Children’s library in a state of chaos

THE EDITOR: Last Saturday I got a chance to go to Port-of-Spain. I took the opportunity to visit the National Library. The magnificence of the sight of the building was overwhelming, to say the least. Its unique structure was most impressive. Internally, it was even more beautiful. The sections of the library were well organised, however a closer look at the operation was another story. The children’s library was in a state of chaos. Not one of the computers was operational. This was so because, as the librarian explained, that all the balls of the mouses of the computers were stolen and there were written signs to that effect. I was shocked! I proceeded to the young adults section where there were a couple people and a relatively small number of books. Of course it was early morning and people had only now begun to come in.

The adult library consisted of a fairly large array of books. I picked up one of the computer mouses to see if the ball was missing and it was understandable when the librarian rushed out from behind her desk and proceeded over to us and said in  rough tone, “Sir, you cannot use that computer.” I explained to her that I was from deep south and was merely visiting the library and was curious to find out if these computers were functional as I had just been to the children’s section. She became calm and more receptive and answered a couple of my questions. I continued up to the literature section where I was joined on the corridor by my mother and father. As we proceeded in, we were stopped by the guard who said that my mother couldn’t go in because she had a bag. Being the polite person she is, she offered to stay outside.

He did not tell us that she could have stored her bags in the lockers to which he had the tokens. We learnt about the locker only when we were about to leave by one of the patrons. As the hours went by, things got into a wild frenzy as scores of people came streaming in. The majority as young as myself, children were running about as if it were a giant playground, groups walking about aimlessly, there was no quiet as you would have expected in a library. Babies screaming, people talking loudly, the constant clucking and clacking of shoes against the hard floor, made it difficult to concentrate on reading. Suddenly an announcement came to the patrons that the library would be closed in 15 minutes and it was utter madness to see people scampering all over the place. The frustration of the librarians showed as lines of people were still infront of them. We calmly walked out to the front of the building where we sat down a while and I gathered my thoughts and came to the conclusion that the library was being used as a liming spot for most people as they appeared not to have gone into the building.

I thought to myself why should this building be called the National Library in the first place and why wasn’t it just called the Port-of-Spain Public Library? How many children of the south would ever be able to use this facility for the true purpose for which it was intended? Very very few. So, the millions of dollars spent on this so called “National” Library, could have been much more useful if it used to develop library facilities in places nationwide like San Fernando, Mayaro, Siparia, Point Fortin etc. For now I will have to be content with the use of the Southern Libraries where the books are old, dusty and outdated and hope to get the use of a computer in one of these libraries at some point in time.

MICKELL GUNNESLAL
Student of Iere High School
Siparia