Anyway, last night I met up with a bunch of "new" librarians in Melbourne, for our semi-regular social evening with some fancy beers, and I was chatting a little about my recent trip to Vanuatu, visiting my friend Romany, who is currently working as a volunteer, fixing up the school library in a remote village, and getting the kids engaged in using it.
So, for those of you who are a little rusty with their geography, Vanuatu is an archipelago nation in Melanesia, in the Pacific Ocean... umm (checks atlas) about 1750 kms to the East of Northern Queensland. It's a developing country, so they're still struggling with the influence of western culture, since they gained independence from the French and English less than 30 years ago.
Anyway, being a librarian at heart, I took the opportunity to check out a few of the libraries in the nation's capital, Port Vila.
The National Library
Now, you'd think that, with such a nice big colourful sign, you'd be visiting a huge amazing library. On arriving at the National Library, I was asked to remove my shoes, as a measure of pest control. Clad in socks, I then stepped into the first of two small rooms. The National Library. I was asked to sign myself in, and it was explained to me that if they get enough visitors, then they can put up a case to get a bigger space to house the library in. It's nice to know that some library issues are universal.
Anyway, after chatting to June and Anne, the librarians, I had a browse about the collections. The main room housed the Vanuatu Collection, containing anything published about or in Vanuatu. There were many fascinating and sometimes hilariously non-PC titles written by 19th and early 20th century missionaries.
I also noticed that quite a number of titles (such as the Quarterly Jottings from the New Hebrides, pictured below) were facsimiles of publications held by the National Library of Australia, and it struck my how dependent a nation like Vanuatu is on its neighbouring countries (ie. Australia) in providing pertinent historical texts that they wouldn't even be aware of.
The other room housed the Pacific Collection, with its focus on information about the Pacific region. Naturally, my instinct was to see what they had about Australia. I was slightly disheartened when I initially spied a solitary Australian Yearbook from 1971.
However, there was plenty about Australia over in 919.4 on the shelf, as it should be.
I was also aware that I was in Vanuatu during the relatively dry winter months, but only cringe at the thought of the preservation issues that would arise during the monsoon season. Even for a National Library, the scope for environmental control struck me as being somewhat rudimentary. It really made me appreciate the challenges that librarians must have in preserving the cultural heritage in a developing country, especially given the lack of available resources.
NEXT TIME: Part two - Port Vila Public Library.
