RMIT. School of International and Community Studies. Australian-Greek Resource and Learning Centre.

An excellent resource unit for Greek-Australian research.

Entry into the web-site at:

http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Our%20Organisation%2FFaculties%2FEducation,%20Language%20and%20Community%20Services%2FDepartments%2FInternational%20and%20Community%20Studies%2FResearch%2FGreek%20Centre%2FEducational%20Resource%20Unit/

Educational Resource Unit

Library

The Centre maintains a library with more than 4000 Greek volumes supplemented by language and audio-visual resources. These collections are used for academic and research purposes. The collection contains more than 500 books of Greek-Australian authors.

In some instances, there are multiple copies of resources. Some of the Library collection holdings are rare copies.The earliest book in the collection dates back to 1910's.


Many people have donated library holdings, such as:

Salapatas collection of Greek-Australian books
Nikos Nomikos books of Poetry
Carras books.
Community History Archives

Items in the collection include monographs, periodicals and audiovisual resources.

In addition the centre maintains a major collection (more than 1,000 files) of materials relating to the history, press, culture and literature of Greeks in Australia. The aim is to teach, research and experience the history of the Greeks in Australia and place it within the multicultural setting.


The collections

The Centre houses a large collection of material that includes:
Books that were written in Australia from 1916 until the present time
Newspapers and magazines, from 1913 until the present time
The Salapatas Brothers Collection
the Raftopoulos Collection
Audio-visual material
Photographic collections
Australian Archive files
Oral history files and documents
Files pertaining to immigration and settlement
original documents
photographs
periodicals and
videos

These resources are readily available to students, researchers and interested persons. The archives are protected as items as they are very rare. Most of the archives have been donated to the centre by the public. (see full list of donnors)



Community History Room

The Centre’s physical presence within the Greek precinct of the city of Melbourne constitutes an easily accessible focal point of reference for issues pertaining to the history of immigration and settlement. To that end, people from the Greek-Australian community as well as from the wider Australian community (students, researchers, historians etc.) are greatly encouraged to visit and avail themselves of its resources. The items displayed on the walls and in the cabinets are items, which are preserved and catalogued in the official archives.

The Community History Room depicts different stages in the history of Greek migration to Australia from the first Greeks who arrived in 1829, to the chain migration of the early 1900’s of Kastellorizians, Ithakans and Kytherians, and the mass migration of post World War II.

It is intended that the Community History Room will create an awareness of the Greek migration process to Australia and will act to motivate and provide students with resources to conduct their own research relating to the migration theme.

School Networks and Resources availability : Towards building a strong and vibrant educational community
The Centre supports both mainstream schools and Greek schools with resources and programs and maintains strong links with the Greek community teachers.

The Centre aims to collect and distribute teaching resources to support innovative pedagogy and methodology in teaching the Greek language and culture as well as the delivery of educational programs to school age students. These pursuits focus primarily on programs related to community social history, Greek migration and settlement, community theatre and community family profiles, etc.

The Centre aims at developing community history packages, educational programs, coordinating school partnerships and innovative educational projects. The Centre also collects and distributes teaching resources, provides methodology in teaching the Greek language and culture, as well as the delivery of educational programs to school age students. Its programs are primarily focussed on community social history, Greek migration and settlement, community theatre and community family profiles. In 2002 alone the Centre distributed hundreds of books on European Union and the Euro.

Speak to our staff and get information about valuable language and cultural resources and useful links.