Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

Chapter 5: Some Notable Developments 221 During the following years, management provided the library, to the extent allowed by budgetary constraints, the resources necessary to support the research and publication programme. In time, it developed into one of the finest repositories of economic and financial information and was frequently used by both residents and visitors working on research projects. Throughout the period, the library staff used the available technology to enhance their ability to serve the researchers. The Bank’s website was established in 1996 and re-launched in 2000. In 2001, the library established a page on the website and was able to display the quarterly press releases on this medium, as well as on the Internet. In an attempt to streamline its operations and increase its usefulness to users, during 2003 the library was merged with the Records Centre to become the Library and Information Services Unit. In the same year the Inmagic database was launched bankwide allowing staff to access all the economic databases with the additional advantage of seamless access to the Internet. By 2004, the staff were enjoying online access to press releases, select journals and online newsletters. Two years later, the library was offering staff online full-text journal articles, full-text articles by the Bank’s researchers and more of the Bank’s publications were published full-text on the Bank’s website. During 2007, the programme to improve electronic access to the Bank’s publications was enhanced by the creation of a full- text database of publications to facilitate the launch of the new website. Left to right: Librarians Maxine Williams, Aldeen Payne and Angela Skeete.