you about Jamaica, what’s going on in Jamaica, like this one here, it tells about Ocho Rios, Montego Bay…” We might speculate that the often remarked lack of interest in the libraries’ nonfiction offerings has to do with the perceived irrelevance of these materials to the community. That is, most of them speak no more to the reality of Jamaican life than do the vivid narratives of mass-market fiction. As one branch librarian put it, “For every 20 books I get, only one will be about Jamaica…Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, the British Royal Family—hello, I’m living in Jamaica!” Moreover, nonfiction prose requires, in general, a greater proficiency of the reader than does fiction, especially fiction of the generic kind.

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One young woman at a bookmobile stop, when asked what else she would like to see in the collection, replied, “medical books.” Other topics that seem to bring adults to the library include sports, religion, “arts and crafts,” and recipes. In Hopewell, teachers reportedly use the library to research childhood education and child psychology. And most branch libraries seem to have, at least, a few regular users who come daily to read The Jamaica Gleaner, some of which are not registered members of the library simply because they have never wanted to borrow books. Such a “regular” frequents the Pondside library in the mornings, perusing the newspapers and chatting about current events with the library staff and with acquaintances passing outside on the street. In the library at Jericho, we met a pair of young women who visit the library during the quiet hours of the afternoon “to find out what’s happening,” who spread out The Jamaica Gleaner between them to have a “discussion.” In the words of one librarian, “People don’t come to the library just to study. Some come because they don’t have any place else to go.” In these aspects of its service, the library is providing space or occasion for the bonds that constitute community. As with the students, this represents an important social dimension of adult reading, as does the socialization at bookmobile stops. After the parish library, the best-used service point in Hanover (by report of the parish librarian) is the bookmobile. The air-conditioned van carrying its selection of materials visits each community on its route twice per month, stopping both at schools and in residential areas. As we observed, at certain stops it draws a crowd of adults, some of whom are not there to borrow books but to socialize with the others and with the driver. However, like the young man along the route of the bookmobile who is accustomed to seeing it pass by every month but did not know that the books are available for free, awareness may be a problem. A taxi-man in Jericho, who described himself as a reader of “all kinds of books,” concluded that many people in his community are unaware of what “interesting books” the library contains. Similarly, the recurrent belief that the library is exclusively for education (and those currently enrolled in educational courses) seems to deter many. A young man who described himself as an avid reader, with a penchant for adventure stories—thanks to parents who during his childhood made him “read a book a week”—said that he uses the library mainly because he plans to continue his education, implying that he may not associate library use with reading per se. An elderly gentleman, who played an active role in securing a new library facility in Jericho, explained that he does not use the library because he already knows how to read. Literacy, moreover, is for him associated primarily with issues of social power: “You in the university, you couldn’t write something to fool me, because me already know how to read.” He suggested that the library ought to offer more entertainment: “Entertainment goes a long way. If you can establish something to entertain them, that would attract them more…but it’s just a trick: Entertainment is entertainment, and

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work time is for work.” Following this suggestion, if reading, especially for those whose literacy skills are less developed or who cannot find materials that interest them, counts as work, then the very concept of leisure reading— at least as something pursued in the privacy of quiet study—becomes problematic. In Jericho, an elderly woman spoke of her need for large-print books. And a young Rastafarian man who was studying a volume of an encyclopedia to prepare for a workshop on environmental issues told us: I use the library to get out of the street sometimes…I have my own books, because I study Black Arts…I do a little on theology, Rastafarianism. After three, when school is dismissed, you cannot use the library…sometimes you need to get out of the library. He purchases most of the books he reads from stores in the city of Montego Bay, although he did have two books he had borrowed from the branch library, one a sociological text. But the library does not have most of the books he wants, on “opinions…ideologies…there is nobody around here that could give you a book on [Marcus] Garvey…I asked in the library, she said there is no such book around here.” This last shows that there are more than just issues of awareness and connecting with the community; there is the plain fact that most libraries do not possess the materials to serve their users. The staff on the bookmobile spoke of a high volume of complaints from users concerning the shortages in the collection: Users “have to read the same books over and over.” One branch librarian pointed out that, because a large portion of the collection is designated noncirculating (including many works of literature), some users who must wait until after work, have no access to the books they need, because of limited opening hours of the branch—unless they visit the parish library on the weekend. According to this librarian, “if adults come in for a book and the library doesn’t have it, they’ll say, ‘The library don’t have no books,’ and they won’t come back.” Observing what the different communities require of their libraries illustrates the discrepancy between what the libraries can (and are willing) to offer, vs. what people need from their community library. The ways in which staff members at rural branch libraries navigate these challenges and provide service to the community are testament to their resourcefulness.

RESOURCES AND THE RURAL BRANCH LIBRARY: HOPE FOR USING PAST COLLECTED KNOWLEDGE What stands opposite to institutionally based information, and what the growth of information technology always threatens to suppress, is precisely that local knowledge or forms of wisdom, transmitted orally and grounded in

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practice. Such knowledge may, in many cases, exist below the level of conscious articulation, adhering as they do in a way of doing things—for instance, in a way of maneuvering around the official rules in a particular situation. This kind of knowledge will be crucial to the effort to build a truly community-based library that would account for these local ways of doing things and actually work toward the goal of fulfilling needs for particular communities. Although every branch library offers examples of this valuable local knowledge, one that stood out as a particularly strong example was the Chester Castle branch. In Chester Castle, the walls of the tiny one-room branch are hung with posters on safe sex, breast cancer, and HIV/AIDS. The librarian had requested a larger bulletin board, to facilitate the displays she puts together: “People see something they don’t know about, and then they ask for the book. We have books on those things here, but people don’t know to ask for them.” As at other branches, where the librarians work with the local ParentTeachers Association (PTA) and youth groups, the librarian in Chester Castle runs one such group on Saturdays. The Chester Castle librarian spoke of what she felt was her responsibility to the community to maintain a certain quality of service, in spite of poor facilities and almost nonexistent resources. As we spoke with her, two of the children that she supervises as they use the library every day after school, sat playing board games. The Chester Castle branch is in a community with such members as a retired teacher who has been very active in a local committee that seeks to raise funds for a community center. The center would fill a need in the community for adequate space for various activities, such as public concerts. At present, such events have to be staged in one of the local schools, as there is no accommodation in the one-room branch library. The center would also serve as a gathering place for all ages, and a space to offer classes on job skills, literacy, arts and crafts, etc. Unfortunately, the committee disbanded due to waning interest among some of the members and a situation our respondent would not elaborate on. But she affirmed her determination to seek support via another outlet—the local churches. But as the efforts of the residents of Chester Castle, on behalf of a new community center attest, popular support can be critical to the survival of a public service. Traditionally, the largest buildings in these towns, outside of private homes, are the churches and schools. Since these towns have very small businesses—with the primary ones being “shops” or convenience stores, generally abutting the roadway in front of someone’s house—it is difficult to find an adequate space to rent, even one with the most basic facilities. The accommodations in this structure are small and the ventilation and lighting are poor, which becomes more evident when it rains and or if there is a power outage due to a thunderstorm and the metal louver windows have to be closed. Unlike Pondside and Askenish, Chester Castle has telephone

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service, but like them, the branch library has no computers, because of space limitations and inadequate security. There exists tension between the centralized library administration and the rural library service as a resourceful community center. One of the rural branch librarians told us that she had once devised a community message board in the library, which included employment advertisements, as well as other, classified postings, clipped from the local newspaper. She was instructed to remove the items, the sentiment being that the library was not an employment office. Yet, in rural areas, the library is perhaps the only place (outside of the church) where people can go to find out about events and other information not available through their customary sources, such as word-of-mouth—a traditional and valued way to transmit information. Ferguson remarked that rural libraries ought to compensate for the unavailability of a variety of information sources traditionally present in urban communities (such as government offices), by serving as a multifaceted information source for the local community residents (92).

CONCLUSION The rural branch library in Jamaica plays the role of both a source of information and a social institution. But it must surmount the tension and dysfunction that derive from a North American (or perhaps British) ideal of library service, oriented toward literacy and canonical reading, and the strong oral nature of Jamaican local culture. From our observations in these communities, what adults seem to enjoy most about the library is the opportunity for social interaction, often but not exclusively centered on texts. Meeting neighbors and acquaintances at bookmobile stops and using the library as a gathering spot is just as important a function of the library as providing text-based information. We believe that rural libraries would benefit from each other were they to share ideas and best practices on how to respond to their patrons’ needs. But for this to happen, there would first need to be autonomy in the JLS management at the regional and parish levels, which would ultimately give branches the freedom, along with the requisite resources and support, to develop programs and collections that reflect the needs and characteristics of their unique communities. Although we saw the difficulties and challenges libraries and librarians in Jamaica face, we found ourselves heartened by the hardy roots of devotion and hope in these resource-limited communities. By the endurance of a branch librarian who puts up with low wages and a leaky building scarcely bigger than a bus-stop shelter, and who remains optimistic and uses her own personal funds for supplies, because she knows that the children in the community depend on the presence of the library. Also by the overtime efforts of some staff to help those students who fall behind in school, and by the initiative of others in organizing public forums to address public problems. And by the efforts of nonlibrarians such as the elderly man who helped save

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Jericho’s library, and the retired teacher who persists undeterred in her quest to build a community center. This anecdotal constellation of glimpses into private efforts and personal struggles illuminates, we believe, the value of community-determined public service. The library, as a nonregulatory agency, is well positioned to serve as a channel between the government and the local needs of its citizens, and to adapt itself, as far as its resources will allow, to those local needs. But we also believe that fulfillment of this role will entail changes in the conception of library service, on the part of its practitioners. In short, only some of its users will be readers, and only part of the information it purveys will come in books. Greater community involvement in the workings of each branch is probably the best way to discover what ought to make up the balance—and to give the intended users a more salient sense of ownership. As information worldwide becomes ever more proprietary, concentrated in the hands of the few, the mission of libraries to make that information as public as possible becomes more and more important.

ENDNOTES 1.

The other is the Schools Library Network. Both networks are further subdivided into six regions across the island. Each region has as its head a professional librarian who is the regional director, and responsible for the oversight of the parish libraries and their branch libraries within that region.

2.

IFLA/FAIFE World Report: Libraries and Intellectual Freedom, Dr. Elaine Wallace, then director of the information unit in the office of the prime minister.

3.

Staff within the JLS consists of more paraprofessionals than professional librarians. The majority of librarians have an undergraduate degree, a number of them in library studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI). Those in the profession for several years received their professional training as fellows or associates of the British Library Association, pre-1972 (which was the year that UWI introduced a Department of Library and Information Studies). Currently, the JLS’s policies do not include incentives for staff members to remain with the organization, or to further their studies in the field of librarianship; for their professional growth, senior librarians are encouraged to attend seminars and workshops sponsored by the JLS. Nor is there a drive to recruit staff from without (budget constraints aside). Yet this concern and hesitation is at odds with the stated need to raise the professional status of the members of the JLS, a top priority according to senior administrators. One administrator even mentioned the persistence within the service of an anachronistic culture of volunteerism, the vestige of traditional gender roles. This lingering culture may have detrimental effects on the ability of the members of the JLS to negotiate with both the government and the community.

4.

Hopewell, the largest branch in Hanover, reported that on the average 10 adults visit the library each day, mostly to use the lending section; one of the smallest branches has a total of nine regular adult users who come to the library to borrow books, while about 30 now and then send someone to pick up books for them, which the librarian selects.

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5.

For a thorough treatment of this idea, see John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

6.

Preferences for paperback genres are generally for “adventure” narratives, such as Westerns and spy novels, for romance novels, and for mysteries and “horror stories.”

WORKS CITED Augst, T. “American Libraries and Agencies of Culture.” American Studies 42.3 (2001). 5–22. Ferguson, Stephney. “Appropriate Librarianship for Rural Communities.” Rural Libraries and Community Resource Centres: Proc. of the COMLA Workshop Australia 1988. Malta 1990. Eds. Roy Sanders and James Henru. The International Association of Rural and Isolated Libraries for the Commonwealth Library Association. Wagga: Wagga, 1990. 90–94. Jamaica Library Service. Annual Report, 2002–2003. Jamaica Library Service. 2003. 7 July 2006. www.jamlib.org.jm/aboutus_frame.htm.

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Experiences in Developing Customised Information Services for a Competitive Agricultural Sector: The Case of the Caribbean Question and Answer Service (QAS) Claudette de Freitas Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Trinidad and Tobago ABSTRACT The Caribbean region has been facing many challenges in achieving development objectives, particularly with the relative decline of the agricultural sector. A new policy framework, called the Jagdeo Initiative, has been designed to ensure that the region can achieve a resurgence of its agricultural potential. Access to relevant, timely information in the right format to suit target audiences has always been important. However, with the advent of the information technology revolution, information is now viewed as a critical element in the development process. This chapter outlines the experience of a Caribbean research and development organisation working in collaboration with an international technical support agency to implement the devolution of a customised information service known as the Question and Answer Service (QAS). The chapter identifies challenges and lessons learnt, as well as points out the need for detailed evaluation of national QAS programmes. It recommends, among other suggestions, the focus on human resource development, linking information strategies to institutional information services, and, ultimately, to regional and strategic development programmes for effective implementation.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE CARIBBEAN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR The Caribbean agricultural sector has been experiencing unsteady growth rates since the mid-1990s as a result of loss of preferential markets, declining terms of trade, reduced productivity, and an aging farming population. In 157

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1996, the governments of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) defined a programme for transformation of the agricultural sector to international competitiveness. However, the results of this programme have been described as modest and the region is now seeking to “achieve a resurgence of the regional agricultural potential” through the Jagdeo Initiative. The Jagdeo Initiative is named after the president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, who is the head of government within the CARICOM, assigned to lead the agricultural sector. He recognized that the challenges facing the sector demanded an urgent response. It was necessary to provide support for economic, social, and environmental sustainability, stimulate innovation, and contribute to a climate that facilitates investment, while achieving an acceptable level of food security. Jagdeo identified several key binding constraints to be addressed to reduce the impact of natural disasters, pay greater attention to the management of the fragile and limited natural resources, and engage a range of stakeholders via consultation. The resulting policy framework outlined by President Jagdeo compliments the existing programme for transformation of the agricultural sector. Thus, it is anticipated that, by 2015, the Caribbean agricultural and rural development sector should have made significant contributions towards national and regional development, within the framework of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have both noted the need to invest more resources in the agriculture and rural sector since these resources have an important role to play in poverty alleviation and sustainable development. In the Caribbean region, therefore, the effective implementation of the Jagdeo Initiative is of critical importance to the region’s economic and social development.

