You've heard about a commercial bank or even a blood bank, but have you ever heard of a book bank?

If the answer is no, then you should be asking what it is.

The book bank is a facility, which allows hundreds of primary- and high-school students within the parish to access textbooks, otherwise out of their reach.

Located in the Poor Relief Department of the St James Parish Council on Union Street, Montego Bay, the book bank has allowed needy students to focus on what is important rather than be consumed with the worry of not having the necessary reading material for class.

The project, implemented by the St James junior councillors, has a ready clientele of over 300 children, registered as poor or destitute.

The book bank will operate similar to the secondary schools book-rental programme, except no money will be required from the students.

A database will be kept of all users of the book bank so students and books can be traced at all times.

Practical and timely

Under the project, students will be allowed to borrow textbooks for one school year.

At the project's launch on November 11, Lloyd B. Smith, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, described the project as visionary.

He called it practical and timely and pledged his organisation's full support.

He highlighted the benefits of extensive reading, while observing the reality of the often-expensive material.

"It is when you have knowledge that you become someone of worth and substance and in order to achieve that objective you have to read," he told the many high-school students in attendance.

The St James Parish Council through its chairman and Mayor of Montego Bay, Charles Sinclair, also said they would give full support to the project, describing it as "a sustainable project which will benefit several persons now and in the future".

Head of the St James Junior Parish Council, Junior Mayor, Michael Nattoo, told JIS that the group he leads was intent on making a significant mark on the St James community before its term of office came to a close.

Access to education

"It is our intention to make education more accessible to our many young people and to accelerate the proliferation of education as a commodity, an asset and a genuine investment and it is, with this in mind, that we began to formulate the project and how we would implement it," explained the Herbert Morrison High School student.

He said that the Poor Relief Department of the St James Parish Council was chosen for the location of the book bank, as it had a ready clientele of needy students.

According to Jeremiah Duhaney, head of the Poor Relief Department and inspector of poor in St James, the project will eventually expand to include access to computers and the Internet.

He said that contributions to the book bank had been forthcoming in both cash and kind, with the inventory of available books increasing daily. The National Commercial Bank Foundation was the first corporate entity to show its support, donating approximately $100,000.

The above is a collaborative effort between The Gleaner and the Jamaica Information Service.