Librarianship in Jamaica

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The librarianship Jamaica was at the end of the 19th century, was founded as the first public facilities that were within everyone's reach. Today librarianship is governed by two organizations, the National Library and the Jamaica Library Service .

history

Francis Williams in the library in Spanish Town around 1740

Colonization in Jamaica was not very advanced under Spanish rule. Only after the conquest by England in 1650 were the first small libraries built in the now growing cities. These usually collected English literature and were not accessible to the general public. With the establishment of the Institute of Jamaica in 1879, the first public library was created. From it emerged in 1894 the West India Reference Library , whose task for the first time also included the collection of local literature. In 1979 the National Library, which still exists today, emerged from it.

In 1949, a complementary organization, the Jamaica Library Service , was founded in order to enable as large parts of the population as possible to have access to literature . The task is to set up a comprehensive network of libraries and their organization. The organization was funded by the United Kingdom until 1959 , then by the Jamaican government.

structure

National Library

The main purpose of the National Library is to collect and preserve Jamaican literature. The library has been under the Ministry of Culture, Entertainment and Tourism since April 2006 and is fully financed by the state. The main office is in Kingston . Access to the holdings is limited to scientific work, approval is required.

Duration

  • 40,000 books
  • 20,000 maps and plans
  • 100 different newspapers (partly collected since 1718)
  • 3,600 music data carriers
  • 1 million meters of film

Since 2002, which requires the Legal Deposit Act the delivery of a deposit copy of every published work in the country.

Jamaica Library Service

Jamaica Library Service administrative zones . 1. Kingston, 2. Montego Bay, 3. Mandeville, 4. St. Ann's Bay, 5. Port Antonio, 6. Black River

In contrast to the National Library, the JLS is primarily dedicated to broad education. The association's headquarters are in Kingston . Jamaica is divided into six zones, each with its own headquarters, from which most of the administrative work is carried out. In addition, each Parish has its own central library. The main task is to look after smaller libraries, book mobiles and school libraries. The service has set itself the goal of making at least 1.5 books available to each of the 2.8 million inhabitants of the country as quickly as possible. This goal was achieved by 8 to 44% in the individual parishes

Facilities

  • 13 central libraries (including the headquarters)
  • 58 smaller institutions
  • 58 smaller institutions with opening times of less than 40 hours a week
  • 468 stops of the mobile libraries

There are also around 500 supervised school libraries.

University libraries

University Library on the Mona Campus, Kingston

The University of the West Indies on the Mona Campus has by far the largest library of the country's universities . In addition to a general scientific collection, the specialist medical library is one of the largest in the Caribbean. In contrast to many other institutions, modern IT systems are available at universities for inventory searches. Only the National Library has comparable equipment. Together with this, the universities form the National Information System (NATIS), the main task of which is to coordinate interlibrary loan .

education

Librarian training takes place on site in the larger libraries. There is no precise training plan, as many trainees have already worked in this area for several years. The duration of the training can vary accordingly. The Jamaica Library Service has been trying for some time to provide long-term employees with a formal degree. The University of the Westindies offers a bachelor's degree in library science.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Overview of the holdings of the NLJ (English)
  2. ↑ Legal text and explanations on the Legal Deposit Act (English)
  3. ^ Report of the Jamaica Library Service 2006 page 10 (PDF) ( Memento of June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).

swell

Report of the Jamaica Library Service 2006 online version ( Memento of June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Web links