The facility will to be built next to the business block of the Oakes Field campus at the junction of Tucker Road and Thompson Boulevard.
Construction is predicted to start during the summer and involve multiple phases, which will cost more.
Dr. Higgs said he was extremely pleased about the undertaking and added that the library is crucial to the 30-year-old academic institution, which is continuing to further develop its programs, moving closer to becoming a full-fledged university.
Accessibility to the public
He said the facility would not only be accessible to COB students but also the general public.
“You can’t build that kind of facility and say it’s only for The College of The Bahamas students. We have scholars in this community that want to do research, we have a number of other institutions, we have school children, and we have the general public. It’s going to be impossible to keep the general public out of that and I don’t know that it’s our wish to do that…. not with this kind of facility,” he said.
He said the library would house, in addition to the regular reference and study areas, a number of special collection areas. One of those areas will feature a historical overview of the college and another will feature the life of former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling.
The president said he hoped that in the not-too-distant future, the library would be a central part of the college landscape. In fact the facility, which is still only a drawing, is already being dubbed the “signature building” of the campus.
Mr. Leslie Johnson, partner of ARConcepts, and graduate of the college, said the library would be the brain of the campus and symbolise a place where college students and the general public gather in the quest for knowledge.
“We are very excited at ARConcepts to start this project. We were eager about six months ago and now we feel that it is time to get the ball rolling and we hope that we will do the college proud,” he said.
Dr. Higgs said the Ministry of Works is planning to realign Tucker Road, pushing it farther south thereby enabling the amalgamation of the college and the hotel training campuses. The library, he said, would be the bridge between the two buildings.
A time when the facility would likely be completed could not be determined as the architectural firm partner said the press conference was only a preliminary one and that more would be held. He said as soon as he is able to thoroughly walk through the construction document with Dr. Higgs, he would give a timeline, which would be adhered to.
When asked if the present library is inadequate Mrs. Willimae Johnson, Library Director said because The Bahamas has a small economy, funding is always a major problem, preventing the college from getting all of the books it needs.
However, she said through the college’s website (cob.edu.bs), launched last year, students all over the world are able to access information in its library. The website also makes information, not available in the library, accessible through a network.
Library resources
“There is no library in the world that has everything it needs and so you would find that we are able to help our students access information from anywhere in the world from other libraries,” she said.
She explained that the college makes the exchange possible through referrals and inter-library loads. She also chided Internet gurus and stressed that libraries are not outdated places but are still very much needed today. She said less than 25 per cent of the world’s knowledge is available on the Internet.
“So people who are saying that the Internet has everything… far cry from it,” she said.
In some countries, especially Middle Eastern ones, certain books have been banned. On that score the library director said COB does not sensor religious or other books, which may be considered unorthodox to the Bahamian culture.
“We don’t sensor. We feel that persons have a personal obligation to determine what it is they want and they must be sensible enough to make that selection wisely having looked at all of the options,” she said.
By Mindell Small, The Nassau Guardian
