ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 56 | April 2002
Regional Officer Visits Dili
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| The National University of Timor Lorosae (UNTIL) Library is located in an aircraft hangar |
Oliver Mann, the Librarys Regional Officer based in Jakarta, undertook a field trip to Dili, East Timor in February. The purpose of the trip was to improve the Librarys range of East Timor publications, meet with the Australian Mission in East Timor which sends material from Dili to the Library, and to establish other acquisitions and professional contacts.
A rugged, mountainous, sparsely-populated country, East Timor has been administered by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) since 1999. Following presidential elections in April 2002, East Timor will be declared an independent country in May.
The principal source of material for the Library was UNTAETs expansive Office of Communication and Public Information. Its brief encompasses print, radio and television in East Timor, and it has published a comprehensive record of developments in the country since 1999. Over several days I acquired copies of all their publications, and I arranged for future issues to be sent to the Library through the Australian Mission. I also obtained a complete set of the elusive Official Gazette of East Timor from UNTAETs Legal Affairs Department.
The Library receives the two Dili daily newspapers, Timor Post and Suara Timor Lorosae through the Australian Mission. The Mission is also willing to be the conduit for additional East Timorese subscriptions, such as the weekly magazines Taklitakum and Lian Maubere, which I arranged during the course of my field trip. As printing establishments in Dili were destroyed during the post-referendum violence in 1999 only a small percentage of East Timorese material is actually printed in the cityit is mostly done over the border in Kupang in West Timor, Jakarta and Darwin.
Both the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Asia Foundation staff in Dili were helpful in suggesting NGOs worth visiting for publications, and assisted with locating their offices. In addition, the East Timorese Cultural Centre holds promise as a useful future contact for the Library.
Bearing in mind East Timors small population baseDili has a population of about 100 000and the fragile nature of a nation and economy in recovery there is likely to be a general contraction in publishing after the UN presence decreases later this year.
As is the case with most field trips in the region, continuity of supply of publications to the Library will remain a challenge. However, the groundwork has been laid and the Library is fortunate to have the support of the Australian Mission in Dili.
I visited the two main libraries in Dili: the Xanana Gusmao Reading
Room, which functions as a small public library, and the National University of
Timor Lorosae (UNTIL) Library. Both libraries have had contact with the
Librarys Regional Cooperation Program. The University Library is
developing apace the rest of the University which has approximately 7000
students. The University Librarian, Mr. Venceslao do Rego, pointed out that
while a large number of book donations had been received from overseas to
assist the development of the collection, many of the titles are not in the
preferred language, Indonesian, although the official language is Portuguese.
At the time of my visit the six Library staff were being assisted for
three months by a representative of the Australian group Friends of the UNTIL
Library.
It was timely to visit East Timor at this stage in its redevelopment. The pervasive United Nations presence confers a feeling of unreality in Dili, which was a provincial backwater until recently. Right now it is abuzz with international activity as the country reconstructs and the Declaration of Independence fast approaches.
Oliver Mann can be contacted at the National Librarys Regional Office in the Australian Embassy, Jakarta, Indonesia (oliver.mann@dfat.gov.au)
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