Gifting books to Nelson Memorial library in Samoa...

One of the privileges I had was to be able to gift two of my books "Tagaloalagi and Fue" (picture book) as well as "Tagaloalagi" (performance play) to the Nelson Memorial Library in Apia, Samoa as this had been my base for my studies back when I was doing my first Masters fieldwork in the late 1980s.

The picture taken here is with one of the local librarians and it brought back memories as to the times I would spend writing up my research in the air conditioned room with it's dark heavy wooden furniture.

It's a lot more modernized now with extensions to having an upstairs research room with American resources and a downstairs room dedicated to children's books and resources. But as a former teacher librarian/manager I couldn't help noticing that there were a lot of dated books but that might also be because of the heat that ages the books faster.

I also recall in the early 1970s when I first visited Samoa with my family in Savaii that we stayed at a local minister's house and I found an original hard covered book in the book shelf called "Little house in the big woods" by Laura Ingalls. What that was doing on the shelf I will never know but I read it and brought it back to Auckland with me.

I hope, as a writer/author, that I can also inspire some young people not only to appreciate books but to also learn from them and one of the best places to find them are in the libraries...