Pambu news

Abstract

Warm Pacific greetings from the Pambu office! I am delighted to announce that the Bureau has three new member libraries; The University of the South Pacific, the National University of Samoa and the University of Bergen in Norway. Member library subscriptions fund the Bureau’s operations and in return, customers of member libraries are given access to the Bureau’s collections. The membership subscription model is the prime reason the Bureau has been operating since 1968. The University of the South Pacific has fourteen campuses throughout the Pacific Islands. The campuses are in Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The National University of Samoa is based in Apia. The PMB digital catalogue is available to all USP and NUS students, wherever they may be, using EZProxy. EZProxy is software that allows users to access online library resources which require authentication. It reduces the number of passwords required by the user. Some libraries require users to be physically present in the building to gain access to online catalogues but because Pacific students are so widely dispersed EZProxy allows students to access Pambu’s collections from home or wherever they have Internet access. Students simply need to log in through their library’s EZproxy server to gain access. This is the first time that the Bureau’s collections have been made available to such a large number of Pacific Island students studying at university. I am working with the University of the South Pacific to produce targeted posters to promote the Bureau’s catalogue and collections to USP students throughout the Islands.