Nakaseke community library is at the verge of being closed because of lack of funds to sustain its operations. Nakaseke community library was started in 1997 by residents with support of the British Council, UNESCO, Uganda Telecom and UNICEF and stocked with over 8000 books. The library was expected to act as a resource center for students and residents of Nakaseke and Luweero districts.
The donors pulled out of the project mid 2000 leaving it to survive on the money generated from the user fee. Currently, only about four people visit the library daily compared to 25 people who used to visit it five years ago. Peter Balaba, the manager Nakaseke Community Library says that they introduced membership fee of shillings 10,000 for people to borrow books from the Library for three months but no person has subscribed.
He says that because of the poor reading culture amongst community members even the students have failed to utilize the opportunity to read books in Library free of charge. He says that some of the books on the shelves have not been read for several years. Balaba says they have suspended buying newspapers because of lack of money.
//Cue in; the reading culture is very poor…………………
Cue out;……………………..challenges were are facing//
Balaba says that they recently introduced a book box system to allow schools to hire books for a specific period so as to generate some income but only a few schools have embraced the idea putting the future of the library at stake. Balaba appeals to the district Education department to intervene and rescue the library from closing.
However, some of the people interviewed by URN say that the library is stocked with old books, while some of them said they were not aware of its existence. Richard Ale Sunday, a social worker in Nakaseke says that he is not aware of the presence of the library because it is located in a remote area.
// cue in; well if you look………………………
Cue out;……………………….sustain them’’//
Annet Nansubuga, a student says that she is interested in books that are on the school syllabus, but they found in the library. Steven Batanudde , Nakaseke District Education Officer also faulted the library management of failing to market its products to schools who are immediate users leading to low revenues.
He promised to intervene in the plight of the library and diversify its means of survival.
