Ministry of Education

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Regional Director for the Jamaica Library Service (JLS), Daphne Daly makes a presentation to Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, after his presentation at the JLS' 60th anniversary international conference on Monday (Feb.16) at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios.

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, has commended the Jamaica Library Service (JLS) on six decades of outstanding achievements.

The Minister, who was addressing the JLS' 60th anniversary international conference recently at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, said that the institution has done an excellent job over the years in modernising its operations and improving service delivery, in response to technological changes and the needs of the public.

In addition to the network of 126 public libraries, 926 school libraries and 465 mobile libraries across the island, the JLS offers access points for 23 special categories of persons, including the visually impaired, and those in hospitals, infirmaries, penal institutions and places of safety.

"In this information age, Jamaicans have the opportunity to enjoy unlimited public access to recorded information and as of last year, free access to computer and Internet services in 100 public libraries across the island, and this indeed is a great achievement for our library service," Minister Holness said.

The JLS, he noted, was an important partner in the Ministry's efforts to create a 100 per cent literate society, which would enable the country to effectively position itself in the knowledge-based global economy.

He pointed out that while increasing access to information and communications technologies (ICT) were important, members of the public must value the information available and understood how to process it and turn it into a usable resource.

"We are a nation in a globalised world and knowledge is its currency. Our job is to prepare our human resource to be able to access, filter, create, manipulate, store, retrieve and all other functions related to information," he said.

The six-day conference, which concludes on Saturday (Feb. 21), is being held under the theme: 'Public and School Libraries: Your Partners in National Development.'

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