PAGES WORTH PRESERVING – By Beverley Pinder OAM
A memorable visit to the Victor Melder Sri Lanka Library six months ago left me in awe of the work undertaken by Victor over the past 50+ years.
The location of the Library, at his home, is one that Victor has very kindly afforded Sri Lankans in Australia to be able to access whenever the need existed for research and information.
Alas, the Library was needing to be relocated so that the burden may be eased off Victor and his wife, Esther. With the help of retired IT professional, Hemal Gurusinghe and myself we have found a new location for this valuable resource.
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Following a visit to the VMSLL in March this year, I began to canvas the need for space for alow rental fee. We explored a garage in Deer Park as well as several other possible ‘homes’ with the intention of relocating to a central place where Hemal and his team could provide ongoing care and support of the myriad books, journals, College newsletters and other memorable tomes so diligently collected by Victor for more than half a century.
We have been bestowed with two years’ free rental space by the La Moneta Foundation the occupier, and Aultun the owner of the building in Cheltenham, a south-eastern suburb of Victoria.
In Victor’s words: “My hope is that this legacy continues and generations to come will oversee the maintenance and the richness of such a collection dating back to the Portuguese, Dutch and the British eras and comprising a vast anthology of Lanka, Taprobane, Serendib, Ceylon and contemporary Sri Lanka publications. For now, I need to hand over the baton and Hemal is the anointed one.”
A Committee will be formed with an objective of raising seed funding to enable the key aspects of this relocation to continue, and more information on this will follow in coming weeks..
“We will need all the help we can get and we will strive hard to identify generous donors as well as Pro Bono services so a Constitution may be devised with registration with Consumer Affairs Victora,” said Hemal.
Philanthropist and Order of Australia awardee, Beverley added: “As a start-up we require donations and we are appealing to readers of e-Lanka and other channels so we may be able to continue the great work of the revered Mr Victor Melder,”
Further information can be obtained by emailing Hemal Gurusinghe hemguru@hotmail.com www.vmsl-library.com
