Library Staff

Some of present 12 UNTL Library staff (Jan 03) & volunteer - up from 5 in 2000 & 9 in 2002

The University of East Timor is trying to create in a year or two, a library service that would ordinarily take many years to evolve. There are only 4 East Timorese librarians, 4 assistants and 1 security officer to create a full library service from scratch. It is an exceedingly daunting task.

The former UNTIM and Polytechnic Libraries had a total of 14 library staff to run existing library services. The much smaller UNTL Library team is building a new, much larger and more complex library service than that available at either institution.

They are working to establish online catalogues, computer networks and much larger collections of multilingual resources than previously existed in East Timor. They will also be operating the Multimedia Centre and classroom when funding is available to get it operational.

The four UNTL Librarians have considerable years of experience between them at the small UNTIM and Polytechnic Libraries. Only one has had any tertiary education and formal library training. Their lack of experience of many aspects of contemporary university library practice will provide many challenges. For example they had no previous experience of computers or online systems.

The library assistants have had no previous library experience.

They will need ongoing training and support in many areas, while at the same time struggling to pull together basic resources and services for teaching staff and the development of services for students in the new building.

Additionally they are faced with the task of learning English to cope with the predominately English nature of online services and the influx of English language texts. Lack of Portuguese will also present considerable problems in assessing and cataloguing incoming Portuguese resource materials.

Head Librarian: Venceslao do Rego

• Library Coordinator, 8 years UNTIM Library experience, University graduate 1994 - Public Administration, Political Science Faculty, UNTIM; 6 months library training in Indonesia
• Responsible for the management of the UNTL Library:

IT Services Librarian, Assistant Librarian: Jose Francisco Mendes

• Cataloguing & Classification, 8 years experience Polytechnic Library; graduate Senior High School
• Responsible for the development and management of the IT systems and operations including the online catalogue and circulation system, audiovisual services and operations, cataloguing

Circulation Librarian: Anibal de Andrade

• Circulation Librarian, 6 years UNTIM Library experience; graduate Senior High School
• Responsible for circulation, loans systems management, serials management

Cataloguing Librarian: Adelino Mau Meta

• Cataloguing & Classification, 3 years UNTIM Library experience; graduate Senior High School
• Responsible for cataloguing, managing cataloguing system and database

Library Assistant: Celeste Soares

• No previous library experience, previously worked for an Indonesian company; graduate Senior High School
• Administration; providing support to the Librarians

Library Assistant: Jose de Silva

• No previous library experience; graduate Senior High School; speaks Portuguese
• Circulation support

Library Assistant: Olga de Oliveira dos Santos

• No previous library experience; recent experience in UNTL Administration; some English skills
• General support

Library Assistant: Camillo de Carvalho

• No previous library experience; graduate Senior High School
• General support

Security: Batista

• No previous library experience; graduate Junior High School
• General support