APSIG newsletter no. 58: July 2005

Travellers' tales from Indonesia and Vanuatu

Another in APSIG's popular series of travellers tales in which colleagues report on work and travel in our region was held on 19 April at the national library.

We had two great speakers. 'A Jakarta tale: eight years, five presidents and three bombs', a fascinating talk on how our nearest Asian neighbour is changing. Oliver Mann, now manager, Picture Australia, was the national library's regional officer in Jakarta from 1996 to 2004, responsible for the acquisition of Indonesian books, journals and newspapers from Jakarta and the provinces. Now back in Canberra, Oliver reflected on his experiences during a turbulent period in Indonesia.

'Swimming with the fishes... volunteering as a librarian in Vanuatu' was a completely different talk by Kylie Moloney, acting Kinetica customer service manager.

During 2004 Kylie worked as a volunteer librarian in Vanuatu on the Australian Youth Ambassador for Development program (AusAID). She worked at the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) as well as on more remote islands of Vanuatu. We heard about Kylie's experience of setting up new libraries, training people in librarianship and promoting the possibilities, opportunities and benefits of libraries; as well as how she learned to weave traditional baskets, slept on the library tables at lunchtime and swam with the fishes every day in the beautiful Pacific oceans surrounding Vanuatu!