Library reopens to the joy of students

THE National Library in Port Moresby has reopened after PNG Power switched on the electricity which had been cut for week because of non-payment of outstanding bills.
The first to celebrate the reopening lastFriday were school children who normally frequent the library after school to prepare for their end-of-the-year examinations.
National librarian Karina Bundu was not available yesterday for comments to confirm whether they had settled their power bills of about K100,000.
The National Library was forced to close on Oct 22 after power was disconnected, affecting its users, especially school students  from doing their homework and assignments.
However, yesterday there were many happy students, frequent library users, from different schools in NCD who were there to do school assignments, do home work and read books.
Some elderly men were also seen reading newspapers from the world and encyclopaedia for interest purposes and to keep up with the rest of the world.
Erik Malat, of Morobe province who was studying at the Gerehu’s department of distance learning (DODL), said he had always found the National Library environment quiet and came often to do his school work and assignments.
“When I came last week and found the library closed, I went home doing nothing. I can’t stay do my work properly at home.
“There are many children and the environment is too noisy to do any school work and the library is the only place where I can find peace and quite and focus my mind on my work,” he said.
He was upgrading his Grade 12 marks and said nowadays the demand for technical fields was high so he would like to apply for those courses.
Meanwhile, Grade Seven students Mary Natera, Debbie Vuia, Stephanie Jacob and Pedra Wapu were also there to do their assignment on two subjects; social science and physical development.
They said the library had all the information they needed and it was good it had opened its doors for them to access the information they wanted.
And Kilakila Secondary School Grade 11 student Lillian Sasavayo and Grace Pesete, and De La Salle’s Richard Laimo and Michael Mini were also among those who were happy library users yesterday.
They said the National Library was the “only library” they could have access to completing their school work rather than taking them home.