Dunn Calls On Librarians to Embrace Change

KINGSTON — Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, Dr. Hopeton Dunn, has suggested that school librarians develop the skills to support students and effectively manage library facilities.

“We have to be prepared to embrace change in this 21st century. We have to become comfortable in a new environment,” Dr. Dunn stated.

He was speaking on the topic, “Providing an Enabling Environment”, at a plenary session on the fourth day of  the 40th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Mona campus on Wednesday August 10.

He said it was important for learning institutions to struggle against any reduction in funding for books, and that the funding should be diversified to include resources other than books.

“The book remains important, but is one of many platforms that we must be using,” Dr. Dunn told representatives from some 26 countries attending the conference.

He also pointed out that while the “walled” library (books) became a vital part of the society in the 20th century, “what we are faced with within the 21st century, is not the need to continue to hug up and embrace one particular form, but to broaden our thinking, in terms of the diversity of forms beyond the fascinating achievements of the 21st century”.

“It may be that the school library could nowadays, and in the years to come, just as effectively exist in the pocket of a youth carrying a mobile learning device, as it may well be in the walled library,” he asserted.

The conference is being hosted in Jamaica by the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA), under the theme, “School Libraries Empowering the 21st Century Learner”.

The forum, which ends Thursday August 11, involves workshops and plenary sessions, and school librarians and other stakeholders have the opportunity to learn, share, and network with local and international colleagues, become acquainted with emerging leaders and discover new research ideas.

Participants include representatives from: Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Australia, Dubai, Namibia, South Africa, Canada, the United States, Croatia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

By ALPHEA SAUNDERS, JIS Reporter