ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM LIBRARY Antigua Sun: "LIBRARY SHUTDOWN …Multiple break-ins force closure of facility

Thursday November 23 2006

by Marabel Jacobs

A recent spate of break-ins and thefts at the country’s Public Library on Market Street in downtown St. John’s, has forced its closure, putting hundreds of students and other persons who utilise the facility at a severe disadvantage.

Posted on the door of the public library yesterday was a notice informing users of its closure and indicating that it is in search of a new home.

The Antigua Sun contacted Chief Librarian Dorothea Nelson, who confirmed that the library was being closed for an indefinite period.

She recounted the many instances when the facility had been burglarised and many of its computers stolen.

“We had several break-ins, three within a few days. The first break-in was the weekend just before Independence. We had a break-in the night before Independence.”

Nelson said the intervention of Education Minister Bertrand Joseph was sought and the Board of Education was called upon to replace the broken door and to secure the area through which the burglar(s) gained entry into the facility. That area was walled off with decorative blocks.

She explained that everything humanly possible has been done to secure the building, but thieves continued their raids.

It would seem that the perpetrators scaled the wall of the Ministry of Culture, broke the locks and removed the louvre panes to gain entry to the facility.

Once inside, the books were reportedly thrown on the floor while garbage was strewn across the bathroom floor.

Subsequent to the break-ins, Nelson said they were forced to remove and secure the remaining computers and as a result the library was rendered virtually useless.

“We have been steadily automating our services, so we can no longer serve the public. We have to be in a place where we can have our computers set up so I think that what has happened is a blow to the community.

“Most of our current membership have been issued bar-coded user IDs and most of the material in the library that people need to borrow have to be scanned.

“They stole the computer from the children’s circulation desk and we were afraid they would come and do the same thing with the other computers. Until the building can be safe we can’t bring back our computers there.”

The computers, Nelson made clear, were gifts from private individuals and the Board of Education, so she could not just sit and allow them to be taken out one by one, “so I asked the Ministry of Education for space and they are currently stored at the Ministry of Education.”

The government has earmarked a building for the relocation of the library, but the structure needs some repair work before it can be occupied, hopefully before year-end.

“The library is used by students, not just school children but students at the Antigua State College, people who are doing their work through distance learning and so on and since we now offer access to the Internet, our membership has shot up and the library’s use is wall to wall in the afternoon.”

She said the library staff is overly concerned, since the focus was always on providing the best service that could be given in light of the situation, “given that we don’t have the best facility and that is why I focus on trying to get computers in, developing our Web site, getting access to on-line data bases and so on.”

Meanwhile, the new public library just outside the Botanical Gardens has been completely ruled out as an interim option, since it will not be completed until March next year.