Region’s libraries look to digital future
Over the next three days professionals from across the Caribbean and the country will be in Belize City to participate in the first ever e-librarian workshop. It is proposed that with traditional library use on the decline, the challenge is to create a hybrid version of the book and the internet. The sessions are being financed by UNESCO and the idea is to use information and communications technology to digitise books on the shelf. But according to U.W.I. Cave Hill campus librarian, Karen Lequay, even though such programs are already underway in parts of the Caribbean, the service would be by subscription to defray the substantial costs associated with the initiative.
Karen Lequay, Campus Librarian, U.W.I. Cavehill
“You can go on the web and see a thumbnail and see some of the things but not everything is there but it’s going forward. Jamaica as well is starting their digitisation program so from a regional university point of view we already have a programme in and it’s just really to have the right amount of people to produce that because scanning and digitising and making sure the content can be seen is pretty intensive.”
“If you look at it, the Caribbean has a wealth of information and what other people should hold their information? We should really hold it. We don’t want to send it out to the rest of world for them for them to basically have it free on the web. We want to make them understand that it is worth something to us so we have to be very careful in our digitisation but as I said, the thing that is holding us back, it is really the human capacity to do the job.”
With that in mind, one of the aims of the e-workshop is for librarians of the region to pool their resources to promote Caribbean content on the web. And even though the book shelves are going online, Belize’s Principal Librarian Lawrence Vernon maintains the move is not the end of the printed word.
Lawrence Vernon, Principal Librarian, Belize National Library Service
“Even the profession of librarianship, they say is becoming obsolete, this is because of the information that can be found on the web, you can access a book, you can order a book through Amazon.com and things like that but to my mind, the book will take a long time to really become obsolete.”
Janelle Chanona
“Even though this new generation is so technology-centred?”
Lawrence Vernon
“Yes because we hear about a laptop for every person, for every student and things like that but in the end you still have to revert to the book for quite a lot of information that you can’t access on the web.”
The experts also agree that other obstacles that could hinder the full digitisation of the library include intellectual property rights and copyright infringement issues. The e-librarian workshop ends on Friday.
