Swapping the views of Samoa’s turquoise waters for the dusty red centre of Alice Springs wasn’t such a big step for new Charles Darwin University Alice Spring campus librarian Gillian Terry.
Ms Terry worked at the University of South Pacific for the past three years and has just started work at CDU.
She said she was drawn to Alice Springs for the same sense of community that existed in Samoa.
“I gained huge appreciation for the strong sense of community in Samoa and it was important to me that I return to Australia in a similar environment,” she said.
With more than 20 years experience working in libraries across Australia and the Pacific, Ms Terry took her early training at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales.
She said she was a lover of books and of organisation, but the business of libraries had changed dramatically since she entered the profession.
Ms Terry said she looked forward to working with diverse clients drawn from the Centralian Senior Secondary College, CDU and the town who belonged to one of the few joint-use libraries in Australia.
“This library is in one sense a community hub of its own,” she said.
She said she was eager to take advantage of Central Australia’s warm, dry climate.
“Being 12 degrees from the equator, it rained heavily in Samoa and I look forward to exploring Central Australia in the dryer weather of Alice Springs,” she said.