Library exhibit honours National Collection
During brief ceremonies in Belize City today, librarians gathered at the Thurton Library on North Front Street to mark the official opening of an exhibition celebrating the country’s young history. The show is called “The National Collection: Contributing to National Growth.” According to Brian Plummer, chairman of the Thurton Library Board, the idea of the presentation is to encourage the public to educate themselves about Belize.
Brian Plummer, Chairman, Thurton Library Board
?A lot of our people don?t know our history, in fact I would say only few know our history. The educated elite probably studied history but we think education should be for the masses. Everyone should know where they come and part of the national library agenda is to make sure everyone knows about the history of Belize.?
?The task is daunting but we are, it?s a fight that we keep on get people to come to the library. As they say, knowledge is power and information leads to transformation, so if you want to make the society better, you have to empower people with information, there is no other way.?
Charles Gibson, Belize Archives Department
?Now with virtual libraries, virtual archives, virtual e photographs, e images, it?s difficult to have people to read. But my feeling still if students in the home, in the schools are encouraged to read, down the road they will begin to read even more. You can go see a movie, you can go see film. But there is nothing like reading a book, reading gives you that feeling that part of the author, sharing those ideas those intimate ideas and I feel that reading is very important and I think what we need to do more is ? I remember we had the boys readers group, the girls readers group, maybe perhaps its something like that we need to start over.?
As part of today’s ceremonies, former Chief Librarians Lawrence Vernon, Alice Gibson and Leo Bradley Senior, as well as current Chief Librarian Joy Ysaguirre, were honoured for their contributions to the National Library Service.
