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Caribbean Library Development

This conference which is convened today in St. Thomas, by the College of the Virgin Islands in observance of the inauguration of the Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library is noteworthy in that it proposes to up-date and reiterate some of the problem areas with which some of us have struggled in the past. We hope that its recommendations will be the basis for further achievement through closer regional cooperation. Awareness of the need for adequate libraries and cooperation in the area was first cited by Dr. Ernest A. Savage who in his Report on the evaluation of Caribbean libraries cited the existing deplorable situation of the early 1930's, and made recommendations for library development in the area. Out of his discussions with the Carnegie Corporation emerged two significant grants. The first ($30,000.) was made to the United States Virgin Islands in 1930 for a four year period. By this means the public libraries were re-organized into a centralized service and materials and personnel strengthened. The libraries were recognized as a vital adjunct to the total educational program, and they were for the first time given departmental status in the government hierarchy. A young native woman was selected for training in the library field and received scholarship grants toward that end. The second grant ($70,000.) was made to the British West Indies in 1941 for a period of four years. Under the able direction of Dr. Helen Gordon Stewart, now in retirement, a second centralized system was initiated in the area and it became known as the Eastern Caribbean Regional Library Scheme. Another native, a young man was also selected for training under Carnegie scholarships. This second project was much more comprehensive than the first and covered a larger area of cooperation, stretching from Trinidad and Tobago northward to the British Virgin Islands. It went further than the improvement in public library operation. It set up a library training school under an extension program of the University of London in which regional candidates could earn an Associate in Librarianship. The Carnegie Cor-