RESEARCH, INFORMATION, AND DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF CARDI AND CTA The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is a regional organisation with a mandate from the CARICOM to assist the transformation of agriculture to a higher level of global competitiveness, through its support for research and development. A major part of its activities involves collecting data and information about new agricultural technologies through desk and field research, analysing, adapting, validating, and integrating this information into new knowledge, for transfer to the wider agricultural community. CARDI has adopted a strategy that favours an overall industry development focus for priority commodities, moving from “the farm to the fork.” CARDI has been a victim of the general trend of diminishing resources for research and development institutions within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Notwithstanding, the institute has continued to make some impact through a number of partnership arrangements with local,

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regional, and international agencies and institutions. One such partnership has been that with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), a relationship facilitating better access to information and communications management capacity. CTA is a technical support agency established in 1983 under the then Lomé Convention between the African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP) and the European Union Member States. The Centre’s mission is now placed within the context of the successor arrangement of the Lomé Convention, the Cotonou Agreement, signed in June 2000. Although the agreements have changed, CTA’s objectives have been generally focused on improving the availability of and access to appropriate information, along with increased information and communication management capacity for ACP agricultural and rural development. The Caribbean member states within the ACP that can benefit from CTA funding are: Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; The Bahamas; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; and Suriname. With regional linkages in 12 countries of the English-speaking Caribbean, CARDI has been able to effectively work in partnership with the CTA as the Regional Branch Office for the Caribbean since 1987.

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE QUESTION AND ANSWER SERVICE (QAS) QAS, sometimes pronounced Q-A-S or Quas, is being discussed as a mechanism designed by the CTA, in 1985, to provide information and documentation to ACP partners on demand, in support of intensifying production, market development, policy support, and sustainable development. It began as an information and reference service, initially based at the CTA headquarters in the Netherlands. The QAS used resources of the CTA library, along with in-house expertise of staff that had access to databases from partner institutions. The QAS has been among one of the key services provided to a range of Caribbean stakeholders through the CTA/CARDI programme. An evaluation of the Question and Answer Service in 1997 led to a pilot exercise conducted at the University of the Orange Free State, South Africa. Based on the results of this study, the CTA developed a QAS model and strategy that favoured devolution and decentralisation of the service to appropriate sites in the ACP. The model was based on the formation of a regional node with supporting national nodes; the role of each node was to coordinate all the QAS activities in the region, or country as the case may be. An information centre within a relevant institution was usually identified to serve as the node and responded to questions, gave referrals, identified and involved other partners, while serving as a link with CTA. Following the success of the

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pilot project, the CTA expanded the devolution of the QAS to other ACP regions over a period of two to three years. According to the Oxford English Reference Dictionary,1 devolution is “the delegation of power…to local or regional administration; the passing on through a series of stages.” Devolution, therefore, meant that regional QASs, were to be organised taking into account local culture, information needs, and resources. CTA’s strategy included provision of funding and technical support to assist these countries to take charge of the management of a QAS for their respective, country, region, or community.

CARIBBEAN QAS STRATEGY A pilot QAS project was carried out in the Caribbean region between 1999 and 2001 under the aegis of the Caribbean Agricultural Information Service (CAIS). The QAS pilot was designed based on the results of a 1997 information needs survey, which indicated that more emphasis should be placed on delivering national services and increasing access and relevance to farmers, extension agents, and policymakers. Following the pilot exercise, a QAS strategy was devised and the devolution exercise took place in two phases: 2002/03 and 2004/05. It was recommended, among other things, that individual Caribbean countries should develop national level QASs and thus make information services more accessible and relevant to local target groups, such as: • Small and medium commercial farmers and enterprises • Subsistence farmers • Ministries of agriculture - Policymakers - Planners - Extension agents - Researchers/scientists • Other agricultural and rural development institutions • Librarians and information specialists • Networks and network members • Trainers and educators The services were aimed effectively at audiences within the context of each country, with the priorities expected to shift based on the local needs. The role of CARDI through CAIS was to coordinate and provide technical assistance for designing and implementing national QAS services and streamlining the regional service on a phased basis. The underlying strategy

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was aimed at increasing ownership and responsibility for developing and managing the local QAS/information services. Funding was sought and obtained from CTA to execute this project. The objectives of the QAS project were: • To improve the delivery of information on priority topics of relevance to target users in respective Caribbean countries • To identify and prepare Caribbean institutions to launch a QAS on a phased basis • To facilitate increased collaboration and networking among agricultural institutions in the Caribbean at the national and regional level to respond to information requests in a more timely manner • To develop and maintain electronic linkages with members of the local regional and international QAS community The QAS provided a range of services—from basic or standard library reference services to technical advice requiring expert responses. Clients had access to: • Referrals to other information centres or agencies with relevant data • Responses to simple reference queries • Literature searches • Document delivery • Selective dissemination of information • Complex research and responses • Technical advice • Expert intervention • Repackaging of information • Preparation or commissioning of fact sheets and technical bulletins CARDI functioned as a regional node with local representatives performing the role of national node. CTA provided funds for training of staff, purchase of selected books and journals, and some infrastructure, such a computer and/or shelving. The QAS centre was responsible for office space, basic information centre infrastructure, and system, staffing, and operational expenses. The QAS in the Caribbean relied on the use of a multidisciplinary team of professional and technical staff—information specialists, researchers and

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scientists, extension agents, communication specialists, and agricultural subject matter specialists linked to a team of regional and international partners. Efforts were also made to align the QAS to priorities identified in the respective countries or region so that it became more relevant.

ELEMENTS OF THE QAS DEVOLUTION The CTA commissioned the design of a training course in the “Management of a QAS” to support the devolution process. To date, 30 persons from 13 Caribbean countries were trained in two training courses held in 2001 and 2003, respectively. CARDI functioned as the overall coordinator of the devolution of the QAS project, while at the same time streamlining the CARDI Information Centre. Once training was completed, CARDI worked with the representative of the respective agency to develop an appropriate QAS Devolution project and provided technical assistance to implement the project with CTA funding. A virtual network was designed in 2001 to facilitate easier communication and exchange of information and experiences in the region. However, after a flurry of activity over a short period, the discussions were not sustained. By 2002, QAS centres were established in three countries—CARDI Headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and St. Lucia—while one country (Commonwealth of Dominica) came into the programme with an existing documentation centre seeking to increase capacity. Three other countries—St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts/Nevis, and Barbados— also initiated the QAS devolution at that time. At the end of 2004, six QAS centres in addition to the CARDI Information Centre, were operational in the region. In 2005, efforts continued to consolidate the existing centres but also to establish two new centres in Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago, while developing local QAS networks and services. Some of the projects were not sustainable as a result of resource limitations at the country level. However, there was also insufficient capacity to pursue requests from other countries for development of CAIS/QAS networks, as a result of the significant reduction in human resources and capacity, within the CARDI Information and Communications Department. Over the period 2002–2003 and 2004–2005, the Caribbean QAS provided responses to 1,854 and 1,494 requests for information, respectively. In addition, the project completed selected activities including: information needs assessment; design of templates for data collection and analysis; preparation of manuals, technical bulletins, and newsletters; database development; network development; and training needs assessment and training courses.

MODELS FOR DELIVERY OF QAS IN THE CARIBBEAN As the devolution process continued different models for delivery of national QAS services evolved. The St. Vincent QAS centre established a

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documentation centre within the Information and Communication Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture. This centre maintained linkages to the Agricultural Extension Division and supported delivery of QAS through use of traditional approaches, while expanding the service by linking it to radio and television programmes. More recent innovations include direct linkages with local farmers’ networks and groups. Barbados implemented a more traditional QAS centre that housed a valuable collection of information resources, with linkages to the ministry’s Web site along with an emerging informal network of local information providers. Jamaica presented a model of a country with a relatively active network of agricultural information professionals—the Jamaica Agricultural Documentation and Information Network (JADIN) that was used to provide QAS services via the online service known as ASK—Agricultural Services for Knowledge. Users also accessed the services through fax, e-mail, telephone, regular mail, and as walk-in clients. The QAS in St. Kitts/Nevis targeted mainly farmers and was linked to the development and provision of information via local radio, television, and video programmes made in response to needs identified by farmers’ cooperatives in Nevis. A local nongovernmental organisation in Antigua and Barbuda developed a service to provide information to a network of local agribusiness entrepreneurs, as well as existing and former students of its training facility and model farm. The St. Lucia QAS was initially supported by a network of private sector and public sector groups coordinated by the Information Services Unit, in collaboration with the Extension Services Division, both of the Ministry of Agriculture. Questions received at any one of the focal points were answered by the most appropriate resource in the group. However, the network has not been sustained for a number of reasons although the services are still being offered despite challenges faced by the Ministry of Agriculture. These models provide a variety of mechanisms that may be used for effective delivery of information to a wide audience.

PROFILE OF QAS USERS The profile of users varied across the region. Although not a target group, students have been among the major client groups, representing an average of 41.2 percent of users. Researchers and scientists are also among the key users of the QAS, recording the next highest category of 21.9 percent of users. Utilisation of the QAS among farmers varies but averages 8.4 percent with a range of 2 percent to 9.4 percent. Extension officers and policymakers comprise 11.2 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively. Trainers and educators, consultants, processors, subsistence farmers/homemakers, and other information providers, make up the remaining 13.5 percent. The QAS was

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mainly used by males in the past, but there has been a gradual increase in the percentage of female users of the service over the period under discussion. The major use of information requested was for research purposes (21 percent) closely followed by crop production and general agricultural production (20 percent). Community development, education and policy development were also recorded as important uses, with levels of 8.2 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively. An analysis of the topics sought by users include at least 70 subject categories, with questions on crop and vegetable production, pest and disease management, and general practices in agricultural and food production, being among the largest requests. While a customised service is good for individual users, each QAS node must analyse its effectiveness in light of the cost, information resources available, audiences served, and the potential impact of these groups on the agricultural sector programme. The QAS is provided “on demand”; therefore, should it be assumed that if no questions are asked there is no need for information? Should the programme continue to provide information on demand to a majority of students and researchers, while farmers, policymakers, and extension agents make limited demands on the service? These are some questions that may need to be addressed in future studies.

PROMOTION OF THE QAS Although it has been well-known that CARDI offers information services, the term QAS is not familiar to most of the target audience in the Caribbean, since it had not been promoted, prior to the devolution exercise. Even after devolution of the service, active promotion of the QAS was muted since in a number of cases the services were struggling to respond to the existing clientele in the face of limited resources. Promotional activities undertaken have included the use of brochures, bookmarks, calendars, and mounting exhibitions at agricultural displays, shows, and conferences. Radio and television programmes, as well as newspaper advertisements and press releases, have also proved effective. Staff members who interact with the farming community and informal networks have also been used successfully, along with sensitisation seminars designed to encourage participation of potential partners. In the context of the QAS, however, promotion would need to be used more strategically with the aim of shifting the services to the priority target audience, obtaining policy support for the programme within potential QAS institutions and managing user expectations.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNT The process of implementing the devolution of the QAS has been a challenging but a great learning experience. The major constraints have been limited human resources and skills, poor information and communication

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systems, and infrastructure to manage the QAS, limited resources assigned to manage the day-to-day operations of the QAS, as well as insufficient policy support. It also proved difficult to reach a number of stakeholders such as farmers and producers, policymakers, and extension agents, which were identified as key target groups during the pilot exercise.

Human Resources and Skills Lack of human resources and limited human capacity in information management were among the major threats to the development and expansion of the QAS in the Caribbean region. Only three designated QAS focal points employed a trained information specialist or librarian as part of the QAS team, while three countries used the services of trained library technicians to provide the day-to-day support for the delivery of services. In other centres, the responsibility for the running of the QAS was sometimes left to clerical staff. Of the 30 persons trained through the CTA/CARDI course “Management of a QAS,” 10 persons or approximately one-third of the group had been trained in information management at the tertiary or professional level. Other trainees included scientists and researchers, extension officers, communication specialists, marketing specialists, or agriculture subject matter specialists. And even then, only five of the persons trained (16 percent of the group) continued to participate actively in QAS by the end of 2005. This training in QAS management proved very useful and permitted the coordinating team to set up QAS centres without the requisite in-house skills, in the short term. Over time, however, the system proved difficult to sustain even while employing several measures, such as use of short-term contract services, facilitation of short-term training attachments, providing training in selected information-management techniques, and collaboration with a national library or documentation centre. Thus, it is highly recommended that information services such as the QAS must be appropriately staffed with a team of trained information specialists at the level of each institution offering such services. User sensitisation and training also enhances the ability of an institution to implement information and communication projects effectively.

Limited Information Systems and Infrastructure It has been acknowledged that the Caribbean region enjoys relatively good access to ICTs. However, according to Marcelle, there appears to be “sluggish implementation of new technologies” (5). Henry also alludes to a culture of “information insensitivity,” where users sometimes fail to seek or use relevant information to support decision making. This may be one reason for the seeming lack of interest in developing information management policies, and the “need, but no demand” syndrome demonstrated in a CAIS pilot project,

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which set up telecentres for farmers. It is also likely, that as is the case with many developing countries, that the region has not yet internalised the critical link between information and development. Hence, access to information at the institutions offering QAS was often limited by the poor availability of information resources, including budgetary allocations for day-to-day operations and maintenance of basic equipment. The option to increase the use of ICTs to reach farmers and other users within the Caribbean must be balanced by the information needs and also the facilities and characteristics of the respective users and providers.

Networking and Linkages The range of information required to service target audiences appropriately means that a number of institutions must come together to supply the relevant information. To date, at least two national QAS services have managed to develop formal and informal networks of partners, and have both experienced varying levels of cooperation from the partners. Research as to why cooperative efforts have failed, coupled with significant investment in advocacy and sensitisation to assist in preparing for more structured information services may be required. However, it has been the experience of CAIS that each organisation is required to manage its information so that they are in a position to become an effective partner within a network or programme. The use of electronic or online networks of QAS providers, along with networks of commodity or thematic specialists and producers, to effectively share information and respond to queries in a timely manner should be explored further.

