Li­braries are safe spaces for chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly at a time when young peo­ple are in­creas­ing­ly tar­get­ed by preda­tors, Na­tion­al Li­brary and In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem Au­thor­i­ty (Nalis) chair­man Dr David Muhammed said on Mon­day.

Muhammed was speak­ing at the of­fi­cial open­ing of the San Fer­nan­do Pub­lic Li­brary at the Edan Cen­tre on Har­ris Prom­e­nade.

He said li­braries have evolved be­yond places where peo­ple sim­ply bor­row books, de­scrib­ing them as mod­ern com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres that of­fer work­shops, class­es, dis­cus­sions, home­work sup­port and ac­cess to tech­nol­o­gy.