Seychelles National Library set to open on Thursday |18 December 2023
(L to r) Ms Henrie, Ms Domingue and Ms Radegonde
The National Library plans to open its doors on December 21 with a host of new services and activities on offer, in order to bring the national symbol back to life.
Seychelles NATION spoke to Marylyn Henrie, Marie-Cecile Radegonde and Christiane Domingue recently about the new services, the history of the National Library and the Community Library system.
Ms Henrie explained some of the services that would be on offer include rental facilities for things such as tutoring space, exhibition space, meeting room, multipurpose room, conference room and an IT room.
Other services include reference, research and referral, onsite reading of periodicals, and facilities for group discussions.
There will also be the customary lending services, which include the terms for borrowing. This includes mandatory registration. Registered residents can borrow books free of charge whereas non Seychellois residents, in the country for less than two years, and visitors have to leave a deposit of R200 per book. Books can be borrowed on a short-term loan: 3 books for 14 days and long-term loans: up to three months. Books may be renewed twice for up to six weeks as well as reserved over the telephone.
There will also be various reprographic services such as photocopying.
Additionally, internet can be used at R30 for 15 minutes, R55 for 30 minutes but it remains free for primary, secondary and post-secondary students. The Wi-Fi will also be free for one hour per day.
Some of the holiday activities include storytelling, library visits, handicraft and book-related activities will be carried out during and after school hours for daycares, creches, primary and secondary schools.
The National Library also offers the Community Library Service which operates three reading centres, namely, in Perseverance which opened in 2018, Pointe Larue since 2019 and the third in Roche Caiman, which opened in October. They are all based at the district administration offices and operates from 9am to 5pm offering services such as research work using the internet, photocopying, educational activities such as quizzes and games during the holidays.
They also reach out and loan books to places such as day-cares and kindergarten under a programme aptly named ‘Book Box’ where the library brings the books to these places, then take them back after a month or two and renew with a new batch. Some of the notable places they have loaned books to include President’s Village and School for the Exceptional Child.
It is important to note that the National Library has two services, public and national. Ms Henrie explained that ‘National’ has more to do with the legal framework but there are other services that it provides, such as services to the publishers, ISBN and ISNN, and they encourage editors and authors to use the service to help the documents get recognised internationally. “It also helps show that the documents are authentic,” she stated.
National Library – Going down Memory Lane
1910: Carnegie Library, predecessor to the Seychelles National Library was opened by Governor Davidson on January 22. The Carnegie Library was built from a grant provided by the Carnegie Trust Fund. The library was located on the ground floor of the building and was managed by a Board of Trustees. The first floor accommodated the exhibition and concert hall.
1970: Carnegie Library Board was dissolved and the Department of Education took over the management of the Carnegie Library and renamed it the Carnegie Public Library.
1978: The Carnegie Public Library was transferred to a newly renovated building on State House Avenue where it was officially declared as the National Library on December 15, 1978. As the years went on, the National Library expanded into more specialised services such as the Children's Section, the Reference Section, a special collection on the Indian Ocean etc. Following this expansion there was a need for more space to accommodate the increasing stock and the number of readers. Provision was therefore made in the National Development Plan of 1985 - 1989 to construct a new building to house the National Library.
1981 saw a major shift with The National Library acquiring its first mobile library bus, donated by the British High Commission. This facilitated mobile library services to schools and areas away from town vicinity.
In 1987, the Ministry of Education, Information and Youth set up a National Library Trust Fund to implement the project in the National Development Plan of 1985 - 1989 which is to construct a new library building.
In 1991, things saw another major lift with the Ministry of Education, Information and Youth contracting Vijay construction (Pty) Ltd to construct a new National Library building.
1994 saw the National Library moving to the now famous spot on Francis Rachel Street. It was officially opened by President France Albert Rene on June 18, 1994 as the Seychelles National Library.
In 2005, there was the relaunching of the book box service on Silhouette Island on April 28.
2010 saw the enactment of the National Library Bill in June 2010. This bill gives the library its legal status as a proper National Library.
In 2012, the National Library saw the opening of the National Library Services unit in December 2012 with mandate to act as the National collection of publications whereby the National Library may collect documents under the Legal Deposit Act to make available information to researchers.
The year 2018 saw the opening of Ile Perseverance Reading Centre while the opening of the Pointe Larue Reading Centre was on August 18, 2019 and that for Roche Caiman on October 18, 2019.
The launch of the E-book Loan service was on December 15, 2022. The service provides free loan of e-books and audio books to all library users.
Compiled by Sunny Esparon/contributed