Policy Support The third regular meeting of the Alliance for Sustainable Development and the Rural Milieu in the Caribbean, a regional body that represented key public, private, and NGO groups, endorsed the strategic role of information as a critical element for increasing productivity in agriculture. However, the majority of countries have not yet designed or articulated a strategic information and communication programme for implementing their development programmes. The absence of an institutional information programme and policy framework makes it difficult to facilitate the delivery of information services, including the QAS. This was often demonstrated by work with various agencies where parties expressed great interest and enthusiasm about participating in the QAS devolution. All parties had not internalised the project and felt that activities to be undertaken were the responsibility of the donor or coordinating agency, rather than as a part of the individual organisation’s responsibility.

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CURRENT STATUS OF DEVOLUTION OF THE QAS IN THE CARIBBEAN At the end of 2005, of the 15 countries in the region, only four countries had a QAS or information service that had been institutionalised to a greater or lesser degree, including the establishment of two new information centres and the upgrade of two other centres. Progress was made to establish and consolidate QAS in three other services, while still yet another group of countries had been lost, as some countries had failed to establish a sustainable service. Yet other countries that have expressed an interest in developing and running a QAS have not demonstrated the capacity to effectively deliver information services as a result of a lack of the basic infrastructure, institutional capacity, and resources. The service at CARDI is currently being reviewed and upgraded following the significant reduction in human resources. The task of implementing the devolution has been an evolving process. Although there are some significant successes, the experience has demonstrated that a lot more effort will be required to fully establish and develop the use of the QAS as an effective information service within the region. The real cost of the service for various users should be analysed. As experiences from the partnership of libraries to set up information services for farmers in New York has demonstrated, a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional team involving the libraries and other key stakeholder groups must be a part of the strategy.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Since the global development of ICTs, information has the potential to become a resource in the development process. The Jagdeo Initiative highlighted the existence of weak and nonintegrated information and intelligence systems and services within the agricultural sector, as a constraint to the region’s capacity for development. Recommendations to overcome these constraints included the strengthening, consolidation, and linkage of national marketing intelligence and information systems, along with an evaluation of the role of other services. The QAS has the potential to develop into a regional-level information and intelligence service, providing information to priority stakeholders in support of expanding the capacity and improving competitiveness of the agricultural sector. CARDI’s experience demonstrates that QAS devolution is medium to long term in nature and requires significant investment in human resources, along with policy and information resources and infrastructural support. Sensitisation, advocacy, and promotion will be necessary, as well as identifying the major priority needs and defining the requisite services for national nodes and networks.

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A detailed evaluation of this Caribbean experience at a national level would identify specific constraints and potential solutions to these constraints in keeping with local resources and culture. Several models of the QAS that have been demonstrated provide options for delivery of services along with making full use of available technologies to suit a range of clientele. Indications are that the most critical need at this time is the development of human resources and capacity to manage information and communications—not only the specialists to manage such services, but also the users need to become more “information literate” so that they can be empowered to successfully participate in the development process. Ultimately, the use of any type of information service must be integrated into the strategy and programme of each organisation that agreed to offer the service. This is the only way in which the appropriate institutional systems and arrangements will be effective and facilitate the sustainability of such a service. The effective delivery of a QAS service at the regional level will also require the integration of resources and services across the wider institutional systems. As such, a detailed information and communication strategy should be prepared to support the implementation of the region’s strategy for agricultural and rural development. Editors’ Note: The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation or the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and can in no way be taken to reflect their official position.

ENDNOTES 1.

Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 2nd ed. Rev. (London: OUP, 2003).

WORKS CITED Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI). Final Report— Evaluation of the CTA/QAS Caribbean Pilot Experience. St. Augustine: CARDI, 2000. —-. Information and Communications Department. Selected MISSION Reports: Visits to QAS Centres in the Caribbean Region to Review QAS Activities Provide Technical Assistance and Make Presentations. St. Augustine: CARDI, 1999–2005. —-. Project Report. Devolution of CTA/CARDI Question and Answer Service (QAS). St. Augustine: CARDI, 2003. —-. Project Report. Devolution of CTA/CARDI Question and Answer Service (QAS). St. Augustine: CARDI, 2005. —-. Report on Regional Training Course: Management of Question and Answer Services. St. Augustine: CARDI, 2001. —-. Report on Regional Training Course: Management of Question and Answer Services. St. Augustine: CARDI, 2003. —-. Rural Universe Network (RUNetwork)—Draft Report. St. Augustine: CARDI, 2001. Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat. Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Growth and Development—Excerpts from a Proposal for Interventions to Alleviate the Key Binding Constraints to the Agricultural Sector in Caribbean

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Countries presented by His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo. Paper presented at Conference of Head of Government of the Caribbean Community. Paramaribo, Suriname. 16–17 Feb. 2005. Counterpart International. Caribbean Agriculture Will Rise Again Says Bajan Expert. 14 Feb. 2006. www.counterpart.org/dnn/default. de Freitas, Claudette. The Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Development of Competitiveness in the Agricultural Sector. Ts. St. Augustine: Institute of International Relations. St. Augustine: UWI, 2003. Hee Houng, Maritza. Proposal for a Pilot Network for Decision-Making for Sustainable Development: A Report for the “Information for Decision-making on Sustainable Development (IDSD) Project.” Organization of American States. Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment. Bridgetown: OAS, 2003. Henry, Ralph M. “The Information Imperative in the Development in the Commonwealth Caribbean.” Information Development 7.1 (1991): 32–38. Hodge, Bernadette and Rebekah Tanner. “Grassroots to Grass-fed: Libraries Partner with Local Organisations to Address the Information Needs of Farming Communities in Upstate New York.” The Reference Librarian 82 (2003): 107–124. Inter-American Development Bank. Strategy for Agricultural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington: IDB, 1999. 6 July 2006. www.iadb.org/topics/ subtopics.cfm?subtopicID=AGR&topicID=AG&language=English. Marcelle, Gillian. Integrating ICTs into Caribbean Development: Regional Initiatives and Strategies. Presentation at in “Diplomacy and Cyberspace Seminar” organised by UNEDSA and UNITAR, Oct. 20–24, 2003. Rome. 10 Sept. 2006. unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN013248.pdf. Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation. (CTA). Managing a Question and Answer Service (QAS), Lessons Learnt. Workshop proceedings, Accra, Ghana, 23–27 Apr. 2001. —-. Question and Answer Services. 2004. 6 July 2006. www.cta.int/about/qas.htm. World Bank Group. “Policy and the Competitiveness of Agriculture, Trade, Research and Development and Land Markets.” Beyond the City: The Rural Contribution to Development. Washington: The World Bank Group. 2005. 155–184. Zaragoza, José. The Future of the Caribbean Economy. Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). Ottawa: FOCAL, 2002. 10 Sept. 2006. www.focal.ca/pdf/ caribbean.pdf.

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The Impact of Modern Information Technology in the Caribbean: Exploring the Challenges for the Technical Services Division Gwyneth E. George University of Guyana, Guyana ABSTRACT Introduction of new information technology has impacted the delivery and dissemination of information significantly. There is the belief that automation has changed some functions of the Technical Services Division, and more importantly, that it is reducing the percentage of staff members assigned there. The literature reflects the hype regarding implications of the application of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the Technical Services Division—words like “modernizing,” “downsizing,” “reengineering,” “restructuring,” and “outsourcing” are frequently applied. This chapter will attempt to provide an empirical analysis of the types of traditional technology that were used in the Technical Services Division. This theoretical framework will then be used to provide a comparison with modern information technology that is now used to conceputalise new challenges for the Technical Services Division. Challenges related to training, adaptability, and applicability, among other issues, will be addressed. Using comparative case analysis between libraries in developed countries and those in developing countries (with specific emphasis on the University of Guyana (UG) Library), the chapter will examine the impact of technology and challenges posed for a developing country in this new Information Age. This examination is critical when one considers that it is the view of administrators that technology has solved most, if not all, of the problems related to the management of the Technical Services Division.

INTRODUCTION From the 1960s onwards, we have witnessed dramatic technological changes globally in almost every area of life. There is no doubt that the next 173

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few decades will witness even more dramatic changes in all spheres of economic, social, and cultural development. Dramatic changes resulted with the advent of personal computers, word processing to database creation, image technology including scanning and digitising techniques, and the even more exciting concept of the convergence of the traditional and modern technology to create cyber villages. Library services are normally discussed in terms of two broad functions— public and technical. Any operation that involves direct contact with the library patron is considered a public service; all other operations are technical services (Bloomberg and Evans 17). Although considered a very general definition, it helps one to group the activities of a library into two categories—those that are considered technical services activities and those that are considered public services activities. The aim of the Technical Services Division in libraries is to acquire and process materials in order to get them to the shelves in the public departments. Because of the nature of its activities, the Technical Services Division varies according to the size and type of library and comprises mixed levels of personnel. Bloomberg and Evans highlight an important point. In many libraries, technical services activities require the efforts of a large portion of library staff. Bloomberg and Evans posit that in some large libraries, more than 60 percent of the staff is assigned to the Technical Services Division (17). With the introduction of the new information technology and the impact it is making on the delivery and dissemination of information, there is the general assumption that automation has changed some of the functions of the Technical Services Division and, more importantly, that it is reducing the percentage of staff members who will be assigned to the Technical Services Division. The fact remains, however, that regardless of the type of library, the Technical Services Division consumes a large percentage of the library’s budget that is spent on resources. In return, management requires a certain level of work efficiency, and it is this aspect that is always being assessed and evaluated at that level. In terms of the general library, the areas that have benefited more from computer applications include the bookkeeping processes, materials ordering, cataloguing, serials control, circulation, bibliographic data retrieval, and some aspects of interlibrary loan work. With the advent of the modern ICTs, it was expected that most libraries would have taken advantage of this development, especially where they could be used to reduce the amount of staff time devoted to routine activities. In this context, the chapter will attempt to address the impact of the ICTs on the Technical Services Division and to explore the challenges in the light of this concept. The developed countries have made leaps and bounds in dealing with the new technology and have been the pacesetter in this regard.

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On the other hand, the developing countries possess national differences that vary from territory to territory, but generally their economies are characterised by a shortage of local entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Their economies are also highly dependent on the developed world not only for trade and foreign exchange, but for the new information technology. While the developing world is taking advantage of the technology in a variety of ways to decrease the gap between the “information rich” and the “information poor,” the level of application of the ICTs varies from country to country. The paper takes cognizance of the variation in the level of application of the technology in the developing world when addressing the specific challenges for the Technical Services Division.

LITERATURE REVIEW The literature reflects the hype regarding the implications of the application of modern ICTs to the Technical Services Division. Gorman notes that “terrible things are happening to catalogues and cataloguing with implications for service to library users and the future of libraries.” He points out that reports of the gutting and closing of catalogue departments are legion. Words like “modernizing,” “restructuring,” “downsizing,” “reengineering,” and “outsourcing” are being used by philosophic administrators as smoke screens for the destruction of one of the pillars of library service (32). The literature also notes the “deprofessionalising” of the catalogue department—the reduction or the elimination of the number of professionals who catalogue. The concept of “outsourcing”—that is, the turning over of the responsibility for cataloguing current acquisitions to commercial firms— is also highlighted in much of the literature. All these paradigm shifts are rooted in the belief that the cataloguing department is full of expensive and unproductive obsessive people who do not make a major contribution to the value of the library (Gorman 33). On the other hand, some writers feel that the economics of our universities and public institutions are changing drastically. The way people gain access to information is also changing radically. The traditional technical services departments do not recognise these two important facts. Therefore, whether we like it or not, our catalogue departments must be evaluated against these two pivotal features of our environment. The decision to “reengineer” the Technical Services Division is a reaction to the changing information needs of library patrons. It is a reaction to the stagnant administration of catalogue and technical services departments, and even more important to the rigid professional standards that no longer meet the needs of our patrons (Waite 36). There is the feeling that the traditional departments have three features that are not consistent with the new information environment. First, they are expensive. Second, the nature of the handling of the traditional functions

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makes them slow, and third, because of this, they are not responsive to the information needs of patrons. These features result in the most recent publications not being catalogued, but left lying on shelves. The literature also highlights the belief that developing the intuitive skills needed to extract information from library systems is more important than the knowledge needed to organise library catalogues and print collections. Although there is some division, and even animosity, among practising professionals on the impact of the ICTs on the Technical Services Division and the implications for service, there is a clear acceptance that the technology has changed some of the functions of the Technical Services Department, and will continue to do so in the near future. Consequently, there is the need to put the full force behind the human and electronic sources available to ensure that patrons get the information they need. This writer notes that the term “Technical Services Division” seems to have vanished from the literature in the 1990s. This may be as a result of the general feeling that with the new technology, libraries should no longer be assessed in terms of technical and public functions since the artificial boundaries between these two departments should have collapsed. It is perhaps premised on the belief of getting information where it is needed and when it is needed.

OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNICAL SERVICES DIVISION The basic premise on which all libraries exist is the need to provide information to patrons, and this remains so even in the age of technology. This is so even for large libraries in which access to information is limited. However, the bedrock for the provision of this service is the work performed by the Technical Services Division. Although technology has changed the way some of the basic functions of the Technical Services Division are executed, the activities remain the same. The activities of the Technical Services Division revolve around three basic functions: 1. Purchasing library materials (primarily for collection development rather than office supplies or equipment) 2. Organising and processing materials so that patrons can easily access them 3. Maintaining the collection and the records (primarily the public catalogue and shelf list) In most libraries, these functions are performed by two major administrative units: acquisitions and cataloguing departments. In this respect, function (1) and some aspects of function (3) are performed by the acquisitions

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department, and functions (2) and (3) by the cataloguing departments (the functions of these two departments are more clearly outlined in Figures 13.1 and 13.2).

