The Municipal Council of Beau Bassin/Rose Hill, Mauritius

OLOF PALME MUNICIPAL LIBRARY

Created in 1946, the Public Library in the left wing of the Town Hall (the Treasurer Officers) was first the depository for the British Council.

The library moved in a new building in 1966. A Children’s Corner was inaugurated in 1984 and comprises a lending section and reference books for consultation only.

In June 1998, the Library was renovated following a consultancy offered by the British Council and new services namely Internet and Audio Visual were launched.

For the benefit of the partially sighted, Large Print books were added to the collection in 2000, and a Talking Book service is planned for the blind.

The aim of the municipal library is to provide for everyone, particularly in the region of Beau Bassin Rose-Hill, a service which caters for the educational, cultural, informational and leisure needs of individuals, groups, industrial and commercial concerns and any other agencies requiring assistance.

Most of the books are on open shelves and are freely available for consultation.

On line public access catalogue will soon be available for all library materials which have been entered on a Library Management Software, the Alice package.

Since its creation, the Olof Palme library has known much development. Besides providing a Lending Service of books, periodicals and Audio-Visual material, a Reference Service, a Mauritiana Collection, a Children Service, a Photocopy Service of library materials, a Reading area for Newspapers, the Olof Palme Library also offers Internet/ADSL facilities. On 22 November 2007, a Wifi facility of 200mts was added.


To be closer to its inhabitants the Council has taken the decision to decentralize its services by adding: 5 Mini Libraries in different regions of the town: namely Chebel, Plaisance, Camp le Vieux, Trèfles and Stanley.