Mrs. Ethelwyn Veronica Celestain (neé Micheal) gave some forty (40) years to the service of librarianship. In 1948 she obtained the award of the Associate of the Library Association (ALA) and accepted employment with the Eastern Caribbean Regional Library Services. During this time she visited St. Kitts, Nevis, St Vincent, Montserrat, St Lucia and Antigua to assist with the establishment and organisation of public libraries in these islands. In 1955 she joined the Central Library Services of Trinidad and Tobago as a Senior Librarian and assumed responsibility for the Branch Library Services. She organized the Charlotteville Branch Library and assumed responsibility for the Scarborough Headquarters Library. In 1960 she was transferred to the Supreme Court Library in Trinidad where she began her career in law librarianship and where she retired in 1987 after twenty-eight (28) years of service to the Judiciary. At the time of her assumption of duty there was a collection of approximately seven thousand (7,000) volumes entrusted to the care of a former orderly of one of the past Chief Justices. The volumes were in rows on the floor, dusty and in no order. There was no shelving or furniture. During her service the library grew to eighty-five thousand (85,000) volumes and its jurisdiction was later expanded in 1962 to include responsibility for a Court of Appeal Library.
In 1965 at San Fernando the collection of legal books which had been managed by a custodian-messenger was re-organized and one room of the Supreme Court Building was utilized to house the library. In 1979 the small library collection in Tobago was placed in a medium-sized room in the court building and the permanent post of Library Assistant II was created. With the introduction of technology and a tremendous growth in the volume of work there was an increase in both professional and non-professional staff. Staff increased from one qualified librarian (Mrs. Celestain) to five, from one library assistant to six and from one messenger to two.
In 1984 Mrs. Celestain was one of the founding members of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries. She later became the first Public Relations Officer and Assistant Secretary. This Association was formed with the objectives of exchange of legal information, assistance in the development of law libraries within the region, generally to contribute to regional law development by developing and increasing the usefulness of law libraries and promoting the profession of law librarianship. Today the Association, eighteen years later, is strong and vibrant, fulfilling the objectives for which it was established.
Under Mrs. Celestain’s direction the Law Library staff created a table of cases and a subject index for volumes 9-17 of the West Indian Reports, a name and subject index for the Trinidad and Tobago Supreme Court Reports 1882-1955 and a table of cases for volumes 8-15 of the Jamaica Law Reports. She wrote a brief for the Hall of Justice of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago and in 1979 a position paper on the future of the Law Library/Libraries. She also served as a member of a working group on legislation to assist the interim Board of NALIAS (National Library Information and Archives Services) in the formulation of recommendations in respect of the future development of the Library and Information Services.
Mrs. Ethelwyn Veronica Celestain was awarded a National Award in 2003 - THE PUBLIC SERVICE MEDAL OF MERIT-SLIVER.
This was for Outstanding and Meritorious Service to Trinidad and Tobago in the sphere of Public Service.
MRS. ETHELWYN VERONICA CELESTAIN
DATE OF BIRTH : 9th August, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH : Antigua
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS:
1959-1960 : Attachment to the Toronto Public Library; with special emphasis on section allocated to Law, Commerce and Trade.
1948 : Award of ALA (Associate of the Library Association).
1946 : Cambridge School Certificate with exemption from matriculation
WORK EXPERIENCE:
1960-1987 : Librarian at Supreme Court Library, Trinidad and Tobago
1956-1957 : Senior Librarian, Parliament Library
1955 : Senior Librarian, Central Library Services
1948-1954 : Senior Librarian, Central Library (Cataloguing and re-organizing Eastern Caribbean Regional Libraries)
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