Tens of thousands of dollars are headed to Yap to re-open the Micronesian Seminar Library, now situated on the campus of Yap Catholic High School.
Over four decades, Micronesian Seminar built an internationally recognized library of over 120,000 documents, photos and recordings.
But a dozen years ago, the Pohnpei-based organization, better known as MicSem, was shut down by the church, and the collection moved to Xavier High School, the Jesuit-run school in Chuuk. Now it’s migrated to Yap to a new and bigger home.
“Over the years (MicSem) grew from a few shelves of books on the islands to an internationally recognized collection with 24,000 print titles, 82,000 historical photos, 800 videos, and 22,000 audio tracks,” said Fr. Francis X. Hezel about the collection that he developed over four decades in Pohnpei.
Last year, the library shifted from Chuuk to Yap, “where it is now laid out in a beautiful new building on the campus of our Catholic high school there,” said Hezel. “The treasured collection has been saved; now it needs to be opened to the public, whether walk-in visitors or on-line.”
Broad public access to Micronesia’s living history, through an actively maintained, growing collection, is vital to realizing the full value of this regional treasure, commented the Habele Foundation, which is supporting fundraising to fully establish the collection in Yap.
Father Hezel, in partnership with Yap Catholic High School’s Father Rich McAuliff, developed a detailed multi-year plan to reopen the MicSem Library. Fr. Rich worked for many years at Assumption Parish in Majuro before departing to Palau and later the FSM in the mid-2000s.
Habele organized a fundraising drive to realize the plan. Individual donations were matched two-to-one by Habele’s endowment.
Over the course of a 45-day fundraising drive that wrapped up last month, $15,343.86 was donated by fifty-eight individual donors. The sum was matched, two-to-one, with a $30,687.72 contribution from Habele’s endowment. All told, a total of $46,031.58 will be issued to Yap Catholic High School in the form of a MicSem specific grant by Habele for the project.
A US-based 501c3 nonprofit, Habele was established in 2006 by former Peace Corps Volunteers to serve students and schools across Micronesia.
The grant will allow for the final stages of the relocation of the Micronesian Seminar library at Yap Catholic High School. This includes implementing a transitional process for the management of the library from the long-time former curator to the new one as well as providing certain basic equipment needed to service those who utilize the collection in the future.
These final steps of the relocation of the MicSem library in Yap will begin once the first portion of grant funds is transferred and essential equipment such as scanners, additional bookshelves and tables needed for the library to go into full operation are purchased.
“It was startling to see how so many people felt so strongly about reestablishing this unequaled Micronesian resource, and preserving and recognizing Father Hezel’s legacy of service and scholarship,” observed Neil Mellen, Executive Director of Habele. “Pride in our shared histories and person-to-person connections remain the vibrant bedrock of the US-Micronesian partnership. Habele is proud to play a minor role in that. Though the formal fundraiser is complete, we intend to continue Habele’s partnership and support of this important, evolving, work in the years ahead.”
Fr. Fran is delighted with this turn of events and is hopeful that it will result in widespread use of the MicSem resources.
“For the on-line guests, we have updated the MicSem website so that they can easily search the contents and let the librarian know what they need,” he said in a blog posts. “After all, the value of our library depends on broad public access to an actively maintained collection that continues to document Micronesia’s history while offering people the materials we developed in our 40 years of public education work.”
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