Update from Melbourne Friends Group

Friends of the UNTL Library, Victorian Group. Inc. Brief news update, September 2002.

The Victorian Group has grown steadily since our inaugural meeting in early February this year. We have a committee of about half a dozen people comprising people with backgrounds in educational libraries, special libraries and also archives.

• We were successful with fundraising to cover basic costs of running the group.
  
• Several prominent tertiary libraries have joined the project as well as some special libraries. These libraries are providing donations of duplicate textbooks or library shelving.
  
• An ESL Language bookshop has also made a large donation of books.
• An academic institution has provided use of a warehouse where we are able to stockpile,sort and dispatch shipments of books to the library in Dili, East Timor.
  
• Two Librarians from Shepparton have raised donations of library supplies to be sent to the UNTL Library and are intending to travel to Dili in November this year to work at the UNTL Library for several months.
  
• Our joint proposal with Northern Territory University Library Services Division to run the 'UNTL Library Staff Development Project' has been successful in gaining partial funding from a 'Beyond Australia' grant of the Myer Foundation.
  

We have worked hard and have done well in 2002 and look forward to achieving more in 2003.