Pat Roxborough, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
SEVERAL LIBRARIES in Jamaica are cut off from the rest of the world because they do not have a telephone line or a computer to facilitate access to the Internet.
The libraries, which represent the primary source of research for some readers in the parish, have been severely hampered by the deficiencies.
"The importance of this cannot be over-emphasised. It's very necessary because we need to keep up with the global community and the developed world. The Internet provides a service that is faster than mail. It gives us additional information in a situation where our book stock is in a very poor condition, where our encyclopaedias are out of date," said Gloria Salmon, the director of library services.
Some of the affected libraries such as the Seaforth Library in St. Thomas applied for a telephone line as far back as 1997, but according to customer service representatives at Cable and Wireless, no lines are available to service the request.
Failure
Customer service representatives gave the same reason for the failure to service the application in 1998 by Pennants Library in Clarendon and the applications made last year by the Trench Town and May Pen libraries in Kingston and Clarendon respectively.
According to Karen Barton, the regional librarian for Manchester, two of the 12 libraries that serve the parish have access to the Internet. The readers that visit these and other libraries that are on-line pay $50 for every 30 minutes they spend on the Internet.
"The demand for Internet access is great and our computers are heavily used," she said.
A survey has not been conducted to determine exactly how many readers at the various branches want the service. However, Mrs. Barton said that requests were constantly being made by readers. Mrs. Salmon could not say when the various libraries would be able to access the Internet.
"The telephone company always treats us very well, so I expect that when the time comes we will get the necessary lines," she said. "As for the computers I am not quite sure when we will get those."
