Workshop a first for librarians in ENB

A FIRST-of-its-kind workshop for librarians was conducted in East New Britain to equip them with knowledge to properly manage books allocated to school libraries.
Kokopo MP and Minister for Communication and Information Patrick Tammur, during the closing of the workshop last Friday, encouraged workshop participants to motivate students to use the libraries and re-ignite the interest for reading.
He said the workshop was a significant one bringing to reality a memorandum of understanding signed between Hope Worldwide and his office early this year, to supply books to all elementary, primary and high schools in Kokopo and consequently to train teachers and librarians to properly manage school libraries.
Mr Tammur said in the next couple of weeks, some 49,000 books would be distributed to most elementary and primary schools in Kokopo and librarians have all been tasked to look after the books and manage their use.
He said books might not be appealing, especially to children as they would rather listen to a radio or do something else than read a book.
He said using a library could be either fun or boring and a lot depended on the knowledge and skills of a librarian.
“Most of the time library users spent the whole day looking for specific information they needed, but a skilled librarian could automatically identify the books which contain the exact information,” Mr Tammur said.
He said like elsewhere, schools in Kokopo either had no library or their libraries did not have any books.
Mr Tammur said it was his wish that Kokopo would one day have its very own public library as currently, the only public library in the province was situated in Rabaul.