Accra, April 16, GNA - Mrs. Valentina Bannerman, President of the Ghana Library Association (GLA), on Thursday called on government to increase funding to improve staffing and technology at both public and school libraries. She said today more than ever libraries and librarians were extremely important for the preservation and improvement of cultures.

Mrs Bannerman was speaking at a workshop for librarians and information professional organized by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy and the GLA in Accra.

The meeting also marked the US National Library Week celebrations. She said while libraries were distinct from the internet, librarians were the most suited professionals to guide scholars and citizens towards a better understanding of how to find valuable information online.

Mrs Bannerman said even though there was a lot of information online there was a lot more on paper and as such people should not regard the libraries as obsolete. She said libraries were now more than ever needed at this stage of the country's development when people and communities desperately had to consider alternative points of view to make up their minds. She said access to information had a great potential for human development and was the key to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mrs Bannerman also expressed concern that there was no National Library in Ghana despite efforts to get the government to establish one. She said a National Library of Ghana Bill put together in 2003 by a core group of librarians assembled and led by officials of the Ghana Library Board had so far not yielded any result. Besides there was no single government body responsible for all the libraries and their development.

Mrs Helena Asamoah-Hassan, University Librarian, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who spoke on the topic: "21st Century Librarianship in Ghana-Using the Internet, Creating Partnership" said public libraries must build social capital by partnering and networking through internet blogs and spaces and with groups and societies which had similar aims.

She said information professionals and librarians should also understand the role of technology and determine to accept changes and their frequency. Mrs Asamoah-Hassan said a successful librarian had to be computer literate, produce and present power point, work with excel spreadsheet, be skilled in searching the internet and create websites. She said this hands-on-approach would better arm the librarian to work in the ever changing environment in the application of technology in library work.