by YVETTE BEST

A SHORTAGE OF STAFF is preventing the Barbados Library Service from fully completing its mandate.

Acting director of the Barbados Library Service, Avonda Callender, said the current complement of 37 was insufficient for the eight branch libraries.

"There is a problem . . . Government has to provide the staffing. So we are trying to introduce new services with the limited staff. We cannot provide half the services that we really would like to do," she said.

Noting that about 3 000 people a month utilised their computer services alone at their Independence Square, The City branch, Callender said the computer literacy programme had to be put on hold because there was no one to teach it. The person that had been identified was transferred to the new Tamarind Hall Branch Library, where this interview was conducted after the St Joseph branch's opening this week.

She was also concerned that the libraries could not be opened beyond 6 p.m. to accommodate people coming off work, because they did not have the personnel to bring on two shifts.

"We need staff . . . A library is not only people who charge and discharge books; there are several jobs in libraries. We as a library cannot offer the programmes that we want to introduce because we are limited by the staff," Callender said.

During his address, Minister of Community Development and Culture Steve Blackett said staffing was one of the "outstanding issues" that delayed the opening of the library when the complex was opened five months ago. Even though she said there was a "heavy, heavy" demand for the computer services, Callender said overall, usage of the library had declined.

"When I first went to work with the library, we had 50 000 books in the department, now we might only have about 20,000. And the registration statistics were higher, because remember we didn't have the TV and the video and other things to compete with, so people used the library.

"Now people use the library, but most of them come to use it for the computer. Although more people come through our doors, it is not reflected in our statistics where it relates to borrowing, charging and discharging of books. So what we are doing, is to try to get them to read. Because what we are saying 'you can use the computer, but if you cannot understand the signs and the instructions on the computer, you're wasting time'. You still must be able to read," she said.

The Leap Into Reading, Parenting Is Best and the Story Hour are among the reading programmes run by the library.

"We have books for everybody from the cradle to the grave . . . . There are several programmes to diversify what we do and how we deliver the service, but . . . . We do not have enough people to run the programmes," Callender said.