THE TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY AS APPLIED TO THE TECHNICAL SERVICES FUNCTION Traditionally, many of these functions in the Technical Services Division were performed by means of the telephone (including facsimile machine), the

Document Request Bibliographic Verification

Order Preparation

Allocation & Encumbrance of Funds

Library Control Records (Outstanding Order File)

Processing of Invoice

Adjustment of Fund Account

Purchase Orders for Vendor

Processing of Received Items

Forward Items for Cataloguing

Figure 13.1 Acquisitions functions: Summary of the activities undertaken in an acquisitions department (Source: Bloomberg, Marty and G. Edward Evans. Introduction to Technical Services for Library Technicians. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1981: 40)

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Receive material Search for Cataloguing Information

Manual search for Information

Order catalog cards from a vendor

Receive cards from vendor

Computer search for cataloguing information

Accept/modify information Produce catalog cards

Type master card and produce in-house card

Accept/modify information online

Order catalog cards online

Receive cards sorted/alphabetised Enter work in shelf list

Verify names series, subject headings for proper form

Make references for catalog as necessary

File cards in catalog

Figure 13.2 Cataloguing functions (Source: Bloomberg, Marty and G. Edward Evans. Introduction to Technical Services for Library Technicians. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1981: 42)

typewriter, and the Gestetner duplicating machine, and by the manual maintenance of records such as the card catalogue or large ledgers for record keeping. However, the use of this technology resulted in large backlogs in both the acquisitions and cataloguing departments, a large percentage of paperwork, a manual filing system prone to a high margin of error, and the inability to permit sharing of records across large geographical areas. If one takes, for example, the process of acquisition of materials, travel was difficult and expensive, which meant that an institution, especially those in a developing country, was confined to ordering via the mail. The physical movement of materials was also difficult as surface mails were slow, unreliable, and expensive. The principal technological developments that were thought to be relevant in this era were: 1. Faster, cheaper, and more legible facsimile transmission. 2. Microform storage, coupled with computer retrieval and facsimile transmission capacities. 3. Digital computer memory storage, coupled with computer-tocomputer digital transmission, with a translation capacity back to cathode-ray-tube display or printout (Carnovsky 13, 20).

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However, most of these techniques were characterised by high cost, and input of data was expensive, if manually done. The improvement in copying techniques, especially the use of electrostatic processes, particularly Xerography, helped to improve technical processes in the 1930s. In terms of communication, the use of telex made it possible for the dissemination of information to be speeded up. Telex assisted in linking libraries and was generally more effective than telephone or postal communication. If one takes the reproduction of catalogue cards, for instance, use of the traditional technology was time-consuming, costly (and in some cases, high levels of waste were experienced), and did not allow for standardisation. It was a purely clerical and mechanical function and the information on the catalogue card was difficult to assemble. In most libraries, as basic cataloguing information was required, it had to be produced on all cards. In addition to this, cards had to be produced in large quantities, varying according to the size of the library. Due to the cumbersome nature of the activity, it was sometimes difficult to provide access through all bibliographical avenues and the process resulted in a delay in getting materials to the shelves. Small libraries, for instance, purchased preprinted cards with or without call numbers and headings, and by means of the typewriter, manually tapered the cards to meet the needs of their institution. In some cases, reproduction was done by stencil duplication or by offset duplication.1 More sophisticated methods included the use of the automatic typewriter, electrostatic copying, and projection photocopying. However, the use of these technologies incurred high, sometimes prohibitive costs, consumed a lot of staff time, did not assist with standardisation, and did not always produce a highquality product. In the 1960s, it was also thought that the use of microforms could transform the work of the Technical Services Division, and solve the space problem. The microfiche was felt to be particularly suitable for segment duplication. As the period progressed, the trend was towards data processing or computerisation of technical processes. It was felt that it was more advantageous to mechanise technical functions rather than to undertake data processing for certain areas only. One example was an acquisition record on punched paper tape or magnetic tape, which could be used for all forms of record such as accession, book lists, or charging systems. This was such that once data had been recorded; it may be used many times again, whereas previously the same data had to be retyped. The development above was most marked in the production of catalogues. Cataloguing data was typed on to punch tape, which was then computer processed to form magnetic tapes, from which both a master card in duplicates and various forms were produced. The book catalogue became once more popular and accelerated joint ventures in the production of catalogues. One example was the initiative by the

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British Museum and the Library of Congress in publishing their catalogues by photographic means. In 1968, the British National Bibliography started to supply machine-readable catalogue records of current books on magnetic tapes to cooperating libraries (Benge 174–185). As the years progressed, libraries began to undertake both qualitative and quantitative assessments of their technical services processes, and to adopt new technologies in an attempt to make them more cost-effective and efficient. Improvements in computer technology in the late 1960s proved to be very suitable for most of the tasks executed by the Technical Services Division. The debate about cost of the technology and workload, especially when one compares the old technology and the new, is still not settled. What is clearly evident, however, is that the new technology, unlike the traditional technology now allows for the following to be done: 1. Large data sets to be compiled in less time 2. The sharing of data among libraries 3. The standardisation of data among libraries 4. Improved quality of the end-products produced 5. Significant reduction in the amount of paperwork required 6. More concentration on professional tasks, rather than the routine, technical functions 7. The cementing of the relationships among libraries in forging consortia and networks, where in the past, attempts at creating national or regional information systems were difficult

EXIT THE OLD—ENTER THE NEW

ICTs and the Total Technical Services Functions The application of the ICTs to the technical services activities should allow the functions as outlined in Figure 13.3 to be performed. Figure 13.3 also demonstrates how a collection of standard files can be maintained and updated for use by a variety of different functional areas. Library networks or consortia tend to provide many of these services to libraries either on a cooperative or fee basis. It is noted that on the whole, the new technology has been adopted to allow traditional tasks to continue to be performed. The new technology tends to absorb the routine nature of tasks, which should allow for the developing of the more challenging and meaningful aspects of the job. Dowlin suggests that libraries have applied automation to the wrong problems (124). But the trend is towards greater and greater use of automated systems for

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TECHNICAL SERVICES

COMMON DATABASE

181

BIBLIOGRAPHIC SUBSYSTEM

Ordering and receiving

MARC 1. Bibliographic file 2. Outstanding order file –

Cataloguing

includes standing orders 3. Invoice file

End Processing - Book cards - Labeling

Tapes (machine readable Bibliographic Information)

4. Claims and cancellations 5. Fund accounting 6. Gifts & Exchange file 7. Serials check-in file 8. Cataloguing file – library shelf-list 9. Vendor file

Figure 13.3 ICTs and the total technical services functions (Source: Bloomberg, Marty and G. Edward Evans. Introduction to Technical Services for Library Technicians. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1981: 48)

technical services activities. However, the questions that still need to be addressed include: Does it mean less work for staff members? Would it contribute to a reduction in staff members? Would it be less costly to libraries? One thing is clear—the technology may have created different problems for the developing countries.

THE IMPACT OF ICTS ON THE TECHNICAL SERVICES DIVISION

Developed Countries Many libraries, especially those in the developed countries, no longer do much of their technical services work. The literature on the application of ICTs to the Technical Services Division notes the decentralisation of technical services in so far as they consist of professional tasks, coupled with a centralisation of general services and the shift towards increasing use of nonprofessionals or paraprofessionals. Apart from economic conditions, this is being done in an attempt to abolish the division between technical and public services so that professionals are not defined by the aspect of professional work they practice, but by the area in which they exercise their skills across the whole range of professional librarianship (Marsterson 59). The organisational structures of many academic libraries are taking into account the fact that much of the technical services functions have elements

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that are considered routine functions, and that these can be harnessed by means of the modern information technology. In terms of acquisitions functions, therefore, this will leave the professional with the tasks of collection development and budget allocation, and in terms of cataloguing functions, this leaves the professional with the tasks of original cataloguing, classification, and subject description. All other routine matters can be delegated to nonprofessionals or paraprofessionals. Libraries in the developed countries have benefited tremendously from the use of modern ICTs in the Technical Services Division. Apart from the use of commercial turnkey or stand-alone systems to harness those repetitive technical services functions, these libraries have now moved towards streamlining acquisitions by automating selection and ordering procedures with the hope of creating a paperless environment for requesting and ordering materials. Programmes have been designed to allow users to select materials to be ordered from selection databases. The importance of this development lies in the fact that selection and ordering in libraries have remained highly paper-based, with much unnecessary labour and duplication of effort. Online cataloguing systems, consortia, and cooperative efforts have also made great strides in reducing the costs associated with cataloguing activities in libraries. However, the developed countries have a major advantage— easier and more equitable access to information technology puts them way ahead of the developing world in terms of application of the technology.

Developing Countries with Specific Reference to the English-Speaking Caribbean The use of ICTs in libraries and information centres in the Caribbean varies from country to country. There are several reasons for this variation, but the level of funding, the ability to attract funding, and the available skills account for this. There is also an awareness of the benefits of the ICTs and how these can be applied, and this is evident in the fact that the more developed countries in the Caribbean have made some progress in applying the available ICTs to some of their technical services functions. As early as 1983, Jefferson noted that automated technology is capitalintensive, and, therefore, more expensive in developing countries because interest rates are higher than in capital-abundant countries, and the equipment must also be imported. The life of capital is also shortened by obsolescence and the annual rise in the superiority of the latest model. The technology must also be paid for in “hard” currencies (4). In the 21st century, this situation has not changed dramatically. Jefferson also notes that the region also needs to keep its expertise up-to-date with the rapidly changing electronic environment of the developed countries. This is to enable them to determine obsolescence and that what is bought is best suited to their needs (Jefferson 8).

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It is generally accepted as noted by writers on the topic that Caribbean countries can only take advantage of the technology where they possess technological capability, that is, the ability to identify the most relevant technology for a particular purpose, to acquire it on the best possible terms, and to modify it to their specific circumstance. Unfortunately, the “brain drain” continues to wreak havoc on the region’s fragile technical skills. In terms of library education, the region is still assessing its curriculum in an attempt to produce more technical skills to complement library and professional skills. The situation is made more tenuous by the fact that because of low salary scales in some countries, libraries are unable to attract the relevant technical skills to manage its technological infrastructure. In the writer’s opinion, cooperative ventures were more successful at the print level. Because of the varying levels of the application of the new technology, the scope for collaboration and cooperation is sometimes severely limited. In some countries, and in particular Guyana, there is a dearth of professionals to accelerate the trend of the application of the technology. The inability to access funds from donor agencies and the low priority given to libraries in governments’ budgets also continue to be serious problems that affect the advancement in the use of the technology. According to Ferguson, “we must convince governments that improvement in access to information for Caribbean peoples is as important as improvements to roads, transportation and educational facilities” (Ferguson 11). Given the above, an assessment of the more developed countries in the region reveals that even though catalogues have been automated using commercial integrated systems, full advantage has not yet been taken of all the features. The libraries of The University of the West Indies (UWI) continue to be in the vanguard of this thrust. However, other libraries in the Caribbean region have not benefited from all of the features available in commercial integrated systems. For example, many libraries have not taken advantage of the ability to access large vendors’ databases and order online. These libraries have also not used many of the automated features that allow the verification of orders on file, thus avoiding duplication of purchases. The features of serials work make automation of its activities extremely difficult. Serials work (acquiring and processing of journals, newspapers) like acquisitions work, consists of a number of activities that tend to be repetitive. It requires a great deal of work related to the typing of orders, checking titles where in some instances these change, and typing claims, among others. Libraries are yet to make use of these systems to generate statistical reports. Generating statistical reports consumes a lot of staff time. While turnkey systems provide this feature, libraries in developing countries are yet to take full advantage of that feature. Plus, there is no real evidence that automation has reduced the level of staffing required or that organisational structures have taken cognizance of

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the change in roles that the technology can produce. On the other hand, staff members have now been reallocated to functions that remain manual. For instance, staff members are still required to edit bibliographic records to meet the needs of their institution, especially where the library is part of a consortia or network system.

Libraries in Guyana The UG Library has not yet taken full advantage of the application of the modern technology in all its various forms and uses. Use of the technology is still largely limited to accessing stores of information in databases. This involves use of the Internet to access electronic journals, catalogues, and other databases. The UG was the beneficiary of a loan package from the American Development Bank. Part of this sum was earmarked for the automation project for the library. The project was actually started but because of several difficulties, it had to be abandoned after a start had been made with the acquisitions and cataloguing database. The IME (Information Made Easy) Navigator, which was the commercial software used, has now undergone several modifications, but the vendor agreement did not allow the library to take advantage of these updates without additional cost. Automation of library activities has also been stymied by the prohibitive cost of the commercial software. In the absence of funding, the library is experimenting with the use of WINISIS (CDS-ISIS for windows), which is a software freely distributed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), for computerising special collections or sections of collections. However, even though the software has gone through several alterations, its use has been mostly confined to the creation of small databases of specific collections. As the software does not offer the facilities for an integrated database, it only offers the possibility of creating special databases and limited automation of specific functions. Therefore, the functions of the Technical Services Division in the UG Library still remain highly labour-intensive. The application of the technology is limited to the use of online catalogues via the Internet or databases on CD-ROMs. This has benefited the library in areas where copy cataloguing can be facilitated. Large backlogs have been created where there is need for original cataloguing. The acquisitions functions also remain largely paper-based. The library benefits from one aspect of the application of the technology to the functions of this department—it is now able to order items online. But while this activity has resulted in less time to place orders, it has not reduced the level of staffing required for ordering, as the activity still involves a lot of paperwork. Apart from the Internet, the department still does not benefit from access to

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large vendors’ databases to assist with selection and ordering, and therefore, there is still a reliance on hard copies of publishers’ catalogues. In Guyana, it is obvious that the technology is not being used on a wide scale in the Technical Services Division. The possible exception is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Documentation Centre, which has managed to computerise its collection by means of the CDS/ISIS software. This is because of better access to funding, the available expertise, and the size of its collection. There are several reasons for this slowness in applying the technology. Equipment and accessories costs continue to pose barriers to acquiring the technology. There is also the paucity of the requisite skills to manage the information technology. This has its roots in the “brain drain” or migration of librarians, and the inability to fund library education for staff members. The lack of adequate funding aside, this disadvantage militates against the library taking full advantage of the modern ICTs, even if the technological infrastructure was available. It is posited that the constraints faced by libraries in Guyana have militated against collaboration and resource sharing. As governments continue to place emphasis on other areas, libraries are forced to compete for funding from donor agencies.

THE CHALLENGES FOR THE TECHNICAL SERVICES DIVISION In summing up, there is clear evidence that the available ICTs have an impact on the functions of the Technical Services Division. What is evident though is that while the developed world has made leaps and bounds in the application of the technology, the developing countries still lag behind in making the most effective use of the technology. Many libraries in developing countries are not enjoying the full benefits of the available commercial systems. This is due either to the absence of the requisite technological infrastructure, the level of funding to acquire the necessary technology, or the available skills to manage the technology. Also, one must bear in mind that while the system changes the way activities are performed, cost-effectiveness has to be measured in terms of the initial cost of the system, the cost of maintenance of the system, and the rate of obsolescence of the technology. In the past years, library cooperatives and consortia have been responsible for organising networks to aid libraries in areas like automation, standardisation, and collection development. The developing world, in the main, has been left outside the mainstream of this development, or has had to forge partnerships with the developed world. The ever-increasing application of the technology to the Technical Services Division, while seen as beneficial to administrators, staff, and patrons, presents several organisational challenges. The technology is costly, and in terms of static or reduced budgets, the level of its application must be viewed against

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this cost. In order to evaluate its effectiveness, the challenges for the Technical Services Division are addressed in light of the foregoing discussion.

