The Authority says this is as a result of the investment made by government towards purchasing relevant materials to stock libraries across the country as well as making the library environment more attractive to the youth.
Speaking to Citi News after the Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo Markin, handed over 11 libraries he built to the authority, Executive Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Hayford Siaw indicated that the notion that Ghanaians dislike reading will be a thing of the past since government is ready to create avenues for citizens to use materials in both the static and virtual world.
“In 2016 we had just around 400,000 people visiting public libraries across the country. The reason was that, there were no books, some libraries did not even have qualified staff working there, the libraries were in a deplorable state among other reasons, but we have changed the status quo since taking over. We have ensured massive improvements by stocking up the libraries with 1,024,892 books in 2020 from the 349,941 books we inherited in 2016,” Hayford Siaw said.
He added that the network of libraries across the country has been increased from 61 to over 80 libraries thus increasing the number of visitors from 400,000 to over one million visitors across the country in 2019.
“What we are saying is that if we commit and work closely with Members of Parliament like Alexander Afenyo Markin who is giving us eleven libraries in his constituency we are going to see an increase in readership among our youth as well as development among our youth,” the Executive Director for Ghana Library Authority said.
He commended the Member of Parliament for Effutu constituency Alexander Afenyo Markin for taking the initiative to build the libraries thus urging non-governmental organizations and some MP’s to follow suit.
“As the Ghana Library Authority, we are proud to be working with the MP to construct this library and urge some MP’s and other NGOs to copy from his example. We are working to recruit qualified personnel to take charge of the libraries” Hayford Siaw added.
Source: citinewsroom.com
