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 the United States Information Service (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. Our collections have expanded from physical books and journals into digital resources, internet services, and an online catalogue accessible to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

I am proud to lead a team of dedicated librarians, information professionals, and support staff who work every day to make our libraries welcoming, relevant, 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 — all of which continue to open new worlds for young people across Zanzibar.

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, every programme, and every interaction. It is the reason we invested in this digital platform, the reason we run training programmes for library workers, the reason we cooperate with TLA, AZLIS, SLADS, and our development partners, and the reason we continue to advocate for more resources, more branches, and more opportunities for every citizen to access knowledge.

To our partners at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, to the Board of Directors, to the international organisations and embassies who have supported us, and to every member of the public who walks through our doors — I say: thank you. Your trust is both our greatest responsibility and our greatest motivation.

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. And if you have ideas on how we can serve you better, please share them with us. This institution was built for you, and it belongs to all of us.

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