ጥቂት ስለ ሃዋሳ ከተማ የህዝብ ቤተመጽሐፍት

At what level Hawasa Public Library is now?
Library user requesting the librarian keeping their turn

In a public library where almost more than 80 per cent of its first-string users are high school students who are marching to joining the higher education institutes, the inaccessibility of government prepared text books is simply an obstacle for their smooth academic journeys. As the text books are designed by scholars so as to feed higher educational institutes in the country with an enlightened generation that knows the economical, developmental, political, social and other directions of the nation, the government should be very much concerned about them. In spite of how relevant these text books are, high school students and users of the Hawasa Public Library are sternly complaining about the shortage of government text books. In fact, The Ethiopian Herald observed similar problems at Bahir Dar Public Library and dealt with hem a couple of months ago. With a population of over 300 thousand, the sole public library- Hawasa Public Library is in search of government text books very badly. In short, the text books are 'the most wanted' there.
Roles of library
Saying this and that about the roles of public libraries at this point seems to tell something cliche. But, it is also worth mentioning, according to the writer, to share the experience of the library hunters and others who are related to the library in one way or another. Asnakech Willa, Acting Manager of the Library said, “Libraries play significant role in supporting students education and public knowledge.” If it supports education, it, therefore, means that the library has its own contribution to the growth of nation. Libraries, by nature are comfortable places for students to read with concentration, she added. Reading, whatsoever material will help us gain something helpful and widen our scope of knowledge apart from improving our poor reading habit. Besides, Asnakech agreed on the protective role libraries play to the youth not to be trapped by drugs, alcohol, cigarette and other addictions. The library started giving service in 1995, after two years of its establishment and after the completion of its two floor building. According to Asnakech, the library is visited by 700-800 users daily especially during exam times. Serving in shifts, the library can accommodate around 300 users at a time where sometimes it is overflown and the rest have to return.
Mihret Genene, Culture, Tourism and Communication Affairs Department Head said that a library helps the society including students at different levels to build their capacity through reading the available materials from research to the fictions. She added that libraries also have a role of helping an individual attain complete personality.
Who is it serving?
Giving service Monday-Friday, Hawasa Public Library is open from 8am-6pm, including lunch hours. Asnakech said the library is not only for the high school students, it is also for university students be they are regular, evening or weekend program attendants. Masters program students of the university i.e. Hawasa University as well are frequent customers to the library, she added. Despite their less number compared to the university students, civil servants and dwellers in the city also read in the library quite often. She put her hypothesis saying that the number in this regard declined as a result of the unavailability of newspapers, magazines and similar publications for long. True to this, it was observed a year aged Addis Zemen - the daily Amharic newspaper- ironically a recent there. And a similarly old Reporter newspaper was on the desk while there was not any, nor recent nor old, magazines avail to the readers.
With the capacity of holding around 250 students at a time, as Asnakech indicated, the library also includes its own isolated classroom in its second floor for elementary students of grade 1-8. In this category, according to her, the number of users is not as many as the high school ones; she said that to the maximum 100 students visit the library’s children room on a daily basis.
The number of elementary students who are using the library and others also is expected to rise when the library opens on weekends which Asnnakech is hoping to be effected soon.
Books in the library
According to Asnakech, the library has got books of various disciplines ranging from medicine to reference materials, from literature to geography, from psychology to philosophy, from language to accounting, and the like. She mentioned that there are two ways where the library gets books. One is, she said, “We are donated by organizations such as Ethiopian Knowledge & Technology Transfer Society ( EKTTS) which donated us 10 thousand books including some 20 computers so as to provide the internet service to users.” Plus to this, she said the city culture bureau budgets to supply books to the library.
What do users say?
Senait Yakob, a 3rd year accounting student in one of the colleges in the town is among the regular users of the library and said that it benefited her a lot. She said, “It is in this library that I get books which I could not find in my college.” Adding to this, she said that reading in such library is safe as there is no suffocation problem as the rooms are spacious. “I am comfortable when I am here; so that, I am here at least three days a week,” she added. Senait said that the availability of various reference books in the library develops her knowledge on the subject matter she is studying. Moreover, she said that she visits the library even when she is not in a good mood so that she reads fictions and get refreshed.
