UNT professor builds library for Jamaican town in need

What started as a 2001 vacation for Carol Simpson, assistant professor of library and information sciences, has turned into an ongoing mission of good librarianship.

While in Jamaica for relaxation and recreation, Simpson learned about a book drive at her resort for a school near the impoverished town of Negril, located on Jamaica's western tip. Super Clubs, a Jamaican resort chain, had collected more than 1,500 books from passing tourists to fill a new children's library for the area.

But the books were still sitting in boxes because the resort lacked the know-how to create stacks and policies for such a library. That was all it took to get Simpson to donate her skills and resources as a librarian. Simpson and six UNT library and information sciences graduate students headed back to Negril June 8-15 to create the library.

Simpson and the UNT students developed policies to establish the library, organized the stacks of books and did preliminary work on a card catalog.

"When I visited last summer I was told that there was no library," Simpson says. "Many of these kids are so poor that books may be their only means to see anything of the world, so there was definitely a need for this. This area is so poor that we've had to get donations of pre-computer-era library equipment because there's no reliable electricity."

The graduate students repaired the second-hand books and prepared them for circulation with pockets and cards.

Through librarian groups on the Internet, Simpson was able to get old card catalogs, supplies and more book donations. During their weeklong visit to Negril, Simpson and the students recorded the titles and authors of the books so that they can create a card catalog to be shipped back to Negril. The people of the town will only have to drop the cards into the drawers to complete the library.

Simpson's work in making libraries available won't end this year. Next year, through a contact made in one of her Internet classes, she will head to Thailand to do similar work for a school/community library.

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

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