Introduction

The UNTL Library in Sept 2000

Three months before the new National University of East Timor (UNTL) opened for classes in November 2000, there was no library at all. Within weeks, the beginnings of a library started to take shape in an empty classroom in a building still under reconstruction.

This would be its home for the next year. During this time 6,500 university students had no access to library resources.

After a year in a classroom, the small team of library staff moved into the new library building - a former gymnasium. The new UNTL Library opened for student access for the first time on January 21^st 2002.

However the library was closed again in mid-2002 for major structural repairs to the leaking roof and other needed alterations, causing major disruptions to library services and library development work.

When the UNTL Library Project began in Sept 2000 it had only a few boxes of donated resources. The library was better off than the rest of the University – for three months it had the only stapler and sticky tape on campus!

The University itself started its first academic year without a single photocopier, only a handful of standalone secondhand computers, no Internet access, no phone network, no teaching resources and very few operational classrooms.

The commitment, passion and sheer determination of the East Timorese seemed to overcome the terrible lack of the most basic resources.

Much has happened since and much progress has been made but the UNTL Library and the University still have great need for funds, support and the donation of essential operational supplies and equipment.

The new University Library will be the cornerstone of the University. The aim is to develop a strong and independent world-class library service, a place of learning and research.

This Web site tells the story of the UNTL Library, outlining its needs and letting you know the many ways in which you can help build this library – a library which will be so very important in the rebuilding of a nation.