Cost This must be one of the primary considerations, especially given the rate of obsolescence of the technology. This consideration is also essential given the fact that budgets do not necessarily cater to the total cost of the technology. It must be considered whether the technology is being applied to the wrong function and its effectiveness must always be evaluated in the context of the traditional methods of executing a task. Small or large libraries must decide whether it is necessary for all manual functions to be automated.

New Competencies Limited opportunities for retraining prevent librarians from getting firsthand experience with regard to developments in the technology. This applies specifically to demand for generating new skills in all levels of staff. New skill sets will be required to incorporate the technology into the manual processes that already exist. Training and retraining must be built into all programmes where the technology is involved.

New Roles There is always the need to assess whether the technology has reduced the workload of the staff significantly. It is felt that the technology has blurred roles and responsibilities for staff. This will need to be assessed by each library in determining workload and level of staffing.

Appropriate Technology Libraries with limited finances must always bear in mind the appropriateness of the technology: How applicable is it to the particular task that has to be executed? How adaptable is it to the tasks required? How sustainable is the technology, taking into consideration maintenance costs and the rate of obsolescence?

COLLABORATIVE OPPORTUNITIES New collaborative efforts are emerging as a result of changes that potentially affect all stakeholders in the system. The technology must, therefore, offer a collaborative advantage as libraries will always have to compete with units for the same funding within limited budgets. The collaboration will have to be forged at the level of interdependence among units of the same institution, and at the national and regional level.

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Libraries in developing countries will have to come together to address hardware and software issues. As the technology continues to develop rapidly, the new capabilities they offer will define the direction in which libraries must go. Organisational cultures will be challenged to address the new cultures as they emerge. In spite of shrinking or static budgets, libraries will have to rise to these challenges.

ENDNOTES 1.

Offset duplication process was based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. The image to be printed is imposed on a thin sheet or plate of metal, plastic, or specially treated paper by one of several methods. This plate is affixed to a rotary cylinder on the duplicating machine where, in operation, it is brought into contact with two sets of rollers—one carrying a film of ink, which is oil-based, and the other carrying a film of solution, of which the primary component is water. By the action of one roller rubbing against the other, the ink image is transferred and then printed or “offset” to paper. A full discussion of catalogue card reproduction processes is found in American Library Association, Catalogue Card Reproduction (Chicago: ALA, 1965).

WORKS CITED American Library Association. Catalog Card Reproduction. Chicago: ALA, 1965. Applebaum, Edmund L. Reader in Technical Services. Washington: NCR/Microcard Edition, 1973. Benge, Ronald C. Libraries and Cultural Change. London: Clive Bingley, 1970. Bernhardt, Frances Simmons. Introduction to Library Technical Services. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1979. Bloomberg, Marty and G. Edward Evans. Introduction to Technical Services for Library Technicians. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1981. Carnovsky, Leon, ed. Library Networks: Promise and Performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. De Gennero, Richard. “Libraries, Technology and the Information Marketplace.” Library Journal (June 1982): 1045–1054. Dowlin, Kenneth E. The Electronic Library. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1984. Ferguson, Stephney. The Global Information Environment: How Are Caribbean Countries Coping? Paper delivered at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference, New Orleans, Jan. 1998. Unpublished, 1998. Freedman, Maurice J. “Processing for the People.” Library Journal (Jan. 1, 1976): 189–197. Gorman, Michael. “The Corruption of Cataloguing.” Library Journal (Sept. 15, 1995): 32–33. Halt, Glen. “Catalog Outsourcing: No Clear-cut Choice.” Library Journal (Sept. 15, 1995): 34. Jefferson, Albertina. Problems in the Application of Modern Information Technologies in the Caribbean. Paper presented at the 14th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Libraries. Unpublished, 1983. Marsterston, William. Information Technology and the Role of the Librarian. London: Croom Helm, 1986. Martin, Susan K. “The New Technologies and Library Networks.” Library Journal (June 15, 1984): 1194–1196.

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Miller, Jeannie P. Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Researchers in the Sciences. Binghamton, NY: Haworth, 2004. Tauber, Maurice F. and Associates. Technical Services in Libraries. New York: Colombia University Press, 1953. Waite, Ellen J. “Reinvent Cataloguers.” Library Journal (Nov. 1, 1995): 36–37.

CHAPTER 14

Internet Access Management in Jamaican Public Libraries: The Role of Policy Barbara A. Gordon The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica ABSTRACT Internet access policies guide librarians through a maze of moral, ethical, and legal challenges associated with access to the Internet, especially the Web. These policies also contribute to consistent management practice in the rapidly changing area of electronic services. This chapter outlines some of the factors related to access management policies and, based on findings from a 2006 survey, examines access services in Jamaican public libraries especially with regard to policy. Some relevant factors include not only the do’s and don’ts of acceptable use but service mission and objectives; staff training to provide the level of support and assistance needed; delivery of information literacy skills to prepare users for participation in the information society; and quality assurance and developmental targets to ensure a quality-driven service. Research results indicate the need for an assertive user-education programme throughout the public library system. In the context of Jamaica’s economic climate, the government’s commitment to extending e-governance, and the inadequacy of the current school library system to deliver the requisite information competencies, an effective public library access service can help to build social inclusion and deliver the information literacy skills needed by all citizens for participation in the information society.

INTRODUCTION The introduction of Internet access services in libraries has been accompanied by the development of access management policies aimed at guiding librarians through a maze of moral, ethical, and legal issues associated with access to the Web. Policies govern the way things run (Dempsey 6) and so support consistent library procedures and practice including Internet access 189

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management. The policy content can vary from basic instructions regarding the “do’s and don’ts” of network use to more formal documentation covering a range of factors affecting the quality of service. The professional literature offers good coverage of access management in the libraries of informationrich countries but there is less information regarding the experience of developing countries, certainly those in the English-speaking Caribbean. In Jamaica, libraries began offering Internet access in the mid- to late 1990s and the service is now available in all library sectors—public, school, academic, and special, and at the National Library of Jamaica. Access management policies have also been developed for supporting the service. The Jamaican government has stated its commitment to providing the technological infrastructure and education needed for participation in the global information society (Paulwell 4–6). Given Jamaica’s continuing financial constraints, however, its wide income disparities and poverty levels, the islandwide public library system is a critical player in the delivery of and training for effective use of electronic information services. The public library, therefore, has responsibility for developing a service that is both comprehensive in reach and quality-driven. Well-crafted access policies can contribute significantly to this goal. This chapter examines some of the factors related to access management policies in libraries. It also reports on and analyses findings from a 2006 survey of Jamaica’s public libraries concerning their management of Internet access services with emphasis on policy.

ACCESS MANAGEMENT POLICIES Organizational policies are the core principles and goals of an organization and can either be implicit, as in many small organizations, or explicit in the form of organizational manuals (Sturges 102–103). These policies state the organization’s commitment to a specific plan or course of action (Steuart and Moran 286) and provide guidance for routine responsibilities and for decision making (Plunkett and Attner 128). Policies, therefore, are important management tools for implementing organizational principles and goals and can be especially useful for service areas undergoing rapid change and which present challenging issues (Sturges 103). In the library context, Internet access would certainly qualify as one such area as, in addition to the pace of change, there are many issues associated with the service, which make it unlike other information services traditionally offered by the library (Shuman 68). There are moral issues concerning the nature of some of the information content available on the Web; there are ethical issues concerning the library’s conflicting roles as intellectual freedom advocate on behalf

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of users, yet responsible provider of public access services; and there are legal issues concerning the potential for civil or criminal liability for the library as access provider. An Internet access or public access policy can identify the parameters and objectives of the service for both staff and users. For staff, the policy sets out management guidelines for all areas of service delivery and, by the inclusion of quality assurance indicators and growth targets, facilitates the development of the service (Sturges 104–105). For users, the policy should leave them in no doubt about the nature of the service and the library’s expectations regarding its use. Policy contributes to the goal of “access with assurance,” a service characterized by equity of access, safety, quality, accountability, and adherence to the law (Sturges xiv, 107, 111).

FORM AND CONTENT OF ACCESS POLICY An explicit or formal access management policy can take the form of a detailed, step-by-step, manual-type document as well as a list of clear and concise instructions on the use of the service. The two are not mutually exclusive but complement each other. The first policy addresses library staff and relates to the library’s manual of policies and procedures as it provides the required support for administrative routines and development of the service, sometimes even including minutes/reports of meetings so as to provide a context for policy decisions (Sturges 102–103, 120). The second policy, widely referred to as the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), can be considered the public representation of the policy. It comprises the basic terms and conditions of use usually in the form of a list of brief, clearly stated rules that can be posted in the library and/or on the computer; included on a registration form to be signed by users, therefore representing a contractual-type agreement between library and user; or featured on promotional giveaways such as bookmarks. The access policy outlines what is expected of both provider and user of the service. For the provider, the content of the policy would, of course, vary according to library and clientele but should state the type of service being offered and the responsibilities of both parties. Mission statement and objectives provide a context and rationale for the service that help to explain the policy (Richey 18). Is the service primarily for supporting the research needs of users or is recreation—for example, games—or e-mail given equal consideration when allocating resources (Balas 36)? The policy should also be supportive of national information access policies and so can address service provision for special groups in the community, such as the physically handicapped, in order to strengthen equitable access for all (Sturges 108).

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To fulfill its function as an administrative reference tool, policy should detail staff responsibilities; levels of supervision and assistance to be provided; eligibility criteria such as whether users have to be registered members of the library or the need for parental permission for minors; procedures for registration and booking of terminals/signing a computer log; and handling user fees. Staff training and user education are critical support services that should also be included in policy. Staff members need to be equipped with the technical skills related to online searching, effective group presentation skills for information literacy training, and user-friendly customer care skills for a range of sensitive areas from monitoring what is being accessed to handling behavioural problems (Sturges 90–91). Free user education is one of the means by which the library implements its role as an electronic information centre that can make a significant contribution to social inclusion through the delivery of information literacy skills needed for the knowledge economy. The socially excluded often have no other choice for accessing electronic information and gaining the requisite competencies (Campbell 258, Bertot 79). The library’s traditional role as mediator between user and information resources has become even more important with the development of the Internet and of e-governance. Mediation operates at more than one level and involves not only provision of the technology for access but, critically, provision of the skills without which we remain locked out of the digital world. Technical skills are not synonymous with information skills and both are needed (Wallis 370, Hendry 334). Information literacy is not only a need of the socially excluded but also of the well-educated. As Town notes, information illiteracy is evident among tertiary level students who have “false confidence” in the Internet as a “complete information resource” (qtd. in Wallis 370). Provision of access supported by user education is a critical responsibility of the public library. An important component of the policy are the rules governing acceptable use such as prohibiting access to inappropriate information, committing fraudulent or illegal activities, and abuse of or damage to the library’s network as well as the sanctions for this behaviour (Richey 18). Standard methods used by libraries for content management include visual monitoring by staff, filtering or surveillance software, time limits for users, and restrictions on services such as chat, instant messaging, printing, or downloading (Willson and Oulton 197, Comer 10–12). The policy should identify the library’s approach as well as any special access requirements for minors such as written parental permission or restrictions on e-mail or chat rooms (Richey 20). Embedding quality assurance mechanisms within policies and services is one of the strategies used by libraries in response to an increasingly competitive

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information marketplace. Identifying minimum service requirements, such as the number and updatedness of hardware; hours of service availability; training of staff; number of users; and provision of user education establish criteria for evaluation and help to build and nurture a quality-driven service. Similarly, service development can also be integrated into policy by the inclusion of growth targets over specified time periods for critical inputs such as those identified above (Sturges 105). Finally, an access policy should be reviewed periodically as the pace of technological development and growth of the service can make it a “moving target” (Alita 48). The policy, therefore, should establish guidelines for frequency of the review process as well as its procedures.

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP) As noted earlier, the AUP targets end-users and captures the essential requirements they need to know in order to use the service, whether in the form of a list of rules or series of statements, such as whether or not access is filtered, age restrictions for unfiltered access, examples of appropriate/ inappropriate use, and sanctions for abusing the rules (Willson and Oulton 196–197). Some libraries take a user-friendly approach by including examples of appropriate use rather than the more negative one of listing the inappropriate only. The AUP may also have a disclaimer statement alerting users to the unregulated nature of the Internet and the need to be aware of nonauthoritative and inaccurate information, as well as a warning about inappropriate information as, even if filters are used, these are not foolproof (Richey 18). The visual appearance of the AUP is important and care should be taken regarding its design and length. The language used should be straightforward and easy to follow rather than the library’s organizational vocabulary, which can be a communication barrier for many users (Cavanagh 357). The objective of the service is access to information and policy aimed at an effective service should not itself become a stumbling block in achieving this goal.

THE POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS A team approach to policy development offers the advantage of differing perspectives. Staff members implement policy and, as they themselves have varying beliefs and attitudes concerning acceptable use, consensus may be difficult to achieve. Discussion of issues at staff meetings or training sessions provides an opportunity for feedback on problems and for contributing suggestions, which can build commitment to the policy (Sturges 110, 113, 118). Policies of other libraries are, of course, a useful source and there are many available on the Web.

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Regarding the AUP, tapping resources within the community encourages a vibrant working partnership and support for the library’s policies. Interest group representation should be carefully selected to avoid bias: local schools; parent/teacher associations; Church-affiliated groups; youth groups; other library colleagues; and professional associations if represented in the community (Alita 48). Legal and information technology expertise, if available, can be particularly helpful (Sturges 113). Consultation and feedback can be as time-consuming as the drafting of the original policy, but offer an excellent opportunity for face-to-face dialogue between the library and community stakeholders with the benefit of a policy that has the support of those it serves (Alita 49). A draft policy incorporating the relevant contributions can be circulated in-house for review by staff and to community stakeholders for comments although its content should remain the responsibility of the library. Training in the policy’s administrative routines helps to prepare staff for implementation (Sturges 113–114). Policy review, supported by documentation generated by the service such as statistics and records of disciplinary actions, is an integral part of the development process as it allows for guidelines to remain relevant to needs (Sturges 114–115). It also provides the opportunity to examine service inputs such as equipment and staffing, measure growth of the service against stated targets, and assess technological developments.

