Running an English-Language Library for the Literary Disabled

Leslene Woodward

I am Australian, a volunteer with the Uniting Church of Australia UnitingWorld program, and am a qualified librarian. I am upgrading the theological library at the Tangintebu Theological College in Tarawa (the main island of Kiribati). I have a background in law and journalism, then retired from journalism (I was a senior journo on a large regional daily paper in Cairns at the time) to go overseas as a church volunteer to teach English, first in Bali, then in Bangkok and Madurai in South India. I spent two years in a large (65,000 book) theological library in Madurai, South India, where I did my Library degree at a local university. That was where I moved into lecturing in English plus running the seminary library, and where I became aware of the problems of students who do not speak English as a first language, using an English-language library run strictly according to Dewey. When I came to Kiribati I was determined to do something about that, and hence my modified system. I might add I have also written a study guide on teaching theological English at tertiary level which has had two editions--one for the Indian students and the second for the Pacific islands where I am now.