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[[File:Bulawayo Public Library.jpg|thumb|Bulawayo Public Library

100 Fort Street Cnr 8th Avenue P.O Box 586 Bulawayo Zimbabwe ]]

Bulawayo Public Library
The Bulawayo Public Library was founded 1896 when the European settlers established public libraries to cater for their information, recreational, educational and cultural needs. A twelve man library Committee was chosen to run the facility and their major role was to fund raise for the library.A foundation stone of the 8th Avenue /Fort Street site was laid on the 5th of November 1897 by Lord Milner during his visit for the opening of the Railway. In 1902 the library also house The Rhodesia Museum.

Since its establishment the library has remained popular to many readers in the city of Bulawayo and the whole of the Southern Region. The services that this library provides are largely as a result of enthusiasm and energy given over many years by the committees,librarians as well as staff members. The institution is registered in terms of the welfare Organizations Act (Chapter 93).

Board of Trustees
The Chairman of the board of trustees as at 11 August 2021 is Mr. J L Sigoba and the Librarian is Miss L Ndlovu.

American Corner
An American Corner is a special resource center within a public library carrying a collection of U.S. books and magazines, providing innovative online and electronic resources, and hosting programs and activities of interest to the community. Within the American corner there is the Education USA advising center. This center is part of a global network of Education USA offices and works with academically qualified Zimbabwean students interested in pursuing U.S. study, regardless of economic status, racial, geographic, or ethnic background.

Binding Department
The book binding department has had a busy three years mainly due to the large amounts of books received as donations and also books from outside clients. Most of our donated books in the past years have been paperbacks

And in this library, all books are covered and strengthened before they are put into the system. The binders have been really busy in the past three years with new books, old library books needing repairs and books from outside libraries and individuals. The Library uses an imported and good quality plastic to cover books and for this we give thanks to a well wisher, Mrs. Susan Paul who donates this plastic to the Library. The binding department has continued to be one of the most important departments in the library due to the income it brings for outside work and also its role in maintaining the standards set by BPL from many years ago.

Braille Department
The Braille services are provided free of charge to the blind readers in the community. It is the only service that is provided free of charge in the Library. It relies on two street collections that are done every year. Braille books come from the Royal National Institute for the Blind in Britain and from the Dorothy Duncan Centre for the Blind in Harare who kindly supplied copies of books made locally in Shona and Ndebele. Without this help, there would be nothing to read for the visually impaired readers. During the month of June in 2013, a donation of computers was received for the Braille department from Computer Aid International with the help of Beit Trust. The computers were connected to the internet and loaded with the JAWS software which is a screen reader and reads whatever is on the screen for a blind user who can not read what is on the screen. This is handy and useful software for the visually impaired in our society as it allows them to have the same computer experience as the sighted readers. They can perform tasks such as web browsing, research, and typing on a computer like any other users. Adding these computers in the Braille department has allowed the blind members of the Library to enjoy nearly the same services as the sighted readers of the Library.

In 2012, the Braille department also got a donation of 3 radios from CBC by a group of students called Young Leaders Today. These radios have a CD changer hence they are used to play audio books for the Braille department users. Generally, the Library and many well wishers have worked hard in this period to try and equip the Braille department.

Branches
The Library now operates one full time branch library namely Ascot Library. All the other branches have been temporarily shut down. In October 2011, Bradfield branch was closed due to financial reasons. The Library could no longer afford to pay the rentals for the place and to maintain the branch. Waterford branch was closed in 2013 after the librarian spent hours weeks on without any readers coming or renewing their subscriptions. Cowdray Park and Waterford branches are temporarily closed with the hope of re-opening once readers show interest again.

Computer Services
The computer services known as the COMMCEN has continued to be one of the most important services and it has grown and developed in the last three years. A number of services are offered at the Commcen ranging from internet, printing, scanning and research.

In 2011, the Commcen was refurbished; tiled and new computers were acquired to replace the old P1s and P2s that were being used in the café. This became possible through the generous donation by Computer Aid International and the Beit Trust. The Trust fund helped with the renovations and refurbishments that included putting new tiles, window blinds, paint and new shelving.

In 2012, an addition to the computer services was availed in the name EU Corner. The European Union donated funds to start up a research corner in the library with the use of computers. This section is limited to research only; a blocking system was used to block all the social networking sites. This was done so as to not affect the Commcen which charges for the use of the internet whilst the EU does not charge.

Historic Reference Collection Centre
The department continues its service to the community and is used daily for reference and research; mainly students from colleges in and around Bulawayo were also using it for studying.

Historical researchers also frequented it for research especially writers writing about history of the country, the city and historical figures in the society. In the past 3 years, 1827 users logged into the log book either for research or for the use of the study space available at the Historic Reference Collection. We also have more than 2000 selected historical photos and pictures about the City of Bulawayo and the whole Southern African region digitized into machine readable format. Currently, we are in the process of digitizing microfilm newspapers (the Chronicle) so that they can be accessible and readable online. We are looking forward to digitize 3 000 and above.

Mobile Library
The Mobile Library is one of the most utilized services of the Library. This is no doubt that this service is of paramount importance, as it reaches out to those children who can not access the main library. It is extremely demanding work, with the staff having to deal with a hundred or more children in a short space of time. Whilst the conditions are often very hot and at most overcrowded, with no rest facilities available. The mobile librarians tolerate very severe working conditions, having to deal not only with crowds of children but also with periodic mechanical problems on the vehicle. The mobile library is one of the Library’s major cash cows and income generators. Because it reaches out to the children and the children generally enjoy the idea of getting into a bus to get books and hence we have some schools that do very well. However there has been an observation that schools from the low density suburbs have more students who join the library than schools from the high density schools.

Reference Library
The department is used daily for reference and research, mainly students from colleges in and around Bulawayo. In this section we thank the British Council and the United States Embassy Public Affairs Section (USEPAS) for donating enormous materials especially educational directories relating to their respective countries. The British Council has continually donated reference material including year books, almanacs, university prospectus and many other reference materials to boost our reference department. The books that come from Book Aid International also normally include reference materials including dictionaries, thesauri, almanacs and year books and encyclopedias and these are put into the system and they have helped us to maintain a good reference collection.

Community Service
The library has been involved in the community by donating books to rural schools and communities in need. For as much as it is also dependent on donations, the library did not forget to reach out to the community and give as well. In the past three years, the library has donated over 200 boxes of old and new books to schools to put in their libraries as well as to give to children on prize giving day. The books that the library weed and withdraw are not thrown away but the library understands that disadvantaged communities have use for these books hence the library donates to them. Many schools have expressed their appreciation for this service and have come back to ask for more donations which the library is always willing to give if they are excess books. NB// Student volunteers are invited for hands on experience.

Librarianship Training Services
The training is done with both primary and secondary school teachers and students around Bulawayo. A minimum of 2 student librarians and a teacher librarian is needed for a short training of 3 days. The incumbent are taught librarianship skills so the can start libraries from scratch. We charge an amount of $120 per school and certificates are awarded to participants at the end of the training course. More than 80 students and teachers were trained since the year 2012.