ACCESS MANAGEMENT IN JAMAICAN PUBLIC LIBRARIES The research findings reported in this article result from a survey of Jamaican public libraries carried out in February 2006 on Internet access management with emphasis on policy. The Jamaica Library Service (JLS), the country’s island-wide public library system, maintains 13 parish libraries, one in each of the island’s parishes excepting Kingston and St. Andrew, which share the services of the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library. These libraries are the main service points for information delivery in each parish and they supervise additional service points within their respective parishes. The 18-item questionnaire was e-mailed to all 13 parish libraries and 10 responded. It comprised three sections: use of the service; staff training and user education; and access management, mainly covering policy. In Section 1, responses related to the rules for accessing the service included: signing a computer log (6); payment of a user fee (2); registration as a library member (1); and one nonresponse. Only two libraries have tried the approach of targeting identified groups within the community: an e-mail

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service for senior citizens and a general access service for members of the Retired Teachers Association in the parish. JLS’s access provision should now be past the introductory stage of a basic “one size fits all” service model. These two examples of niche marketing are a positive development for expansion of the library’s service and building technology skills in the community. JLS is now overwhelmingly used by primary and secondary level students, and the library needs to reach out beyond what has become its customary clientele. For example, there is a growing market of adult learners following an explosion of educational opportunities that needs to be tapped by JLS. Because of high costs, these students are mainly part-timers and need library support for a longer period of time than full-time adult learners. The two services noted above are good attempts to extend library services in the community. It should also be noted that the two initiatives were not based on ageist assumptions about older adults that almost automatically slots them into a medical-type user profile needing only those library services such as for the homebound or physically impaired (Kendall 17). In Section 2, nine libraries provide in-house training for staff manning the access service. Additionally, three of those nine have taken advantage of training offered by the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA), while one has benefited from training provided by the JLS Headquarters Office. Table 14.1 shows the content of the training. Staff training focuses on the technical aspects of access but should also address potentially troublesome areas such as handling complaints, pointing out infractions to users, and imposing sanctions. Marshall outlines the value in staff training of role-playing for various access scenarios and use of an appropriate “language of interaction” by librarians in these situations (55).

Table 14.1 Content of Training for Staff

Table 14.1 Content of Training for Staff

Content

Libraries

Search skills

9

Evaluation of information

6

Instruction in rules of service

4

E-mail

1

Safe online behaviour

1

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Regarding user education, seven libraries offer training although one response noted that this was so basic that it was not “officially” so regarded. Training takes the form of one-on-one instruction on request (5) and group training at specified times (4), with two libraries offering both options. Table 14.2 shows the content of training for users.

Table14.2 14.2 Content of Training Training Users Table Content of forfor Users Content

Libraries

Searching skills

7

Evaluation of Web information

5

Useful sites selected by library

5

Respect for intellectual property

2

Safe online behaviour

2

All JLS libraries should be offering a user education programme given the disparities of access provision in the Jamaican environment. The content could be standardized to ensure that the key elements of information literacy are included across all libraries. Marcelle points out that investment in and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in many Caribbean countries is characterised by a digital divide that marginalizes rural communities and the urban poor among other groups in the society (1). Jamaica is expanding its e-governance but the country has an Internet penetration rate of 22 percent (Durrant 10) and an inadequate school library system for the delivery of information literacy training (Robinson 292). As Wallis says, technology is not neutral and does not automatically generate social good but reflects its social context (371). The failure of Jamaica’s Internet kiosk initiative is an excellent illustration. This was a joint 2001 agreement between the Postal Corporation of Jamaica and Cable & Wireless to install Internet kiosks in 60 post offices island-wide. Four years later, most of the kiosks no longer worked as they were destroyed by users. A Cable & Wireless representative blamed neglect and low usage for the failure (“Post Office” 3). Surely the investment would have had better results in the public library, especially if supported by an effective user education programme. For the third and final section of the questionnaire, control of content is managed mainly by visual monitoring, meaning positioning monitors for supervision whether from the staff desk or having staff members walk

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around the room to view the monitors in use. These two methods were selected eight and seven times, respectively. Two libraries used filters in addition to using both types of visual monitoring. Users in one of the libraries knew that access was filtered and could not request that they be turned off. Regarding policy, eight libraries have a formal policy in place; one does not and there was one nonresponse. Policy is, overwhelmingly, in the form of a list of rules for appropriate use of the service (9 and 1 nonresponse) with help for its development coming from in-house staff (6), JLS Headquarters (5), and professional colleagues at other libraries (3). Table 14.3 shows the content of the policies.

Table14.3 14.3 Content Table Content of of Policies Policies Policy Content

Libraries

Prohibited information (e.g., pornography)

9

Sanctions

9

Restrictions (e.g., printing/downloading)

6

Abuse of network

5

Prohibited Web services (e.g., chat rooms)

3

Copyright infringement

2

Safe online behaviour

1

An AUP is definitely the favoured form of policy. Although it can communicate usage rules very effectively and can serve as a kind of service agreement with users (Pors 310), it provides only limited administrative support for staff. There is considerable difference between a start-up service of two or three computers, which can be easily viewed from the staff desk, and an expanded service of 30 to 50 computers or more offering a mix of service models such as dedicated e-mail, a beginner’s service with assistance readily at hand, or a research service for adult learners. There is no indication that staff training, user education, quality assurance, or developmental targets form a part of access policy, which is not surprising as these elements are not usually covered in AUPs. Yet these are the factors that need to be addressed if public libraries are to take on the challenge of building a service that seeks to transform an expanded customer base into “more critical consumers of information” (Wallis 371).

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CONCLUSION Since 2001, JLS has focused on establishing the infrastructure for Internet provision. Eighty-six service points across the island now offer access, 80 percent at broadband level in order to meet user demands for speed and multimedia content (Jamaica Library Service 81). This has been achieved within the constraints of a harsh economic climate and can be considered the first stage of access provision. Hopefully, the next stage of development will encompass a comprehensive information literacy programme delivered free to the end-user by trained staff. This feature distinguishes the library’s access service from other information providers in the market and has the potential to increase its social impact. The continued under-development of school libraries, the need to provide access to the technology for all, especially with the increasing delivery of government information online, and the burgeoning community of adult learners are just some of the imperatives for undertaking a massive information literacy programme throughout the service. There are serious challenges of human, material, and financial resources but the responsibility unequivocally rests with the public library. Carefully developed and comprehensive access management policies as discussed here can make a major contribution to this effort.

WORKS CITED Alita, John. “Creating an Internet Policy by Civic Engagement.” American Libraries 32.11 (2001): 48–50. Balas, Janet L. “Managing Public Access Computers and the People Who Use Them.” Computers in Libraries 24.6 (2004): 35–37. Bertot, John Carlo, Charles A. McClure, and Paul T. Jaeger. “Public Libraries Struggle to Meet Internet Demand.” American Libraries 36.7 (2005): 78–79. Campbell, Brian. “We Need to Reach the Others.” Feliciter 51.6 (2005): 257–258. Cavanagh, Mary. “Sensemaking a Public Library’s Internet Policy Crisis.” Library Management 26.6/7 (2005): 351–360. Comer, Alberta Davis. “Studying Indiana Public Libraries’ Usage of Internet Filters.” Computers in Libraries 25.6 (2005): 10–15. Dempsey, Kathy. “Dealing with Policies.” Computers in Libraries 22.6 (2002): 6. Durrant, Fay. “Factors Which Have Impacted on Access to Information in the Caribbean from 1980 Onwards.” Inaugural Lecture, 17 Feb. 2005. Ts. Dept. of Library and Information Studies Library, The University of the West Indies. Hendry, J. D. “Social Inclusion and the Information Poor.” Library Review 49.7 (2000): 331–336. Jamaica Library Service. Draft Annual Report April 2004–March 2005. Ts. Dept. of Library and Information Studies Library, The University of the West Indies. Kendall, Margaret. “Public Library Services for Older Adults.” Library Review 45.1 (1996): 16–23. Marcelle, Gillian. “Making of Caribbean Information Society.” Trinidad Guardian 23 Feb. 2006. 28 Feb. 2006. www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2006-02-26/buss guardian16.html.

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Marshall, Jerilyn. “How We Wrote a Policy on Handling Complaints about Offensive Computer Displays.” Computers in Libraries 22.6 (2002): 13–14, 55–56. Paulwell, Phillip. “Jamaica. Plenary Statement for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).” 4th Plenary Meeting. Geneva, Switzerland. 12 Dec. 2003. www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/coverage/statements/jamaica/jm.pdf. Plunkett, Warren R. and Raymond F. Attner. Management 6th ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College, 1997. Pors, Niels Ole. “Misbehaviour in the Public Library: Internet Use, Filters and Difficult People.” New Library World 102.9 (2001): 309–313. “Post Office Internet Flops.” Star 1 Feb. 2005: 3. Richey, Cynthia K. “Molding Effective Internet Policies.” Computers in Libraries 22.6 (2002): 16–21. Robinson, Cherrell. “The School Library: A Valuable Partner in the Search for Educational Excellence.” Proceedings of the 1990 Cross-Campus Conference on Education, April 3–6, 1990. Eds. Ed Brandon and P. N. Nissen. Kingston: Faculty of Education, The University of the West Indies, 1991. 291–296. Shuman, Bruce A. Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Information Age. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2001. Steuart, Robert D. and Barbara B. Moran. Library and Information Center Management 6th ed. Greenwood Village, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2002. Sturges, Paul. Public Internet Access in Libraries and Information Services. London: Facet, 2002. Town, J. S. “Information Literacy and the Information Society.” Challenge and Change in the Information Society. Eds. S. Hornby and Z. Clarke. London: Facet Publishing, 2003. 83–103. Wallis, Jake. “Information-Saturated Yet Ignorant: Information Mediation as Social Empowerment in the Knowledge Economy.” Library Review 52.8 (2003): 369–372. Willson, Jonathan and Tony Oulton. “Controlling Access to the Internet in UK Public Libraries.” OCLC Systems and Services 16.4 (2000): 194–201.

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CHAPTER 15

Digitization Initiatives in Trinidad and Tobago Angela Ramnarine-Rieks The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago ABSTRACT This study aims to present the issues that are related to the creation of virtual collections that focus on the output of information from the Caribbean region within public and academic libraries. It identifies planned and current projects that are being carried out to push Caribbean information resources to users via the World Wide Web. It also attempts to distinguish whether there is recognition of the need for change in developing digital collections among the sample population of librarians from the public and academic libraries in Trinidad and Tobago and determine the extent of efforts geared toward producing this “new librarian.” To elicit the necessary information, interviews were conducted at selected libraries in Trinidad and Tobago. Analysis of the findings show that there are a number of emerging skills being developed that librarians in this region can draw upon.

INTRODUCTION The major push to develop virtual collections or digital libraries, occurring primarily in the developed parts of the world, now poses a challenge to librarians in the developing countries who wish to follow. A much more aware user population is demanding access to information packaged in a manner that they have grown accustomed to on the basis of their Web surfing experiences. Standards are also evolving in this new paradigm that promotes open access and mechanisms for filtering information to library users in an online environment. All of this provides a compelling case for librarians in developing areas, such as the Caribbean, to reassess what they do currently to provide access to the unique Caribbean information resources for which they have the overwhelming responsibility of managing and preserving. It calls for a shift in mindset and a willingness to take up the responsibility in the face of several challenges. Some of these challenges may be possibly related to the existing telecommunication infrastructure, resistance to organizational change, financial constraints, political will, and technical expertise. 201

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The focus of this chapter is to highlight some of the initiatives that libraries in the Caribbean region have been embarking upon with a view toward developing digital collections for access via the Internet. It also looks at the state of overall readiness among information professionals in the public and academic libraries for taking up the challenge of developing digital collections in a sustainable fashion. This paper makes two main assumptions. First, on the basis of a review undertaken to assess the number of sites providing digital content that is specific to the Caribbean, and which are available on WorldCat, the union catalogue maintained by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the paper assumes that overall the volume of digital information produced from the Caribbean is comparatively small. The second assumption is related to the available networked environment upon which librarians can build access to digital collections. This chapter assumes that the technical systems required for digital initiatives to take root within Trinidad and Tobago are already well developed. Unlike many developing countries where Internet facilities are limited, access to Web-based technologies and services in many of the Caribbean countries has grown significantly, especially in those countries with buoyant economies. The Internet use growth for the Caribbean from 2000 to 2005 has been 668.4 percent, the largest rate for the Americas (Internet World Stats). As of September 2005, Trinidad and Tobago had more than 160,000 Internet users. This ranks the country as one of the top five countries in the Caribbean, with respect to Internet use. This data illustrates that the existence and use of Internet technologies and infrastructure should not be a significant negative factor that restricts librarians from developing digital content repositories.

METHODOLOGY A questionnaire consisting of 15 pre-tested questions was initially developed to conduct a survey about innovative online library projects that have been, or are being, developed. However, since there were only two libraries in Trinidad and Tobago that were actively contemplating digitization, the information-gathering process was modified to face-to-face meetings, telephone interviews, and e-mail discussions. Approximately 15 librarians from the National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (NALIS) and the Main Library of The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus (herein after referred to as the Main Library) were interviewed. The sampling strategy was based on purposive sampling from identified individuals who would represent the views of the whole institution. The questions asked were similar to the ones developed in the questionnaire. The questions posed in the data gathering phase were aimed at obtaining information about: • Existing and potential digitization project(s)

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• The criteria used for the selection of materials for digitization • The availability of facilities for digitization, such as physical space, the technical infrastructure, digital storage media and server space • The main tenets of existing digital policies • Standards used in digitization projects(s) • The availability of skills and expertise • Collaboration, cooperation, and partnering with other institutions • Major obstacles encountered in digitization efforts

FINDINGS

National/Public Libraries The NALIS Act was passed in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago in 1998. NALIS was established to manage and coordinate all libraries in the public sector, including public, special, and school libraries. In 2003, the establishment moved to the newly built National Library Building. Within this short period, the organization has made great strides in developing its patron services. It purchased and, presently, houses some unique and invaluable collections. These collections have been identified for digitization. The collections vary from sketches by a popular Carnival bandleader to orally transmitted knowledge. Currently, the process of applying metadata for some of the collections housed in the Heritage Library (a NALIS department similar to a special collections unit of an academic library) is being conducted. The library is looking at outsourcing the imaging process for some of its collections. However, the problems of inadequate funding along with trained and experienced human resources are posing constraints in making this an immediate reality. Despite this restriction, however, the library has employed its limited resources towards the creation of online exhibitions that feature small portion of the collections.

