My Nonprofit Reviews

Our Library at St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Morne Jaloux, Grenada has now taken on a new look, a brighter atmosphere and an enticing set of books so generously donated by Hands-Across-The-Sea. From the time our children saw those new books, it was like Christmas for them! Indeed, they have become more motivated to read and to use the Library more often. In a sense, this has opened them to what we have written on the entrance to our Library: ‘…Sir Readalot’s Castle, …the Kingdom of BOOKS!’

Although we do not have a Librarian as yet, we do have ten student Librarians, who have now adopted the Library as their own personal baby. They enthusiastically defend the Library ‘territory’ as they fearlessly remind students it is a sacred reading space. In one case, they even ‘arrested’ a group of three students who were really speaking too loudly and refused to co-operate with the Library rules. They transported the students to my office, well-guarded on either side by the student librarians, where they read out the charges against them and the student librarians would not move until the case was adequately dealt with. Their faithfulness to their charge as student librarians, is very admirable. They have been giving very good suggestions and ideas as to how we can continue to develop and improve the Library, as they suggested having the rules written in large, bold letters in prominent areas on the walls of the Library, as a reminder to the students. They also said the children enjoy the chapter books very much, so we should get a lot more of them. What a joy to hear!

One student Librarian in particular, Tiffani, has become the unofficial leader of the group of Librarians, as she oversees their performance and calls them to order when they forget to do their duty or slip up. In one case, she brought a situation to me for verification, as she said:
“Sister, each of these two children already have a book out which they borrowed and have not returned as yet. They came today to borrow another one and I told them ‘no’, they cannot borrow a whole set of books, they have to return the last one before the can borrow another! Then they said they would report me! I told them they have to respect the Library rules!”
On afternoons, these student Librarians come to check that the books are in order at the end of the day, and they also turn off the lights and the air condition unit, and lock up before leaving for home. They are to be admired for their performance and dedication, in the absence of a Librarian.