Old DWU library

Old DWU library served so many

By Patrick Matbob

In 1983 when the then DWI graduation committee was planning its 2^nd graduation for its Business Studies and Communication Arts graduands, it was decided that it should be held in front of its newest and most impressive building on campus.



Graduation at the old library.

This was the Institutes library, then just completed by late mission builder Br Paul Broekman and his carpentry team. It was an impressive structure then complete with stained glass windows, varnished PNG timber and carpeted floor. The library was actually a combination of four classrooms linked by a high ceiling structure in the middle that served as a reception area.

For the handful of pioneering DWU students then in Matriculation Studies, Communication Arts and Business Studies, it was a spacious library that would serve them very well for the next 20 years. It was also a sign of things to come in this newly established institution that was finding its way in the nation’s world of tertiary education.

Among those pioneers who were to graduate in front of the ‘new’ library was a promising young journalism student, Frank Senge Kolma, who only a few years later was going to make a name for himself.

Since then countless others have graduated in front of the DWU library, no doubt that their success were equally moulded by the contents within that library as well.

Compared to other tertiary institution libraries that boasted of comforts such as air conditioning and electronic check-outs, the DWI library then was basic. On typical hot Madang days and nights, the ceiling fans – one of the few luxuries it could afford – would whirr noisily overhead as students tried to concentrate on their work.

However, contents of the library shelves have always been outstanding equaling what the other libraries could offer. The DWI library also had the Noser collection, which held rare books and publication on and about PNG dating back to more than a century. It was this collection that has made the DWI library famous for those who wanted to study PNG.

Twenty years later, another impressive new library has taken over to continue DWU’s tradition of growth. Maybe next year’s graduation will be scheduled in front or near the new library for tradition shake. In true DWU tradition also, nothing is wasted and the old library has now taken on a new role after some maintenance and touch up. It is now the Tourism and Hospitality Department complex housing lecture rooms and offices.