09 Oct 2023

Teacher Librarians and schools in general have been urged to do their best in ensuring that school libraries promote track record of literary works in various categories.

As such school libraries should be made accessible to learners and be user friendly at all times because they can instill a sense of wide reading to learners.

Manager Information Support at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) library, Ms Winnie Jamara, said during readers and writers competitions held at Sesholo Junior Secondary School at Tumasera on Friday.

She said competitions such as readers and writers helped unearth new talents in the field of literary works hence Botswana National Library Service (BNLS) saw it fit to grant Sesholo Junior Secondary Schoool P80 000 to run the competitions to commemorate the 2023 International School Library Month celebrations.

The competition covered five junior schools in Sefhare sub-region in Sefhare/ Ramokgonami constituency which are Sefhare, Mokobeng, Mosikari, Ramokgonami, Sesholo and the two primary schools – Seleka and Tumasera.

The event consisted of different activities such as debate, essay writing, creative writing and avid reader’s awards.

Mokobeng, Sefhare and Sesholo got position one, two and three respectively in debating.

In essay writing Baone Marumo from Sesholo JSS got position one, seconded by Gabaakanye Moseki in position two while Melissa Mosiiwa got position three.

Ms Jamara however noted that BNLS through the National Reference Library aimed to develop an efficient system of information storage and retrieval to facilitate provision of a nation - wide library and information service with the aim to promote formal and informal education.

“Through this, we therefore believe that school libraries as information repositories help in information storage and retrieval which is our core mandate as a department,” she said.

Ms Jamara said school libraries played a pivotal role in advancing learners academic performance and skills development and the skills included among others skills in the field of literary works.

She said through visiting the school library, learners could nurture and sharpen their literary skills and great readers, writers and thinkers could be discovered through competitions such as readers and writers.

She encouraged students to explore the library and equip themselves with the biggest weapon-knowledge.

Giving a preview of the grant Ms Jamara said the Literary Works Grant was a new initiative in Botswana National Library Service, which was initially housed at the Arts and Culture in Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture.

With time, she said, BNLS found it fit to have separated from the existing grants at the ministry and this was purposely done to allow BNLS to have a full custody of the grant to disburse, manage and monitor its impact on the intended clients.

Ms Jamara said literary works refers to works, other than audio-visual works, expressed in words or numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia regardless of the nature of the material objects, such as books, periodicals, manuscripts, sound recordings, films, tapes, disks, or cards, in which they are embodied.

She said they could be produced in the form of books, anthologies, journal and newspaper articles, reports, conference papers, working papers, computer software and programs, she said.

The manager said literary works play a pivotal role on repackaging content produced and published in and about Botswana.

She said they also help to gather a better understanding of culture and have a greater appreciation of them.“We learn through the ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself, hence the need to preserve our local heritage,” she said.

Ms Jamara said the grant intended to assist to deliver the mandate of supporting the main priority areas necessary for building the National literary heritage.

She noted that statistics continued to reveal that there was less production and publication of local content, hence their intent to provide financial aid to all Batswana.

 In so doing, she said, they believe and anticipated that there would be significant growth on content produced and published in Botswana.

The deputy school head for Sesholo JSS, Mr Lordick Mokobi, said October is International School library month was a period where school libraries were celebrated and clients sensitised about the role of the school libraries.

He said the competitions were part of the activities geared towards celebrating the International School Library month.

Mr Mokobi said school literary competition brings about all sorts of advantages to students, such as nurturing a desire to write, read and public speaking, that being a way to empower them and enhance their skills. ENDS