The UWI Main Library recently held its Preservation and Conservation Awareness Symposium as part of the Mona Library Week.

Dr Stanley H. Griffin, Senior Lecturer in Archival and Information Studies in the Departments of Library and Information Studies delivered the opening keynote address entitled, ““Trees, Poems, Birth Rituals and Certificates: Preserving A Caribbean Ecosystem of Information”

In this lecture, Dr Griffin illustrates the various ways Caribbean people and societies create, disseminate and preserve information, more often in non-textual and unpublished ways. In generalizing about the birth of a Caribbean child, he discussed the possibility of a tree being planted, stories and songs being composed, ceremonial dances and events being organized, and even digital platforms being designed. All in addition to the legal requirement of birth registration and the receipt of a Birth Certificate.

Each item/expression offers different information details, were created by equally important information bears, and tells different, yet significant, details of the baby’s new life, family, culture, heritage and citizenship. To preserve just the birth certificate, whether in digital or paper formats, is to devalue the other information materials and sources about the child’s life.

Using the example of the National Public Library, Archives and Documentation Services of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Griffin shows how Caribbean information and memory institutions can indeed promote the preservation of intangible cultural heritage for their community or country. The Bush Tea Festival brings together herbalists, enthusiasts, children and adults to experience herbs, teas and delicacies that may not be available in everyday life. In this festival, the intangible is preserved by performance, while tangible heritage (i.e. textual and digital materials) are preserved institutionally.

Griffin warns that Caribbean information and memory institutions should endeavor to preserve non-textual materials, and even expressions of intangible cultural heritage, and not just the textual, published and digital materials. Failing to do this is to perpetuate colonial ideals of information documentation and formats and continue to ignore Caribbean-culturally oriented forms of information.

The full lecture could be found here, starting at 5:42: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyKrpuaAiR0

Dr Stanley H. Griffin is an Archivist, Cultural Analyst and Historian, and Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies for the academic year 2024-2025..

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