The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Thank you for allowing me such a limited space in your daily life to express a concern for the citizens of our beloved Bahamas.

I count myself as a somewhat fiction novel writer, did I just say that?

And during the process of having to register the material in such a way that they would be able to be accessed globally using grouping of numbers.

Launching out to try to acquire the operating intelligence was thrust upon the then College of the Bahamas, and I thought, but I have no need to enroll at the College of studies, I said: Don’t be foolish, the only way to have a code placed in your literary work would be to have assigned to the material something we referred to as ‘ISBN or International Standard Book Number, and there is an application form to fill in, on a breakdown of this literary work, the story. I do that?

Well, as the journey goes I was directed to Harry C Moore Library of the College of The Bahamas now the University of The Bahamas, Thompson Boulevard, now University Drive, where I did the application and paid the money – but was told that the fees and ISBN would have to be sent outside of the Bahamas, to the following-processing centre:

The Regional ISBN Agency (CARICOM) Caribbean Community Secretariat. Post Office Box 10827, Turkeyan, Greater Georgetown, Guyana.

And the turnaround time I asked?

About 21 business days to be on the safe side.

But, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an entire country – why use the College of The Bahamas as a middleman, when we should, could, should, ought to be offering this service to our writers in The Bahamas?

Editor, that was the question then and it is still relevant now.

I call on the University of the Bahamas, its Directorate, Faculty and student body to collaborate with the Ministry of Education – the Hon Glenys Hanna Martin – to start the debate on the establishment of an International Standard Book Number (ISBN-agency), even if located on the Campus of the University?

Finally, I believe that the permission to offer the ISBNs and all of the other information would have to be given via the United Kingdom International Standard Book Number Agency?

This is really something that we ought to undertake, and what better institution of higher learning to manage it, than the University of The Bahamas?

Thank you, editor, for the small space, I appreciate it.

FRANK GILBERT

Nassau,

June 15, 2022.