National planning for the library and information services of Trinidad and Tobago: A case study

The outcome of Trinidad and Tobago's attempts to develop a complex of modern information institutions forms the subject of this thesis. More precisely it describes national planning for and implementation of library services in Trinidad and Tobago from 1962 (the date of independence) to 1987. Central to this thesis is an attempt to determine what happened to these services in Trinidad during that quarter of a century and why those events occurred. Particular emphasis is given to the long-drawn out struggle in Trinidad to bring the NATIS concept (National Information System) of UNESCO from the realm of theory into reality by creating NALIAS (National Library, Information and Archives Service). The developing nations in general have a pressing need to improve their information infrastructure, but the best routes to this goal remain in doubt. This thesis focuses on the workability of NATIS in Trinidad and Tobago from its conceptual adoption in 1980 to 1987.; The approach will be historical narrative of the type now coming to be known as "public history." This is a qualitative analysis of both the process of policy formation and the process of implementation using the traditional methods of historical description and document analysis.