Vandalised: New State library children section By Mariah Doksil
KOTA KINABALU: The Children Section of the newly opened Sabah State Library will be closed for at least three days for cleaning up and repair to some of its facilities that have been vandalised.
Its director, Wong Vui Yin, said the library would tighten its inspection and monitoring after pictures of vandalised facilities were circulated all over social media by members of the public.
“After visiting the library on Sunday, I was shocked looking at the damage. We just opened the library for a week, but the walls are already dirty and racks were damaged with holes.
“Since the writing and drawing on the walls were done using crayons, we will need a few days to clean them up,” said Wong, adding that parents should monitor their children closely while at the library, and teach their children to appreciate public properties.
Wong stressed that staff at the library had advised some of the parents to prevent their children from stepping on the books and jumping around but ended up being scolded.
“We had an emergency meeting today (Monday) and decided to tighten the visitor controls.
“We are currently facing a shortage of staff in this sevenstorey building. We only have three security guards during the day and two at night. Permanent staff are also not many.
“We actually have received many emails from the public offering their services as volunteers in the library, and we already have opened the application on our website.
“With these volunteers helping us, we can give specific tasks such as arranging books, story telling, in-charge of colouring activities, crafts and also monitoring the children,” he said when contacted yesterday.
The new RM45 million state library in Tanjung Aru, was officially opened on April 1, equipped with digital technology on every floor to allow users to have access to broader information.
The library is stocked with a wide range of publications, including children’s books, reference books and even having an e-resource centre.