Presentation about Philipsburg Jubilee Library.

Continuing with the literacy theme of 2009,
the St. Maarten Rotary Club started 2010 with a presentation about
Philipsburg Jubilee Library. Mrs. Monique Alberts who has been the
director of the island’s public library since February 2009 discussed
with members and guests of the Club the history, current activities and
future plans of the library. Mrs. Alberts who has a background in Political
and Library science in Amsterdam also worked at the National Library of
Aruba until 2006. She explained that the public library was one of the three libraries founded in the
Windward Islands on November 23rd 1923, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty
Queen Wilhelmina and named the Philipsburg Jubilee Library in honor of Her Majesty.
The  Library was housed on several locations, including the Court House, until 1968 when it found
domicile at the Cultural Center on Backstreet where the “Dutch Children’s Library” was
also housed. In the same year qualified
Librarian Blanca Hodge moved to the island and Lt . Governor Beaujon decided to
merge the two libraries maintaining the name the Philipsburg Jubilee Library.

With a professional approach the library was upgraded, books were catalogued etc. During the 1970 the staff grew
from 1 to 12 members and soon the Cultural Center became too small. With a building 20 times the size of the
backstreet location and extremely modern for the time with a steel structure,
the PJ Library found a permanent domicile in 1984 on Vogesstreet, the current location.
But the building was not the only modern aspect, in fact it was also considered modern because the
PJ Library was the first Automated Library in the Netherlands Antilles However, 16 years
later the current building is now considered outdated and plans are being made for a new building.
With the changing demands of users the Philipsburg Jubilee Library has been introducing innovations.
Since 1998 the library can be found on the Internet at www.stmaartenlibrary.org
The constitutional changes will also result in changes and the PJ Library will become the
National Library of country St Maarten. “This means we will preserve all publications published in
St Maarten safeguard them for new generations. Already we have a lot of unique reports books
newspapers (nowhere else) Digitization/Scanning of these materials is also important”.
The PJL has 5400 members, 61000 books/DVDs and 40.000 visitors a year.
While the library is certainly important to promote reading, it is also a gateway for information.
“Life long learning-independent decision making-cultural and development are in our mission
statement. Reading and Writing are Basic skills people need to enable themselves to live in a
self-responsible and independent way. But today these basic skills also include media literacy,
the ability to use the modern information and communication tools in a critical and responsible way”
says the library director. “To become responsible- empowered citizens in the new country
St. Maarten citizens have to be literate and media literate and the library is committed to this task”.