Her Challenging Chair

Avia Ustanny, Staff Reporter

Intense. Solution-oriented. This is the mixed bag of adjectives which those who know Patricia Cuff use to describe her.

Currently wearing the hat of principal librarian at the headquarters of the regional Library Service in Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine and St. Thomas, based at the Tom Redcam Library, this motherly and competent woman would not object to 'caring creativity' being added to the list.

In between meetings in Kingston and Yallahs, she gets ready to act as driver for staff members and conscripts others to do the same.

"Can you take some of the staff with you?", she asks one of her information officers.

"If you are not able to come up with creative solutions, you will not last long in this chair," she told Outlook.

'This chair' is the command centre of the far flung library empire where a day on the job can include journeys to St. Thomas to inspect new library facilities, a journey back to Kingston for strategy meetings and organising the national reading competition, as well the story-telling initiative in several innercity locales.

As a pentecostal evangelist, a member of the Soroptimist club and mother of four, the time of leaving the office is not necessarily the end of the day's activities.

According to daughter Sharon, her mother manages to keep it all balanced, most of the time.

"She is a very good cook and shows her love for us by cooking meals. If you see me, you will note I am a well-loved person," she said with a laugh.

Sharon is following in her mother's footsteps as an administrator, having just completed her BSc in Public Administration

In her role as administrator at the library, Mrs. Cuff's greatest frustration is knowing what the client needs and being unable to provide it. Information needs have changed enormously in the last two decades and there is limited funding.

But, there are moments of triumph. There was one client who wanted to know how to build a satellite dish from scratch.

"I am happy to say we provided it (the information)," Mrs. Cuff boasted.

Alongside books, the reader can now access information via CDs, video and audio tapes from the library service. Internet research can be done at the Tom Redcam branch at a minimal cost per hour. Typing and printing services for research papers are also there.

Friends of the Library have been supporting programmes, by providing reference books and funding for extension activities such as the inner-city bookmobile and story-hour under a tent. They have also funded the popular Jack Mandora story-hour one Saturday each month, done by Amina Blackwood-Meeks.

Another spin on the information gig is the provision of interactive fora for the discussion of issues including women's health. These have been well received.

Mrs. Cuff's creative touch is being felt in the wider community too. In fact, she was instrumental in the establishment of a church in Riversdale.

Her friend and church sister, Saidi Peart said: "She is a very effective witness; always willing to help.

"She is a jovial person, most cordial. I regard her as the life of the party... always bubbling, ladylike, intelligent. It's nice to be in her company."

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