Bermuda National Library

Bermuda National Library
Bermuda National Library
Location	Hamilton, Bermuda
Established	1839
Collection
Items collected	books, reference collection, newspapers, eBooks, magazines, DVDs, sound and music recordings, language Tapes, audio book CDs
Size	100,000 items
Legal deposit	Yes, since 1832.
Other information
Website	www.bnl.bm (Automated Accessibility Score = 2.7 decimal)

The Bermuda National Library is the national library in Bermuda and it is located in the capital city of Hamilton. It was founded in 1839 by British soldier, administrator and meteorologist Sir William Reid, who was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1839 to 1846. At the time, it was located in the current Cabinet Building.^[1]

Overview

It is now located in Par-la-ville Park off of Queen Street and Par-la-ville Road, between Church and Front Streets in the capital. It is only open during traditional daytime hours Monday through Friday and on Saturdays. The library offers on-line services available to residents who register and obtain a membership number. The services include an online catalog, EBSCO, host of a collection of databases, a digital collection of archived editions of historic newspapers preserved on microfiche, eBook downloads, Freegal Music downloads, Project Gutenberg, Freading, Britannica Online and online tutoring services through Tutor.com for those that have library membership.

The digital collection offers an online archived repository of preserved works such as Bermuda Recorder dating from 1933 (although the paper began in 1925), the Royal Gazette with editions dating from 1784, the Bermuda Sun, Mid-Ocean News, the Workers Voice which is still published, Fame Magazine and Bermuda Sports (from 1951 to 1957). In addition, they will soon offer digital editions of the Bermuda Life and Times and the Bermuda Beacon.

Head librarians

1839-1853 John R. Stephens
1853-1879 Joseph Richardson
1879-1880 Joseph H. S. Frith
1880-1886 Rev. Frederick D Ward
1886-1912 Florentius Frith
1912-1940 Katherine G. Seon
1940-1962 A. Elsie Gosling (MBE)
1962-1969 Mary Gray
1969-1985 Mary Skiffington
1985-1994 Cyril O. Packwood
1994-1999 Grace Rawlins
1999-current C. Joanne Brangman

Web accessibility

On september 2025, the website of the Bermuda National Library was tested for conformance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), in its version WCAG 2.2, using Popetech, Wikidata Q136356968 as evaluation platform, which, in turn, uses WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool, Wikidata Q136357132 as automated web accessibilty evaluaton tool (AWAET).

The website of Bermuda National Library obtained a score of 2.7 decimal out of 10. This is known as Automated Accessibility Score provided by Popetech, which, in turn, uses WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool. The test was taken on September 2025 as part of a research on web accessibility of national libraries around the world ^[2].

This result means that the website of Bermuda National Library cannot be considered accessible, if the treshold is stablised as 8 out of 10. Therefore, efforts still need to be made to achieve full compliance with web accessibility directives.

This section is added to this page in order to raise awarness about the web accessibility barriers faced by persons with disbilities that limit them to equally enjoying the Web. Web accessibilily is considered basic human right by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[3] from the United Nations (UN).