Faculty donates books to the National University of Samoa
The Faculties of Science and Engineering have sent a large donation of books to the National University of Samoa to help grow their library collection.
The collection is made up of 500 books all published since 2000, including several brand new books published in the last year. Some of the books were provided to Victoria University of Wellington academics for free by publishers, and the academics have generously donated the books to this collection. An academic who is retiring has also donated an interesting collection of biology books.
The organiser of the book collection, Sue Hall, said she was a little overwhelmed with the generosity of the university staff.
“Academic staff receive books from publishers and while many are useful, some do sit on bookshelves collecting dust. Sending these books to National University of Samoa is a good use of a resource that was sitting unused.”
The books will be shipped out to Samoa over the next few weeks. To help the books arrive safely in Samoa, VicBooks have donated book packing materials to transport the books to the National University.
Dame Winnie Laban, who is Assistant Vice-Chancellor Pasifika, is very supportive of the initiative
“New Zealand and Samoa have a unique friendship and it’s important that New Zealand universities help grow Samoa’s capacity. Western Samoa has a large number of young people so educational institutions, such as the National University of Samoa, have an important role to play. These books will be very much appreciated especially as they will help support the sciences.”
This donation is part of the ongoing relationship the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science has with the National University of Samoa. Earlier in the year, several staff from the Faculty travelled to the National University to help set up the University’s wireless network and teach workshops on cyber-security to the students and staff in Samoa.