Academic Library The Main Library was established in 1960. Over the decades, as the campus expanded in terms of academic programmes and student population, library resources and services have had to keep pace. Fortunately at the UWI, the library is viewed as an essential service in the university’s research and academic pursuits, and as a result, support for library projects and programmes has been, in the main, readily forthcoming from the university administration. In particular, the growth and development of the Main

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Library in the area of information technology applications has been relatively smooth. The library also has the distinction of having three of its special collections named to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register: the Derek Walcott Collection, the Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC), and the CLR James Collection. With respect to digitization initiatives, the Main Library has been making some headway in creating virtual collections. In 2002, the library acquired a grant from the Reed Foundation to digitize the following collections: • The Colonial Bank Correspondence, 1837–1885, donated by Republic Bank (a regional financial institution on its 150th anniversary), is a collection of letters consisting of the incoming correspondence to the Colonial Bank in Trinidad from its inception in 1837 to 1885. The correspondence affords the researcher an insight into the economic and social history of Trinidad, the banking needs of the sugar planters, and the precarious nature of sugar production in the 19th century. • The Diaries of Sir William Young (Governor of Tobago, 1807–1815) is a collection of his memoranda, accounts, invoices, and other documents relating to his properties and his historical, statistical, and descriptive account of the island of Tobago. These diaries provide valuable primary source material for research into the era. The works are illustrated with watercolour sketches and maps done by the author. These two digitization projects were undertaken and managed in-house by the Main Library.1 The short-term benefit was that staff members were able to gain experience in planning and executing a digital imaging project through active involvement. The library has capitalized on this experience and is forging ahead with other projects.

Current digital projects at the Main Library There are a number of other digitization initiatives currently being developed at the Main Library and, in addition, there has been work on the establishment of an institutional repository that will serve to both provide access to its digitized materials as well as cater for their long-term preservation.

Institutional Repository The Main Library, after a period of research and evaluation of possible platforms, selected DSpace as its choice for the digital institutional repository. DSpace is a Java-based, open-source software system that can be used to preserve, index, and redistribute information resources from the Main Library’s collections in digital formats. This software was developed jointly by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) libraries and Hewlett-Packard

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(HP). The technical infrastructure for the repository has already been established and the system is being tested by the librarians for its handling of item submissions, metadata assignments, and its search capability. One of the first collections to be uploaded to the digital repository at the Main Library is one that represents the history of the campus in photographs. This photographic collection is one of the special collections of the West Indiana department of the library. Digitization now allows this collection, which was not previously well-known or easily accessible outside of the reading room, to be available remotely via the Web. The library team working on the digital library programmes is also experimenting and learning to digitize other types of materials such as audio and video. One of the existing multimedia collections at the Main Library has its roots in the Oral and Pictorial Records Programme (OPReP). This is a collection of taped interviews. The main objective of the collection is to develop and maintain an archive of oral and photographic records in order to facilitate cultural and historical research into the past of Trinidad and Tobago. Back issues of a newsletter carrying transcripts of interviews and other articles, associated with the OPReP project, are also being digitized allowing the back issues to be stored in the institutional repository. Faculty members at UWI have yet to fully comprehend the benefits of institutional repositories. This shortcoming is recognized by the librarians at the Campus Libraries in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill Barbados, and Mona, Jamaica. In addition to providing the technical infrastructure and systems for upload and retrieval of materials, there is also the need to promote the repository in order to recruit content from faculty. The librarians at the Main Library are aware that they would be required to facilitate this drive. Some options that the librarians have considered are targeting graduate students who are completing their research projects and theses, as well as identifying proactive faculty that tend to gravitate towards new technologies. It is the intent of the library to use the Special Collections pilot project as a show piece towards informing and educating the faculty on the importance of open access for global sharing of scholarship, along with the benefits of enhanced professional visibility for the author and the institution. The ultimate goal of the library is to move the institutional repository from a facilitybased operation to an expansive campus-wide enterprise thereby potentially enabling anyone from the university community to participate in the scholarly communication process.

Electronic Journal Another initiative emerging from the Main Library is the establishment of an online peer-reviewed journal. A need was identified for a forum where librarians and other information professionals from the Caribbean could contribute their research and other scholarly output. This project is in the

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nascent phase and is currently accepting contributions for review to include in its first issue.

Common Observation An observation that was common between both libraries—Main Library and NALIS—was that most of the librarians who were familiar with the digitization efforts of the organization were based in the Administration, Systems Unit and Special Collections Unit (equivalent to the Heritage Library at NALIS). In both cases, the actual digitization process was based in the systems area and content was obtained from the special collections department.

ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION According to the feedback received from the interviews and discussions, it is apparent that in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a cadre of librarians that is creating and supporting digital library initiatives. The findings of the present research indicate there is clear intent on the part of the National Library to establish virtual collections. The acquisition of funding and skilled or trainable human resources is not always a simple task, but the library administration has recognized the need and is lobbying for the resources to be provided for digitization programmes. The academic library has, to some extent, been more fortunate by being within a scholarly environment where its information resource base is seen as critical and directly related to the positive growth of the institution. It also has the benefit of being established for a longer period and has a history of organized growth; therefore, its engagement with the digital library environment appears to be a smoother process. The Main Library is keeping pace with other academic libraries, internationally, with the establishment of an institutional repository, thereby enhancing its role in the preservation and dissemination of the work of faculty members and its special collections. Through these digitization projects, the Main Library is attempting to preserve the patrimony of institutional scholarship and heritage materials, especially in the face of escalating journal costs and the increasing commercialization of scholarly publishing.

Digitization of Caribbean Resources by Institutions External to the Caribbean Region A number of digitization projects focused on harnessing Caribbean information have been deployed outside of the Caribbean. In most instances, these online collections of Caribbean-related materials were developed to serve the global community of researchers and would have had their origins in research centres that focus on Latin American and Caribbean Studies:

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• The Caribbean Newspaper Imaging Project, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is one such example. This initiative involved the scanning of its microfilmed newspaper holdings of the Diario de Ia Marina (Havana, Cuba), 1947–1960, Le Nouvelliste (Port-au-Prince, Haiti), 1899–1979, and the Trinidad Guardian (selected years that focus on documentation of the colonial British West Indies and of the various independence and republican movements). The University of Florida is currently upgrading the product from this project by migrating from CD-ROM format to the Internet, which will serve as a new means of delivering their images (University of Florida). • Another fairly well-known programme is the Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM). This virtual collection was developed as a cooperative initiative of the public universities of Florida to provide digital access to important source materials for research and scholarship. In the past, PALMM projects involved either a single university or collaborative efforts between a university and partners within or outside of the state university system (State University System of Florida). One of the collections of this project is the Eric Eustace Williams Collection. This collection contains a bibliography and a growing library of digitized works by and about Williams, the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. In recent years, PALMM has been working with the Main Library to provide linkages between its collection on Eric Williams to the library’s own EWMC. • There are other projects that focus on the development of Web gateways to facilitate access to Internet-based information on Latin America and the Caribbean. One of these types of projects was undertaken by Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) together with the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at the University of Texas at Austin. • Other digitization efforts include projects being done at the University of Miami to develop online journals and video resources. A noted publication directly related to the Englishspeaking Caribbean from this initiative is the peer-reviewed online journal titled “Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal.” A multimedia Web site has also been developed for Caribbean Literary Studies.2 • The British Library has also recently added a collection called Caribbean Views to their online resources. The site is very informative and features images, maps, and texts from the 18th

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The foregoing represents examples of projects that are currently active. Review of these sites indicated that they are well organized and are of high quality. However, digitization projects by these institutions are mainly confined to relatively small, specialized collections that focus on one aspect of the Caribbean heritage. In other words, it may meet the needs of the researchers in developed countries and does not necessarily provide a complete picture of the many facets of Caribbean heritage. It may also be argued that the digitization and archiving of Caribbean material by libraries in developed countries perpetuates the dynamic of a one-way south-north information flow. According to Lor and Britz (18), developers of such repositories may have to reckon with a degree of suspicion, envy, and resentment at what may be perceived as yet another manifestation of imperialism. It has been suggested that it may be more beneficial for partnerships in which the autonomy, selfsufficiency, and dignity of the region are respected.

Virtual Collections Created Within a Cooperative Project Framework Trinidad and Tobago libraries have had a history of participation in collaborative ventures with organizations from different parts of the world. A number of collaborative projects have been spearheaded by internationally oriented, nonprofit organizations, and initiated to provide digital collections in the public domain. These co-operative projects have sought to avoid duplication of efforts, promote sharing of resources, and foster the development of the technical expertise among member bodies. These initiatives have, to some extent, increased the publishing capacity and, hence, the possible diffusion and visibility of research produced in developing countries like Trinidad and Tobago. Although earlier collaborative efforts were geared mainly toward the development of bibliographic databases among Caribbean and Latin American libraries, a number of new initiatives are coming to the fore. The objective of these cooperative projects is to preserve and increase Caribbean resources. Some of these include: • Bibliographic projects, such as CARINDEX, an index to the contents of West Indian journals; AGRIS, the international information system for the agricultural sciences and technology, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) in 1974; and Latin American Periodicals Tables of Contents (LAPTOC), a searchable Web database that provides access to the tables of contents of more than 800 journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences, published in Latin America.

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• Digital Library of Ibero-America and the Caribbean (now El Dorado). This project is a collaborative effort of the UNESCO and regional institutions. • Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). A Florida International University initiative done in consortium with three U.S. institutions and five Caribbean partners. • Virtual Health Library (VHL). A project created in 1998 and spearheaded by the Pan American Health Organization and (Biblioteca Regional de Medicina—Regional Medical Library) BIREME. The English-speaking Caribbean participates in this project by working on the development and coordination of a cooperative health sciences literature database titled MEDCARIB (an initiative of BIREME). The Virtual Health Library is one of the successes of these participatory activities especially for the Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. The collection offers access to a variety of health science databases and sites.4 It was created by the Latin-American and Caribbean Center for Information in the Health Sciences, widely known as BIREME. Its major digital initiative is the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), set up in 1997.5 This online resource provides access to full-text periodicals in the health sciences via a series of standardized gateways. The system is multilingual and the quality of the collection is demonstrated by the fact that Web of Science now links directly to SciELO articles (Wladimir and Fernández-Juricic 472). Even though the Virtual Health Library site offers specialized sub-portals for specific countries, brief searching within the online databases retrieved only a small number of materials that comes from the Caribbean. The Caribbean Digital Library (CDL), an initiative of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is a bit different than those described above. It is a Web gateway project. It functions as a joint venture between regional and national information centres of the Caribbean. These information centres collaborate in building a comprehensive Webbased resource arranged under broad subject headings designed to provide information on sectors and subjects of importance to Caribbean economic development.6

Preservation of Indigenous Culture in the Global Network Although there are a fair number of virtual collections being developed either locally or cooperatively with foreign organizations, albeit on a limited scale, much more can be undertaken to further the development of virtual collections. Countries like the U.S. and China have made phenomenal strides

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in the development of online collections through substantial resource allocation and cooperation among the various stakeholders. The U.S. National Digital Library (NDL) and the China Digital Library (CDL) began in 1995 through a collaborative national endeavour (Library of Congress; Wei). China, with its rich culture of more than 5,000 years, boasts more than 450 million digital objects, while the NDL estimates more than 5 million. Chinese information only accounted for 1 percent of the Internet in 1998; but by 2003, China’s digitization efforts resulted significantly in making Chinese information the second largest on the Internet (Wei). Digital projects being developed in Trinidad and Tobago, at the time of this writing, tend to be in the experimental phase. Although the personnel working in the sphere take time to build expertise, gather resources, there is need to promote the benefits of digitization as quite a substantial part of the research materials in the region remain in formats that cannot be accessed via the World Wide Web or other digital media. Perhaps this is at the crux of the matter, when one perceives the relatively low number of hits obtained generally for the few high-quality, indigenously created Caribbean resources on the Internet. This may lead researchers to make the assumption that awareness and expertise in digital library development is largely lacking in the Caribbean. However, as this paper has illustrated, there are institutions that are making some useful headway in the creation of virtual collections and the infrastructure to manage their resources. What makes these institutions, such as the Main Library, unique is perhaps a combination of factors, not the least of which would be a spirit of invention and innovation resident in members of the library’s staff. Equally important perhaps is the presence of an administration that is seeking to ensure the institution’s competitiveness in the arena of tertiary education in the Caribbean region, and lends useful support to library’s digital initiatives. One of the main concerns among Caribbean librarians is the possibility that Caribbean heritage is under the threat of being lost forever. The publishing output in the Caribbean region is very low compared to that of the developed world. This is compounded by the fact that there are many challenges being faced by Caribbean publishers competing in the international markets. It is a commonly held belief that the use of technology in developing countries produces new forms of dependence rather than increasing independent capacity. Developing countries do need new information technologies, but they also need local information professionals and users who can understand, maintain, nurture, develop, and, ultimately, internalize best practices. Clearly, the Caribbean region needs to develop the right skills and expertise among the people working in information resource management. Beyond skills, there also needs to be an accompanying vision at all levels in the society for the preservation of the country’s heritage and information patrimony. The people of the country need to see themselves as not only consumers of information from the North, but as producers in their own right.

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Making this transition is all the more difficult as Trinidad and Tobago has to contend with its local culture and artistry being overshadowed by music, movies, and icons produced and promoted in the U.S. In the wake of rapid advancements in new technologies this trend will only get stronger and impact directly on the type of “world culture” to be promoted. It is wellknown that the Internet is, overwhelmingly, American based. In January 2000, roughly 73 percent of the host computers were in the U.S., with 80 percent in English-speaking nations and more than 90 percent of the Internet operated out of Western countries (Internet Software Consortium). The development of the Internet2 is an effort to accelerate the diffusion of advanced Internet technology, especially in the U.S. This network will help to sustain their leadership in Internet-working technology at a global level. These developments are happening sooner than most people think. For example, advancements in broadband connectivity as proposed by Teledesic Corp., may not yet be successful but is imminent. Presently, only a small portion of humanity (approximately 4.6 percent) accounts for more than 90 percent of the information available online (Internet World Stats). According to Arunachalam, the gap existing between the developed and the developing countries will tend to widen further with the rapid expansion of the Internet in the Western hemisphere (251). He went on to state that the speedy transition to electronic publishing can lead to increased brain drain and dependence on foreign aid of a different kind (knowledge imperialism). Taking this scenario into consideration, the Caribbean organizations definitely need to accelerate the pace of their digitization efforts geared primarily towards creating a greater presence in the all pervasive global online environment.

