Philipsburg Jubilee Library’s (PJL) Director, Monique Alberts and the Information Services Manger, Irmin Hughes attended the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries’s (ACURIL) 44th annual conference in the Bahamas from June 8-12 at the Melia Nassau Resort, Cable Beach.
Over 250 delegates, primarily from throughout the region, and associates from the United States, Canada, South Africa and Europe attended the five-day meeting. The theme of the 2014 ACURIL Conference was “Libraries, Archives and Museums: Gateways to Information Literacy and Cultural Heritage”.
“The Philipsburg Jubilee Library has been a long time member of ACURIL since the 1980s. Our former Director, Blanca Hodge also served as President of ACURIL. I also served on the ACURIL Executive council for four years. Our library has a longstanding history with this Association because we believe our growth and development hinges on continued interaction and sharing of experiences and knowledge with other libraries in the region and the world”, stated Alberts.
Both Alberts and Hughes presented to over 90 delegates, representing libraries throughout the Caribbean, on the topic of “Cultural Heritage and Information Literacy on St. Maarten: The role of the Philipsburg Jubilee Library”, on June 10. Some interviews from The DVD Back in the Day by Laura Bijnsdorp also formed part of the presentation.
“The presentation was very well received by the audience. We got a lot of requests for copies of the presentation as well as the DVD”, stated Alberts.
At the end of the conference, Jane Smith, Library Director of the Anton de Kom University in Suriname was elected as the new President of ACURIL for 2014-2015. The next conference will be held in June in Paramaribo, Suriname.
The trip to the ACURIL conference was financed by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied.
