The Ghana Library Authority has declared 2022 as a Year of Books in a bid to raise awareness of public libraries in Ghana.

This comes on the back of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) declaration of Accra as the World Book Capital for the year 2023.

In line with the UNESCO declaration, the Ghana Library Authority is championing a course of increasing the book stock of libraries across the country all year long.

Addressing the press at the Authority’s end-of-year briefing, Executive Director, Hayford Siaw, said the year’s campaign will boost local publication of books and in the long run create employment.

“2022 has been declared as the year of books and the reason is that for 2023, UNESCO has selected Accra as the World Book capital, so as a prelude to that, the Ghana Library Authority is declaring 2022 as the year of books to raise awareness on the public libraries and books in Ghana.”

“It is significant to note that, libraries in Ghana do not have locally published materials, so we are using this as an opportunity to encourage local publication of content so that, this will be acquired by the Library Authority and be displayed and made available on the shelves of public libraries in the country.”

The Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) named 2021 a “Year of Literacy” to reduce learning poverty in the country.

In 2020, the Authority declared it as the Year of Learning, under the theme “70 years of Transforming Minds through Libraries,” in commemoration of its 70 years of existence.

The Authority has said that the investment made by the government towards purchasing relevant materials to stock libraries across the country, has made the library environment more attractive to the youth.

Ghana Library Authority is the second-oldest incorporated institution by an act of Parliament of Ghana and has the mandate to establish, equip, maintain and manage public libraries in Ghana.