Page 30 - IB July 2018

Literacy

Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Education
Alison Burchell officiating at the summit
commended the practitioners for their
work in libraries and the realisation they
have towards the achievement of the UN
SDGs.
Burchell said as librarians, they play an
important role towards the improvement
of literacy rates in the region.
She said their roles in libraries would
also help in numeracy, technological lit-
eracy and physical literacy, most important
things they could give to the children of
the Pacific.
She thanked them for visiting a few
school libraries in Suva, which gave them
an insight of the range of libraries that are
there in Fiji.
Burchell said that since the introduction
The Pacific Libraries Summit delegates. Photo: INELI Oceania of the search engine Google, traditional
research which often maximise the use
of libraries have changed.
She believes that libraries must also
New library building for PNG change with technology.
She also shared Fiji’s library story where
the budget allocation for libraries from the
national budget has increased by 150 per
A 10 storey building costing around K100 He said that participants agreed that cent for the last six years.
million (USD30.53 million) that will house the Pacific must stand up and become self There are 450 school libraries in Fiji and
the Papua New Guinea National Library sustaining instead of relying on develop- 300 library corners set up in early child-
and National Archives is expected to be ment partners. hood education centres.
completed in 2021. “I believe all participants left with many There are 36 community libraries and
PNG’s Director General Office of Librar- challenging ideas where we ought to live work is underway to automate the four
ies and Archives Kakaito Kasi said that within our own means to ensure that we public libraries, three of which are dis-
they still trying to secure funding for this can develop libraries within country with ability friendly.
project. whatever we have,” he said. She challenged the library practitioners
He revealed this plan when officiating He also raised the issue of having e- to open the world of libraries and the
at the Pacific Libraries Summit held in libraries where many Pacific countries knowledge they hold and make it not
Suva in June. are saying that e-library is the solution to only accessible to children but for their
Kasi said his aim was to make Papua infrastructure issues. parents too.
New Guinea a big brother in regional “Instead of having a library building One of the keynote speakers Kristy
library services. which is very costly we can have iPads Sword Gusmao, the Goodwill Ambas-
“We can support other Pacific Island and computers.” sador for Education in Timor Leste, when
countries in the future, in that way we “But we raised that e-library and the sharing her experience about her Gusmao
can all improve library services delivery computers are not everything and it may Reading Room in Timor Leste where she
in the Pacific vary from country to country. We still have was the former First Lady summed up
In its efforts to improve the library ser- computer literacy issues and other forms their responsibilities saying, if the children
vices in the country, Kasi said his office of challenges where as in developed coun- can’t come to the library, take the library
was working with partners within the tries it would be quite different.” to them.
country and in the Asian-Pacific region. The Pacific Libraries Summit brought The Summit was preceded by an advo-
“Within the country we will be improv- together practitioners and representatives cacy workshop day that outlined the SDGs
ing our capacities in terms of manpower from NGOs and governments across the and how libraries can use these goals to
and resources and also connecting with Pacific to develop a plan to strengthen the develop services and programmes to serve
our partners the library service providers, impact of Pacific libraries to better sup- their communities. This was supported by
publisher, authors and illustrators.” port the needs of communities through a grant from the International Federation
“ Also the district governments will be collaboration, networking and advocacy. of Library Associations (IFLA). Librar-
supporting the National Libraries to open For the first time librarians from 15 ians were challenged to look beyond their
district and community libraries,” he said. Pacific countries including Australia and traditional comfort zone of education to
PNG’s DG of Libraries and Archives also New Zealand met to discuss how they think more broadly about goals relating
shared that the libraries summit where could use the United Nations 2030 Sus- to climate change and how libraries might
they discussed how libraries play an tainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a assist in developing resilient communities,
important role in the achievement of the framework for advocating for the role of as well as what they might do for employ-
2030 United Nations Sustainable Develop- libraries in supporting countries to reach ment and gender equality.
ment Goals was a success. their targets. - Contributed

30 Islands Business, July 2018