Chitipa District Council fails to secure library

Chitipa District Council is yet to secure a room to be used as a library despite receiving 16 cartons of books from National Library Service (NLS).

National librarian Gray Nyali said the situation forces people in the district to flock to Karonga District Library.

“Records show that plenty of our members registered at Karonga District Council library are from Chitipa. The situation reflects the challenge people are facing due to the absence of the facility in Chitipa.

“It is worrisome that we provided Chitipa District Council with necessary start- up support to have their own library, but they chose not to own that,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Chitipa District Council chairperson Isaac Mwepa said he is not aware that NLS provided start-up books to the council.

“I am not aware that we were given the books, otherwise we would have turned part of our community hall into a library because it is a must to have such a service,” he said.

Chitipa District Commissioner (DC) Grace Chirwa admitted receiving books from NLS, but said they are still working on securing a conducive building to be used as library.

“We got the books, but infrastructure has been a big challenge. However, we are working on that and once we receive enough funds, we will build a good block for the library,” she said.

Meanwhile, NLS, with funding from Book Aid International of the United Kingdom has expanded its operations by introducing open door children’s library services in Karonga, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe Area 36 Satellite Library, Mulanje and Mzuzu. n