However, Senait urged for the need of ventilators in the library so that students can read without feeling, being disturbed by, the hot weather. Besides, she said that the service would be more complete if there is internet service. Having said this, she extended her appreciation to the librarian and the rest of the staff for their commendable services. Appreciating their close follow up whether students are seriously reading or not, Senait said that the librarian recommend them what type of book to read and so on.
Making himself ready to take the national exam of his 12th grade this year, Dagim Fekadu said that he has been coming to library for the last three years. He said the library is so much helpful for it saves time to spend in a better place for a better purpose or they would be in other ruinous places. “The library has been contributing significantly to the concentration in what is being read and thereby we will understand the content of our reading better,” added Dagim. He further elucidated that there are a variety of books so that students are provided with opportunities to choose according to their needs.
Sharing Senait's compliment, Dagim told this writer that the service users are provided with by the staff library ranging from the guards to the librarian and the rest of the workers was laudable.
Nevertheless, according to Dagim, there are issues that need to be corrected. As the curriculum changes these time, the very old books, he expressed them saying, “Older than I am,” must be changed. “There are no new text books,” he condemned. “As final exams are usually drawn from these new text books in the national and regional level, students are most likely to face challenges during exams as there is a serious shortage of text books,” he was quoted saying. He also underlined on the importance of the internet service in particular students of higher education.
As the library is the only one in its kind and therefore flooded by people from different directions riding their own bicycles, there is no dependable security for those bicycles. There has to be a system that guarantees readers only read with total concentration than worrying about their bicycle outside, said Dagim. Suggesting to such problems, he said coupon would work somehow where owner of the bicycle takes one and guards take the other so that they would sort out problems related to this. “I remember once one of my friends lost his bicycle but fortunately he found it with the people he knew,” adding to this, Dagim continued, “had the bicycle been stolen by others that my friend did not know, he would have not gotten his cycle and as a result he would have hated coming to the library.” According to him, the problem, if not given solution, is serious as students, civil servants in Hawasa are known for using bike for transportation.
In addition to the aforementioned matter to be solved, Dagim stressed on the need to prolonging the time of the service of the library. He said the reading time must be extended to 6 pm. More importantly, he accentuated on the necessity of opening the library on Saturdays and Sundays. “For many of us, especially for those of us who attend schools for full day these two days are very essential to be used effectively if the library is open on those days,” he emphasized. If a student has to use its free time to read in the library, there is no more ample and exact time than the two days on weekends, he concluded.
Textbook shortage
As can be seen on the shelves of the library, a great deal of books varied in disciplines are made available. However, Asnakech emphasized that the library is rather not satisfying high school students that count the majority of its users as a result of a serious lack of text books.
Many complain about the shortage of the government text books especially for the high school students.
Besides, among the severe complains users had was absence of a rest room in the compound of the library which seems now on the verge of no more worth complaining. As was observed, there is rest room construction underway in the compound. Among the positive comments are users satisfaction over the service they are being provided with by the staff of the library. Mihret agreed that there is a gap as far as supplying text books in the library is concerned. She even said that there are fewer number of text books available in the library compared to the number of students who wish to use them. However, reminding that there had been efforts to provide the library with text books by her bureau, she said, last year and about 150 text books were provided to the library. Although not sufficient, she added that there was an effort from the bureau to provide the library at least with one or two government text materials of each grade.
In addition to this, Mihret said that her bureau is working on opening the library on weekends to satisfy the needs of students whose ample and right time to use the library is on weekends.( It was understood later this week that the library already began serving on Saturdays and Sundays. Well done!)
ምንጭ፦ http://www.ethpress.gov.et/herald/index.php/herald/society/6563-at-what-level-hawasa-public-library-is-now

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