Neglected state of libraries disappointment

The National Weekender
LIBRARIES
“On many occasions, libraries, records and archives, statistical bureaus and museums do not feature in all these programmes. Provinces and districts get visited from the national level for monitoring of infrastructure set up with the use of those funds and life goes on.”
The Enga Take Anda or provincial museum operated by the Enga administration is perhaps the best provincial museum currently operating in the country. All provinces need libraries and museums to enable an educated population for the PNG Vision 2050 to become reality. – Picture borrowed.

TUKUL WALLA KAIKU
ACHIEVING the PNG Vision 2050 of being smart, wise, fair and a happy society by the year 2050 maybe but a dream, if nothing is done about setting up libraries, records and archival facilities, statistical bureaus, and museums in Papua New Guinea’s provinces, districts, local-level government wards and schools across the country.
Currently, there is very little to nothing being done by successive leaders and bureaucrats to ensure Papua New Guinea will be a happy society and its people smart, wise and fair when it comes to developing an information literate society through information services and knowledge dissemination and progress in the rural areas.
Libraries struggling
There are currently 22 provincial governments and administrations. Of these, at least six provincial libraries are barely struggling to survive. A scan of the provinces, shows one province, Milne Bay has a provincial library with a modern building and a trained librarian. It is currently the best and leading provincial library in the country. Credit goes to the provincial government and administration as it was their initiative. This was after the former Milne Bay library building was burnt down several years ago, hence the new modern one.
In Manus, the Manus court house was burnt down several years ago and for want of accommodation, the court staff moved into and took over the provincial library. The Chimbu provincial library built prior to independence also had gone up in flames several years ago. So far, Chimbu does not have a new library building as yet.
Who is responsible?
So who exactly is responsible for facilitating the transformation of people and turning them into smart, wise and fair outlook by the year 2050? In terms of dissemination of knowledge and an information-literate society, whose responsibility is it to ensure the provinces, districts, local-level governments, wards and schools have purpose built facilities where information and knowledge can be sourced resulting in the transformation of living standards from a low to a high?
At the national level, there is the Ministry of Communication and Information whose title befits the management of and movement and communication of information. However, the ministry is very quiet and is more into cyberspace, while the villagers and rural populace are at most times in the dark as to what is happening.
The Office of Libraries and Archives under the Ministry of Education is responsible for ensuring that the library and archives services are operating at all levels of government. A 10-year plan alludes to such, but the manner in which corporation and coordination with provincial governments and provincial administrations in relation to the establishment of provincial libraries and archival facilities has more or less been on an ad hoc basis rather than as a national approach.

Proclamation of Independence on Sept 16, 1975. Sir John Guise, the first Governor-General of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea declared then: “Distinguished guests, visitors from overseas, people of Papua New Guinea, Papua New Guinea is now independent. The constitution of the Independent state of Papua New Guinea under which all power rests with the people is now in effect. We have at this point in time broken with our colonial past and we now stand as an independent nation in our own right. Let us unite with the almighty God’s guidance and help in working together for a future as a nation and free country.”

Holistic approach needed
The National Planning Department has been planning and conducting planning conferences and visits to provinces and districts, but, a holistic national developmental approach is very sadly lacking. The Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs is yet to fully implement a section in the Local-level Governments Administration Act 1997 in relation to legislating of content of a village book.
And while the DPLGA is slumbering, the rural people are waiting for their respective local level Government Officers to visit and advise them on governance matters. In the meantime, the Local-level government officers at the LLG headquarters are waiting for the district officers to advise them while the district officers are waiting for the provincial administration officers to advise them.
The entire network is as dead as dead.
The Department of Rural Development and Implementation is carrying the money bag for the district services improvement programmes (DSIPs) and provincial service improvement programmes (PSIPs). On many occasions, libraries, records and archives, statistical bureaus and museums do not feature in all these programmes. Provinces and districts get visited from the national level for monitoring of infrastructure set up with the use of those funds and life goes on.
The Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission administers the national general election every five years. Two years before the elections, provincial and district officials visit wards to obtain and carry out the household counts and obtain data.
Even then, such data is obtained on an ad hoc basis and it is not known where the information is stored after it has been handed over to the provincial administration official in charge of such government activities. All 22 provincial governments and administrations do not have records and archival facilities for storage, access and retrieval of government information.

Children visiting the American Corner at the National Library in Port Moresby. The author says library services throughout the country need to be improved for the benefit of all citizens.

Raising literacy not in duty statement
In the provinces, the governors and members of Parliament representing the districts come and go while the provincial and district administrations operate year in year out. The business of raising the literacy level of the people and making knowledge accessible and available to the people of their provinces does not exist in their duty statements.
We surely hope that the PNG Vision 2050 of being smart, wise, fair and a happy society by the year 2050 becomes a reality. But to achieve and reach that high standard, knowledge is necessary for an information literate populace.
It is critical that concerned government agencies corporate and collaborate to ensure libraries, records and archival facilities, statistical bureaus, and museums are established in Papua New Guinea’s provinces, districts, local-level government wards and schools across the country.
Then and there, the country can happily annually celebrate political independence and aim for the year 2050.

  • The writer is lecturer with the Information and Communication Sciences Strand, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea.