The ninth board of di­rec­tors of the Na­tion­al Li­brary and In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem Au­thor­i­ty (NALIS) re­ceived their In­stru­ments of Ap­point­ment on Tues­day Jan­u­ary 10, 2023, from the Ho­n­ourable Symon de No­bri­ga, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Neil Parsan­lal, who has served on the board since 2016, was re­turned as Chair­man, with Jacque­line Charles as Deputy Chair­man. The new Board of Di­rec­tors al­so in­cludes Lor­raine Nero (Li­brary As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Rep­re­sen­ta­tive), Cathyan Townsend, Joan­na Charles, Mar­tin Far­in­ha, Shaar­da Patasar, Tonya-Lee Williams, and Paula Greene, Ex-Of­fi­cio Mem­ber and Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of NALIS.

The NALIS Board of Di­rec­tors has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for en­sur­ing ac­ces­si­ble and ef­fi­cient de­liv­ery of li­brary and in­for­ma­tion ser­vices through 27 gov­ern­ment li­braries and 133 sec­ondary schools to as­sist the cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, ed­u­ca­tion­al, po­lit­i­cal, and so­cial de­vel­op­ment of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The Board con­ducts its func­tions and ex­e­cutes its pow­ers in ac­cor­dance with any writ­ten di­rec­tions is­sued to it by the Min­is­ter.

Min­is­ter Symon de No­bri­ga, in pre­sent­ing the In­stru­ments of Ap­point­ment, high­light­ed that “There are few oth­er statu­to­ry bod­ies that di­rect­ly im­pact as many peo­ple as does the Na­tion­al Li­brary and In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem Au­thor­i­ty.” He en­cour­aged the new Board of Di­rec­tors by re­mind­ing them that they get to “make a qual­i­ta­tive dif­fer­ence in the lives of hun­dreds of thou­sands of per­sons, every day.” He al­so stat­ed his de­ter­mi­na­tion to col­lab­o­rate close­ly with the Board to com­plete key strate­gic projects in­clud­ing the com­ple­tion and han­dover of the Ma­yaro and Diego Mar­tin Pub­lic Li­braries.