During the recent past a senior member of this newspaper’s staff had to conduct some extensive research into a specific period of this nation’s history and became increasingly appalled at the state of the chronicles of Guyana’s historical data base.

The antipathetic staff of the archives, when apprised of the period of the research material required, was openly hostile and declared without apology or explanation, “For that kind of research you need to go to the library.”
Now we are talking about Guyana’s archives here. Nevertheless, she plodded on, and despite the fact that she asked for several other print media covering that period, she was only given the ‘Chronicle’, the state organ, which was not very relevant to her research for the period that she needed the research data.
She was advised that much of the material of that period she was researching was missing and that they could not make copies from newspaper files, which is ironical for a national archives, so the Chronicle staff member had to use a camera to obtain copies.
However, she wasted much precious time in an effort to garner some relevant material pertinent to her requirements but, not unexpectedly, discovered that the then Chronicle Editor-in-Chief of the period had not been inclined to reporting facts as obtained during some very crucial periods of Guyana’s history, especially specifying to a certain tragic and horrifying incident. She was unsurprised, given the nature of the person and, after wasting much precious time, she went to Red House.
At Red House the staff members were absolutely co-operative, extremely helpful – beyond the call of duty; and extremely efficient. They knew exactly where to find required information and proffered extra help in researching data.
At the reference section of the National Library the staff members were courteous and efficient and even when the staff member assigned to assist in photocopying the voluminous amount of pages identified was due to leave for the day, as her shift had ended, she remained to complete working on the material.
At Mirror also, as is the norm, staff members, especially Manager and layout artist Nadira Shaw, and her assistant Vanita Mahadeo were patient, always extra co-operative, and efficient to the nth degree.
However, what was horrifying was the discovery that entire pages – and oftentimes several pages containing vital information for specific periods in Guyana’s history had been torn out of newspaper files. A nation’s historical treasures are being destroyed with these depredations and nobody seems to understand the nature of the human beast and the need for surveillance when persons have access to historical data.
Past Librarians at the Chronicle archives – once the best in the country, had lovingly hoarded and guarded the files; and one remembers one of the dedicated managers of the Library at this newspaper, Charlene, fighting for years to have air conditioning in an attempt to preserve the decaying and yellowing newspaper files. The last of Chronicle’s dedicated library staff members, Lucille and Robert, who seemingly had a roadmap in their heads for the library, have left.

Librarians need to guard against any and every one having access to the sanctum of their respective libraries, which they need to guard with great zeal and dedication, because their responsibilities should be more than a job to them.

Librarians need to also zealously guard against perpetrators who are ignorant of the importance of preserving, intact, newspaper files and other pertinent documentation, as it should be considered a crime to destroy, or dispense with in any way, a country’s chronicles of its history.

They need to recognise, understand and appreciate that they are guardians of a sacred trust – the nation’s history.