Addressing reporters, Dr Mifsud Bonnici announced the setting up of the Local Councils’ Public Libraries Development Committee, which will help coordinate the administration of local and regional libraries.

The members of the committee are Oscar Grech, who will act as chairman, local councils’ director Natalino Attard, libraries and archives director Philip Borg and the Library and Information Association chairman Robert Mizzi.

The committee will be placing emphasis on marketing the libraries’ facilities to the public as well as the coordination of book purchasing.

The work programme for the committee stems from a number of suggestions local council representatives made during a conference held last March.

The conference, organised jointly by the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry and the Education Ministry, gave councillors the opportunity to share their experiences and it became clear during the conference that there was need for more coordination.

So far these libraries have all made their own arrangements regarding stocking, either through buying the books directly or through donations. In some cases this has resulted in expensive buying practices or a selection of books that does not reflect the demands of the locality.

The libraries have been installed with an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) – a system that allows users in different libraries to track books in all local and central libraries on the island.

The committee will be working on allowing clients to order a book from whichever library – local or central – they want. If the book is located in another library, then it can be ordered and borrowed from the library nearest to the client.

Another important initiative will be a course that the central library will be offering to the voluntary librarians who take care of the libraries. This will ensure an improvement in the quality of the service given as well as a better selection of literature.

“We are proposing a national strategy that will help create a synergy in the operations of these libraries, which in no way is intended as a restraint,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.