Internet not replacement for books as source of information

Agortime-Kpetoe, July 28, GNA - Mr Elikem Tamakloe, Acting Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Library Board, has said the emergence of the internet cannot preclude the importance of books as the prime source of knowledge.

He was speaking at the launch of a mobile library service for four communities in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District in the Volta Region at Agortime-Kpetoe on Monday.

Mr Tamakloe said the book is still the universal source in the acquisition of knowledge and self-development.

He said the mobile library concept is meant to provide information at the door steps of people without access to static libraries. Mr Tamakloe said the service was expected to meet the information, education, research and cultural needs of the target population and also bridge the gap in access to books between urban and rural dwellers. He urged local government agencies to establish static libraries in communities to speed up the attainment of government objective of no citizen walking "more that five kilometres to acquire information". Mr Tamakloe said under the mobile library programme - a stop gap measure - two districts in each region would be provided the facility for use by two communities in the beneficiary districts. He said in the case of the Adaklu-Anyigbe District however, four communities, Ziope, Waya, Aboadi and Kpetoe, would benefit from the mobile library service.

Mr Tamakloe said yearly token registration fees of Ghc 1.00, adults, 50 Ghp, senior high school students, 30 Ghp junior high school students and 20 Ghp, primary school pupils would be charged for access to the 2,064 books on all subjects available on the library on wheels. Mr Michael Kobla Adzaho, Adaklu-Anyigbe District Chief Executive, said the service "would invariably lead to the reduction of ignorance, deprivation, squalor and above all poverty that have engulfed our people all these years". He appealed to NGOs, civil society organizations, philanthropists and individuals to donate relevant books to the service.