Accra, March 19, GNA - Efforts by the Ghana Library Board to revive and promote the defunct Mobile Library Service (MLS) have reached its final take-off point, Mr Omari Tenkorang, Acting Executive Director of the Board, said on Wednesday.

He said ever since 10 mobile vans were provided to the Board, a lot had been done to ensure that the service did not fail again. Mr Tenkorang said this during the presentation in Accra of the final report on the MLS policy guidelines by a Committee tasked to provide an implementation plan to revive the Service. The MLS, which started in the early 1950s but went defunct in the 1980s, is expected to help bridge the in-country information divide. Mr Tenkorang said 20 MLS staff had been trained on service delivery, adding that the Board, in consultation with the respective stakeholders such as Regional Coordinating Councils and the Ghana Education Service (GES), was selecting target districts and communities as start-off points to pilot the project. He said the document would be carefully studied and that recommendations made by interest groups would be noted to facilitate the success of the MLS.

Giving an overview of the report, Mr Fredrick Baada, Chairman of the MLS Committee, said the main thrust of the policy document was the involvement of the Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies, Traditional Authorities, and the GES to come out with modalities on delivery to the beneficiary communities. Mr Baada said would ensure the successful execution of the programme taking into considerations factors that led to the collapse of the MLS.

He stressed that government's commitment and the board's pro-activeness were critical success factors of the programme. He anticipates that the Board would constitute and inaugurate all district MLS committees next month to fast track the take-off of the programme.