Second Project Period

Volunteer John Sloan worked with UNTL staff for 3 months in late 2001

John Sloan, a librarian with the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment worked with the UNTL Library staff for three months in 2001(July-Sept). The South Australian Department of Education funded his work as a volunteer in Dili.

John provided further training in cataloguing and circulation with Athena, and resolved a number of technical problems the staff faced with IT equipment and software. He worked with them to get large quantities of Indonesian and English language resources catalogued and onto the shelves. He also advised the University on information literacy and its inclusion and integration into the university curriculum.

John faced the classic problems of East Timor when the library ran out of spine labels and the donated electric typewriter broke down. Ever resourceful, he organised replacements from Australia and utilised the services expat volunteers to assist the project. He wrote of final year students, the only students with access to library resources, using bits of paper, cardboard or the backs of old calendars to write their notes. His volleyball team in Adelaide rallied together to send a box of notepaper for the students.

“Our basic aim is to get the backlog of resources processed so that they will be available for both students and teachers for the next academic year which begins during October 2001. We still have shipping container and a room full of boxes to sort out and process.”

His period in Dili coincided with the new library building becoming available to library staff for the first time. “We are slowly transferring the resources to a renovated gymnasium that is large and spacious. I am in the process of writing a paper on some issues that the university may need to consider when Internet access is provided for students and staff. There still much work to do. To help the library develop they need the assistance of trained and experienced librarians especially those who can speak Indonesian. This kind of support will be needed for at least two or three years if not longer, as the library progresses and implements its own plan”.