Take an honest look at the libraries - are you doing enough?

I go by what Mark Shuttleworth once said; “ If we are to lift Africa from her current circumstances, we will need a generation of learners that are gifted with curiosity about the world in which they live, and the tools to undertand and shape that world.” We need this for Malawi.

I believe that having good libraries in schools and elsewhere delivers exceptional results. This is not because I work in a library. No, but because this is the truth. To develop a generation of learners that will make Malawi a better place to be, we need libraries.

It is very unfortunate that the people who should have been at the forefront ensuring that libraries are able to give people the kind of service they desire, are the very ones persecuting the libraries. Are you one of the library persecutors?

Malawi should be proud that most of the top authorities in government have had a chance to pursue higher education at least at the degree level. In addition most have had an opportunity to live and study abroad. They have seen and know the things that have made these countries to be centres of excellence in various fields. The people there read and libraries are alive. But the very same people turn a blind eye to the development of the same things that are precursors to any kind of development. For example, they will comment that most of the public libraries don't have the right books and materials but are not prepared to help to redress such a situation. Most are good at giving rhetoric support and not practical support.

The point I am trying to put across is that Malawi needs good libraries and support for the development of these has to start from within and not outside. It is sad the the friends of libraries abroad are more committed to developing our libraries than are our local authorities. There is need for more practical commitment locally. I believe given adequate resources coupled with the resources from abroad, libraries would be more responsive to information and educational needs of our country.

Why libraries

There are many reasons why Malawi needs libraries but I will just list a few that will appeal to all responsible for the distribution of government resources.

• The demand for prescribed and supplementary textbooks in the few libraries that Malawi has is quite too high to be ignored.
• Most students cannot aford even a single title of the textbooks. On the other hand, Malawi cannot afford a copy for each student. But surely Malawi can afford copies that could be shared. Since libraries embraces the philosophy of sharing they offer a better solution to Malawi's text-book problem.
• We are living in an information economy. Libraries form a very crucial part of this economy.
• Provision of equity - there are over two hundred government primary schools that have libraries. This is a tiny fraction of the total number of primary schools in the country. What about the rest - are we being fair? The same applies public libraries - not all districts enjoy services of the National Library through public libraries. We need to level the ground. We have the same responsibility to each and every child as well as district.
• Students at our universities should not fail because they don't have access to reading and information resources. One day talking to a colleague, I was informed that at the University she attended in the USA, she had all the core textbooks required for the programme she was pursuing. I remembered my days at the University of Malawi when our library had only one copy of "Antigone" to be accessed by over 500 students. It was no easy feat to access the book as well as pass the exams with such limited access.

It is high time we all joined hands in ensuring that libraries everywhere in the country became alive and take their rightful position in the development of Malawi. Please allocate adequate resources to your libraries - Malawi must read!!!!!!!!!!