Your Ultimate Guide To Barbados

Public Library

Reading is a fundamental part of any human existence and an integral part of the development of children, no matter to which part of the world they belong. In Barbados, education and reading are considered synonymous with progression and personal development.

The Barbados Public Library was envisaged and created to reinforce these very fundamentals of reading and was established back in 1847 with the support of Government of Barbados. In those days, long before literature, books and information was so accessible to the average person, it was also conceptualized in order to provide a quiet and peaceful location with access to books for those persons who might either have been unable to afford the books, or whose surroundings may not have been conducive to getting any quality reading done.

Whatever was in circulation was made available between the walls of the Library: fiction, non-fiction, self-help, educational and spiritual, personal development and self-help.

The library headquarters are in the capital city of Bridgetown. For many years,  the Main library was on Coleridge Street in the city and was housed in a architectural structure reminiscent of the period in which was built. Sadly age and wear and tear caused the Government to make a decision to temporarily close the library at that location. It was reopened at Independence Square.

The objective of the Library reads as follows:
To be a centre of excellence providing library services to satisfy the educational, informational and recreational needs of the community.

Today, there is the Main or Barbados Public Library which was reopened at Independence Square. In addition, there are seven district libraries scattered across Barbados, all of which provide registered membership to both locals and visitors to the island. Work geared towards implementing a digital registration process was scheduled to begin in 2010. One aspect that this would allow is the enabling of synchronization of the registration systems at the local public libraries  such that persons would avoid having to undertake a multiplicity of registrations if they which to use or access the services of more than one library.

Finally, the Library accepts donations of books from organizations or individuals so long as they are in good condition. Any such donations would be retained at the Main library or distributed as necessary among the satellite libraries.

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