B.V.I. Tuesday, April 21 – The Department of Library Services will “take the lead” to reach out to senior citizens across the Territory through the launch of a senior citizens’ outreach programme on Wednesday.

So said Hon. Andrew Fahie, Minister for Education and Culture who has responsibilities for the library services, as he addressed the Territory on Sunday at the start of Library Week 2009.

The minister said, “it is very important that we continue to engage our senior citizens in activities that will keep their minds sharp, the Library Services is taking the lead in this initiative and I am happy to be a part of this activity”.

The library’s outreach programme will be implemented at senior citizens’ centres throughout the Territory and will use interactive elements to initiate discussions on life in the Virgin Islands past.  The programme will feature the use of songs, stories, photographs and artefacts that will be taken to the centres for the weekly activity.

Speaking to the Department of Information and Public Relations, Chief Librarian Ms. Suzanne Greenaway said the programme is an extension of an oral history programme that the library filmed and produced in 2007 and will seek to record the history of the Virgin Islands in the same ways of oral tradition.

The senior citizens’ outreach programme will be officially launched on Wednesday, April 22 at the Abraham Leonard Community Centre in Carrot Bay.

The ceremony which begins at 10:30 a.m. will feature remarks by the Minister for Education and Culture. The minister will also attend the launching of the Virgin Gorda Community Library Book Club on Wednesday evening. 

Library Week is being observed in the Territory from April 18 to April 25 under the theme, ‘An open book opens minds and opens doors’. In addition to the main library in Road Town, the Territory has other libraries on Tortola, Anegada and Virgin Gorda. Library Week ends on Friday with a Culture Day at 10:00 a.m. at the Sit Rupert Briercliffe Hall.