Message from
the Director

The story of ZLSB is a story of resilience. From the earliest vision articulated in the Hockey's Report, through the political disruptions of the 1960s, the international partnerships of the 1980s with both USIS and the British Council, and the formal opening of the first Zanzibar Public Library in 1988 — our journey has always been driven by a single conviction: that an informed and literate society is a flourishing society.

The formal constitution of the Zanzibar Library Services Board under Act No. 7 of 1993 gave us the legal mandate and institutional framework to fulfil that vision at scale. Since then, we have grown from a single library in Zanzibar Town into a network of five branches spanning Unguja and Pemba — in Maisara, Dunga, Chake Chake, Wete, and Mkoani.

I am proud to lead a team of dedicated librarians and information professionals who work every day to make our libraries welcoming and genuinely useful. I am particularly proud of our Children's Corner, our ICT laboratories, our School Library Support Programme, and our partnership with the American Corner.

Our vision — "To have a society which is satisfied with good library and information services" — is not a slogan. It is the standard against which we measure every service, every collection, and every interaction.

I invite you — students, teachers, researchers, parents, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners — to explore all that ZLSB has to offer. Search our catalogue. Download our documents. Attend our programmes. Bring your children to our libraries.

Together, let us build a Zanzibar where every mind has the resources it needs to flourish.