Technical books for Vanuatu

Vanuatu’s a bloody long way from anywhere.

It’s hard to realise how far until you come to visit, and people start asking you to bring things. “Can you buy me a pair of Tevas?” asked Dan. One of his friends who’s installing a security system asked me to pick up some connectors because it’s easier to get a tourist to carry them over than to order them to be shipped. And every spare corner of my backpack was crammed with books (“Anything readable!”) which the local residents will read, re-read, swap, and read again.

I haven’t seen a bookshop anywhere in town here. I’m not sure there is one. And if there were, I’m certain they wouldn’t have a copy of the Javascript reference I really needed the other day.

Half of Andy Lester’s technical bookshelf ca. 2003, used with permission.

I’ve mentioned before the prohibitive cost of technical books in Australia. In Vanuatu, they’re even more expensive, especially relative to the local economy, plus if you try to ship them here they might end up sitting on a dock in Brisbane for an unspecified length of time. The effect of this is that, essentially, nobody here has technical books.

For that reason, I’ve offered to get together a parcel of technical books for Vanuatu’s small community of computer users. The plan is to acquire a box or two of high-quality technical books and bring them back with me from the US after I visit there at the end of the month.

The books will be donated to the local IT users group, VITUS, who will loan them out to members, students, community computer centres, and so on.

## What you can do

If you’re in the US, or willing to ship books to the US on short notice, you can help out.

Go through your bookshelves and look for gently pre-loved technical books that you no longer use. The most desired topics are:

• Linux
• system administration
• networking, web technologies
• programming languages

This wiki page lays out exactly what’s wanted and provides a signup sheet for donations.

Send the books to the San Francisco, CA address provided on that page, to arrive no later than Tuesday, October 30th. (Yes, that’s only 12 days away.) I’ll be in SF from Oct 27th to Nov 1st and will be parcelling the books up to bring them back to Vanuatu with me.

If you’d like to spread the word about this project, I’d be delighted, but please note that the local community may not be able to deal with an enormous glut of books. If you suspect that reposting this to another forum might result in dozens of book donations, please check with me first.

ETA: Take a look at this guided tour of an ordinary Vanuatu family home to understand the living conditions in Vanuatu and see why books are so needed.