Digitization as a Library Venture The notion of digital libraries brings with it dramatic changes in the library profession. Naturally there is a requirement for librarians to understand the significance of the application of technology in their functional areas. The problem, however, seems to be that library workflows do not readily allow librarians to move away from the traditional practitioner mode. Too much effort being spent attending to the mundane, although necessary, routines that have become entrenched in the organizational structure of the typical Caribbean library. For example, the availability of digitization skills is present in both libraries, especially at NALIS, which recently employed a fairly large number of newly trained librarians from schools in North America. However, it appears that most of these “new” librarians are being deployed to perform business as usual as opposed to exploring research and innovations. The Main Library has been successful in its digitization efforts mainly through continuing professional education and self-education. Continuing education and training in digitization through electronic or traditional classes are ubiquitous and assist in the discovery of new ideas and

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resources. However, the critical success of these ventures depends on attitudes, traits, and strong interest. Presently the primary emphasis of the digitization efforts in both libraries is localized to the Systems Department. Agreed, this phase of the development requires the projects to focus mainly on the technical infrastructure for digitization, but as long as a library has accepted the concept, the majority of the librarians must position themselves so that they can be perceived as having moved from serving as a passive support group, to collaborators in research, teaching, and learning, thereby, actively contributing to academic scholarship. Marchionini and Fox pointed out four dimensions in designing a digital library: community, technology, services, and content (221). One of the biggest challenges that currently faces the Main Library is garnering content for its institutional repository from its faculty, hence the need for a mission based on advocacy. This underscores the role of the librarian as a marketer. It has become essential to spread the word of a value-added tool that will put local resources within the online environment. It is essential that based on anecdotal evidence, librarians must persevere in pursuing contact with the potential content suppliers within the institutional repository environment in order for it to be successful.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The librarians in Trinidad and Tobago are slowly becoming producers and aggregators of information. Despite the challenges being faced, libraries are promoting the democratization of information and demonstrating with digital technology the accessibility of local resources through new channels. Librarians are aware of the dearth of Caribbean resources in the online environment and the salient scenario of the disparities and differences within and between countries representation. It is recognized that the development of virtual collections provides a great opportunity to create local content and make it available to the global community. Greater strides are made in the academic arena where open-source technology has been exploited to manage digital assets and experience has been gained in the customization of existing equipment to meet digitization needs. The option of outsourcing digitization is being investigated by the public services librarians at NALIS. Since NALIS relies primarily on government funding, resources shortfall can often slow progress. Countries that have been successful in bringing fruition to their digital initiatives have done so through cooperative efforts. For example, China has developed a repository to improve the knowledge exchange and sharing between librarians thereby reducing the expenses and time spent by the library to retrain (Zhou 438). Under these circumstances the need for partnerships between the two organizations, NALIS and the Main Library, should be investigated especially since the latter has acquired more experience and found prudent ways of supporting its digital efforts. After all, its goals are basically the same, that is, promoting local virtual collections online.

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ENDNOTES 1.

These two collections are available via the Main Library’s Web site and can be accessed at: Digital Collections, 2002, Main Library, The University of the West Indies, 9 July 2006. www.mainlib.uwi.tt/divisions/wi/indexwi.htm.

2.

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal, 2005, University of Miami, 9 July 2006. scholar.library.miami.edu/anthurium/home.htm.

3.

Caribbean Views, The British Library, 9 July 2006. www.collectbritain.co.uk/ collections/caribbean.

4.

The Virtual Health Library, 9 July 2006. www.virtualhealthlibrary.org/php/index. php?lang=en.

5.

SciELO: Scientific Electronic Library Online, 9 July 2006. www.scielo.org/index. php?lang=en.

6.

Caribbean Digital Library, Caribbean Knowledge Management Centre, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 9 July 2006. www.eclacpos.org/cdl/cdl.asp.

WORKS CITED Alonso, Wladimir J. and Esteban Fernández-Juricic. Letter. “Regional Network Raises Profile of Local Journals.” Nature 415.6871 (2002): 471–472. Arunachalam, Subbiah. “Information and Knowledge in the Age of Electronic Communication: A Developing Country Perspective.” Ed. Wilhelm Krull. Debates on Issues of our Common Future. Germany: Velbruck Wissenschaft, Weilerswist, 2000, 231–252. Internet Software Consortium (ISC). Internet Domain Survey. 2000. 19 Dec. 2005. www.isc.org/index.pl. Internet World Stats. Internet Usage Statistics for the Americas. 2006. 22 Feb. 2006. www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm. Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program. 2006. 15 May 2006. memory. loc.gov/ammem/dli2/html/lcndlp.html. Lor, Peter and Johannes J. Britz. “Information Imperialism: Moral Problems in Information Flow from South to North.” Eds. T. Mendoza and J. J. Britz. Information Ethics in the Electronic Age: Current Issues in Africa and the World. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004. 15–21. Marchionini, Gary and Edward A. Fox. “Progress Toward Digital Libraries: Augmentation through Integration.” Information Processing & Management 35.3 (1999): 219–225. State University System of Florida. Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials 2005. 22 Feb. 2006. susdl.fcla.edu. University of Florida. Caribbean Newspaper Imaging Project. 2006. 22 Feb. 2006. www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/collections/cnip/eng/CNIP2report.htm. Wei, Sun. “The Development of China Digital Library and Its Influence on China and the World.” Chinese Librarianship: An International Electronic Journal 20 (2005). 15 May 2006. www.iclc.us/cliej/cl20sun.htm. Zhou, Qian. “The Development of Digital Libraries in China and the Shaping of Digital Librarians.” The Electronic Library 23.4 (2005): 433–441.

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CHAPTER 16

COLINET: Making a Difference in College Library Development in Jamaica Hermine C. Salmon and Marva Bradford University of Technology, Jamaica ABSTRACT In 1981, the National Council on Libraries, Archives and Documentation Services (NACOLADS) established a College Libraries Working Party to examine the status of libraries in tertiary education institutions in Jamaica and consider the structure and operation of a College Libraries Information Network (COLINET). The findings of the Working Party indicated that many of the libraries in these institutions were operating with major deficiencies in areas such as accommodation, collection, budgetary support, and staffing. The report stressed the value of libraries in educational institutions and highlighted the need for improvement in all areas. It also made recommendations for the establishment and organization of COLINET. COLINET is the segment of the National Information System that is devoted to the development of libraries in tertiary level educational institutions in Jamaica. The progress made by these libraries and the role COLINET has played as a catalyst for change, through consultations, visits, meetings, seminars, workshops, promotion of the use of standards, and opportunities for attachment to the focal point library, are depicted. Areas of focus include: physical development, collection building, staffing, technology, and financial support.

INTRODUCTION A library is essential to the teaching-learning process and to support curriculum and research activities of an academic institution. There is an abundance of literature on the value of the library to the institution. Indeed, accrediting bodies require that colleges provide libraries that meet recommended minimum standards for their programmes to be accredited. The new generation of information technology, coupled with the plethora of information available and the sophistication of today’s users, challenge 217

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the library as never before. The new approach to teaching, with emphasis on student-centered learning, has also led to greater demands being placed on the library. Added to these are the facts that student enrollment has increased, curricula have expanded, and some physical infrastructure has improved. However, our findings reveal that, to a large extent, the libraries growth and development have not kept pace with that of the parent institutions. The few thousand books that seemed adequate in the early days is a far cry from what is required in today’s technologically driven world. With the advent of the World Wide Web and the Internet, clients have become accustomed to obtaining information at record speed and expect the same level of service from the library. Recognizing this challenge, libraries have formed alliances to facilitate acquisition of and access to resources and services.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN JAMAICA The history of college libraries in Jamaica is closely linked with the history of teachers’ and theological colleges. Prior to 1948, colleges were mainly operated by religious organizations. The first teachers’ college was established in 1832 by the Moravians in response to a need for locally trained teachers. Whyte stated, “As early as 1832 the Moravians saw the need for locally trained teachers. A school for destitute girls was established and these girls achieved a sufficiently high level of literacy to serve as teachers in Moravian schools” (56). Four years later, Mico Teachers’ College, the oldest existing college in Jamaica and the Caribbean and one of the oldest in the world, was established. In 1843, the Moravians established another, Calabar Theological College. It was one of three theological colleges that formed the United Theological College in 1966. The others were St. Peter’s College and Union Theological Seminary established in 1916 and 1954, respectively. Between 1836 and 1885, a number of colleges were started but disparity between their academic requirements and the academic levels of secondary school leavers made it difficult for them to recruit students (Whyte 71). In 1885, Shortwood Teachers’ College, the first of a number of government-supported colleges, opened, and in 1897, the Franciscan sisters founded St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College. West Indies College, formerly West Indies Training School, now Northern Caribbean University (NCU), was founded by the Seventh Day Adventists in 1907 and was upgraded to a senior college in 1954 with teacher training as one of its programme offerings. Moneague Teachers’ College was established in 1956, the College of Arts Science and Technology (CAST), now the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), in 1958, and Church Teachers’ College in 1965. Under the New Deal for Education (1966–1980), the first official plan for the sector in independent Jamaica, new colleges were built and existing ones expanded. Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, built in 1975, and Passley Gardens

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Teachers’ College—now merged with the College of Agriculture to form the College of Agriculture and Science Education (CASE) in 1981—were the new colleges. Although all these colleges allocated space for library use, few were designed according to the recommended minimum standard for libraries. Anderson writing about Mico Teachers’ College library asserted, “The library started in the 1960s as a small collection of books in the principal’s office” (4). Of the Zenas Gerig Library at the Jamaica Theological Seminary, an article in COLINET News stated, “The library began with a shelf of fewer than 100 books” (4). It is, therefore, quite plausible to assume that in the early days of the other colleges, there were small collections of books that later formed the nucleus of the modern college library. CAST, for example, had a small collection in a room that could comfortably seat 15 students.

CATEGORIES OF COLLEGE LIBRARIES In Jamaica, college libraries fall into four categories: 1. Teachers’ College Libraries – At present, there are five colleges that focus on the training of teachers. 2. Theological College Libraries – These specialize in training ministers and pastoral workers for different churches and enjoy denominational support. Several of these are scattered throughout the island. 3. Community College Libraries – Community colleges were established to provide formal education, starting at grade 11, and community-based training courses of special interest to residents. 4. Libraries in Specialist Colleges supported by Government/ Private Sector – These include Jamaica Police Academy, Dental Auxiliary School, Caribbean Maritime Institute, Edna Manley School for the Visual Arts, College of Agriculture, G.C. Foster Sports College, and the Jamaica Institute of Management. Some colleges are offering degree programmes, some partnering with European and North American universities. Some colleges are seeking to attain university or university college status. UTech and NCU paved the way for such transition, having achieved university status in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Regrettably, not many have invested the resources needed to bring their libraries in line with the developments taking place in their respective institutions. The Ministry of Education and Youth has no clear policy to guide the development of academic libraries. Any progress is dependent on the administration. The authors have observed that, whereas significant development occurs in colleges where principals display keen interest, there is little or no progress where this is not the case.

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COLINET COLINET is the arm of the National Information System (NATIS) that serves tertiary institutions. It comprises a mix of government-supported and private tertiary institutions. A 1981 survey of Jamaican college libraries, carried out by the NACOLADS, identified some major deficiencies. Deficiencies included inadequate physical infrastructure, paucity of information resources, lack of modern technology, and insufficient professional staff to guide the development of the library. The report stressed the value of the library to the college and highlighted the need for improvement. It recommended that a body be established to encourage the colleges to develop their libraries and to coordinate activities towards this end. Four years later, in 1985, the COLINET was established to: • Facilitate speedy access to information • Promote the sharing of ideas and resources • Encourage integration of the colleges into NATIS All NATIS networks fall under the aegis of the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ). They are the Social and Economic Information Network (SECIN); Science and Technology Information Network (STIN); Legal Information Network (LINET); the Jamaica Agriculture Research Development Information Network (JARDIN); The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Libraries; and the libraries of the Jamaica Library Service (JLS). When NACOLADS was dissolved by the government, some of its responsibilities devolved to the NLJ, which in 2001 established an advisory committee, the Advisory Council for the National Information System (ACNIS) as the policymaking body for NATIS. ACNIS is comprised of the focal point coordinators, representatives of the Ministries of Information, Commerce and Technology, Education and Youth; Department of Library and Information Studies, (UWI); the chair of the NLJ’s Board of Management; and the president of the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA). The executive director of the NLJ chairs the Committee. UTech was designated the focal point for COLINET because its library was the most advanced in the network. Other libraries were designated as nodes for subgroups of libraries with common interests. Currently these are Mico Teachers’ College for the teachers’ colleges, Jamaica Theological Seminary for theological colleges, Excelsior Community College (EXED) for the community colleges, and CASE for the specialist colleges. The nodes enjoy a close relationship within their respective groups. Approximately 25 units regularly participate in COLINET events.

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COLINET’S ROLE IN PROMOTING LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT The establishment of COLINET was a strategic move that resulted in greater cooperation, the sharing of resources and information, and could be then perceived as the seed, establishing the infrastructure from which an academic consortium will grow. Following COLINET’s formation in 1985, the focal point, with the support of NACOLADS and the units, sought to promote improvement of the units. From the outset, it was recognized that for any meaningful change to be achieved, college administrators would have to support the idea. Symposiums, seminars, workshops, and other forums were organized for principals, bursars, and other stakeholders. Librarians were encouraged to project the library by becoming involved in activities on the campus and ensuring that they were represented on all relevant college committees.

Physical Facilities A survey of college libraries carried out by Salmon and Bradford in January 2006 confirmed the perception that, although conditions did not meet the recommended minimum standards, there was obvious improvement in most areas. When compared with conditions prior to 1985 when COLINET was established, there were significant changes in the physical resources of the majority of the libraries. Eleven libraries have either been relocated to new buildings, or been renovated; and all community colleges provide library facilities at their off-campus sites. COLINET’s focal point assists the units to improve their facilities by providing appropriate reference materials on library buildings, offering advice, and giving guidance on building standards and the preparation of architects’ briefs. It also makes available suppliers catalogues of furniture and equipment and recommends possible vendors.

Human Resources There has been