Antigua Public Library
| Antigua Public Library | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 17°07′14″N 61°50′19″W / 17.120508°N 61.838485°W | |
| Location | St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda |
| Established | 1854 |
The Antigua Public Library is the national library of Antigua and Barbuda, located in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda.
History
The Public Library was founded in 1830 as a private venture. According to a 1932 report the aim was the "gradual formation of a permanent library of general literature, and an associated reading room". Soon an act of parliament established the Antigua Library Society changing the library's status to that of a corporation. In 1843 an earthquake partially destroyed the library and its proprietors private properties leading to their ruin. The government assumed ownership in 1854 transferring management to local trustees whose powers increased in 1871.
Old building
On 8 October 1974, Antigua experienced a major earthquake which damaged the building to such extent that it had to be vacated. The library was temporarily moved to another building on High Street. In 1978, the library was moved again to what was intended to be temporary quarters on the upper floor of a commercial building on Market Street. It has been operating from this location until September 2014 when it was relocated to its permanent library building on Hailes Promenade.
New building
The Antigua and Barbuda High Commission noted in 2002[1] that construction of a new modern 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) library was "progressing well". An EC$1 million donation from Allen Stanford was received in December 2004, in order to reduce the time for completion of the library from the 'too long' one year to six months, with a promise from him to match further donations received. The High Commission noted in 2006 that the library would be ready by quarter 1 2007,[2] and in late 2007 that the library 'must be delivered' in the first half of 2008.[3] A $6.45 million contract was signed to complete the library in 2008 by March 2009.[4] The construction was handed over by the Antigua Public Works Department, which had built the incomplete library structure to Gilcon Enterprises,[5] a local firm, which then had its contract withdrawn due to delays in pricing the job, and then passed onto Antigua & Barbuda Contractors Enterprises Limited, a local construction consortium. The new consortium examined the site in September 2008, noting that it had numerous structural defects, delaying scheduled completion from mid-2009 to the end of 2009.[6] Work on the library was again suspended in 2011, but resumed late in January 2013.[7] The building itself was competed and dedicated in September 2014, but it is unclear whether or not the library as such is currently serving the public.[8]
See also
References
- ^ [1] Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [2] Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [3] Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Library Focus" (PDF). Foapl.org. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
- ^ "Gilcon Enterprises Ltd". Gilcononline.net. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- ^ "Library Focus" (PDF). Foapl.org. 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Work on Public Library to resume next week | Antigua Observer Newspaper". Antiguaobserver.com. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20140415175347/http://www.ab.gov.ag/article_details.php?id=4758&category=38. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
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