The Australian Library Journal articles from November 2007

The Australian Library Journal archives from November 2007

Introduction.
November 1, 2007... This is a very special ALJ. Obviously for its size, but once you've read it, clearly for its fascinating content. David Jones has done a superb job presenting the Forum and marshalling his authors, and I am delighted to pass the editorial baton...

Unfinished business: papers from the Forum on Australian Library History.
November 1, 2007... From 27 to 29 September 2007 a Forum on Australian Library History was held at the State Library of New South Wales, Macquarie Street, Sydney, the first time that this Library had hosted such a Forum. There had been a break of some ten years...

Programme: Forum on Australian Library History 2007.(Conference notes)
November 1, 2007... Thursday 27 September 2007 Members' Room, Mitchell Wing, 6.00-8.00 pm Regina Sutton, State Librarian and Chief Executive, State Library of New South Wales: welcome to the Forum. Roxanne Missingham, President, Australian Library and...

'Nobody dodges Remington': the Free Library Movement and the achievement of public library legislation in New South Wales, 1935-39.
November 1, 2007... Traces the role of Geoffrey Cochrane Remington, Sydney solicitor and businessman, in free public library development in Australia. Describes how the Munn Pitt Report on Australian libraries and Remington's acquaintance with John Wallace...

'Lover of the real Australia and sane art': William Bolton MBE and the Lionel Lindsay Art Gallery and Library.
November 1, 2007... Toowoomba-based businessman and benefactor William (Bill) Bolton MBE (1905-1973) collected printed materials, manuscripts and artworks with assistance from Sir Lionel and Sir Daryl Lindsay. Prime Minister Robert Menzies opened Bolton's...

'To do things for the good of others': library philanthropy, William Walker, and the establishment of the Australiana collection at the Tasmanian Public Library in the 1920s and 1930s.
November 1, 2007... Recent international library historiography has demonstrated the need to move away from isolated narrative accounts of individual philanthropic acts, and instead evaluate how public library development fitted into a normative social culture of...

'A most valuable acquisition': Melbourne University library and the bequest of George McArthur.
November 1, 2007... In October 1903, in the Victorian goldfields town of Maldon, a retired baker named George McArthur committed suicide. He had amassed a large collection of mineral specimens, coins, weapons and other artefacts, and more than two thousand rare...

A nineteenth century library and its librarian: factotum, bookman or professional?
November 1, 2007... The recurring question of 'what is a librarian?' was of as much interest in the new Colony of Victoria in the nineteenth century as it is in the 21st century. From 1854 to 1864, during a protracted endeavour to convince the colonial government...

'A scientific library of some value': an early history of the Australian Museum Library.
November 1, 2007... The Australian Museum, Sydney, is Australia's oldest museum, internationally recognised for its longstanding scientific contributions. Less well-known is the Museum's fine collection of monographs and journals relating to natural history and...

The Mitchell Library reading room: a personal memoir about the 1960s to 1980s.
November 1, 2007... The Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales in Macquarie Street, Sydney, is one of the pre-eminent repositories of Australian and Pacific material in the world. This paper traces the author's involvement with the Mitchell...

Women in Australian librarianship: the example of Jean Fleming Arnot.
November 1, 2007... The forty-seven year career of Jean Fleming Arnot at the Public Library of New South Wales included eighteen years as Head Cataloguer, Her work in cataloguing provides a case study of the actual historical practice of women's professional work...

No stranger to controversy: The Australian library journal and its editors.
November 1, 2007... The author, who edited The Australian library journal for twenty-five years until 2006, reflects on some of the divisive issues which have appeared in the journal since its first publication in 1951. He also identifies reasons, logistical as...

Recording the nation: nationalism and the history of the National Library of Australia.
November 1, 2007... Nationalism as a force in shaping and understanding historical events, long recognised by historians, has emerged as a rich field of historiological study. Awareness of nationalism has spilled into cultural studies, where the role and history...

Outpost libraries: the National Library of Australia's services to the outlying Commonwealth Territories, 1938-68.
November 1, 2007... This paper describes the National Library of Australia's extension library service to the Territories of Papua, New Guinea, Norfolk Island and the Northern Territory over three decades from 1938. Known as the Carnegie Library Service because it...

Reformers and reform: towards free public libraries in Victoria.
November 1, 2007... The Victorian Free Library Service Board Act of 1946 was the culmination of a long campaign to replace the mechanics' institute model of library provision with free libraries funded by state and local government. Given that library reform...

The Brisbane Literary Circle: a strategy to elevate the communal mind.
November 1, 2007... This paper examines the high levels of social connectedness and civic engagement between the [North] Brisbane School of Arts and the local metropolitan newspapers in their eagerness to establish and promote a reading club that would curb what...

'The choosing of a proper hobby': Sir William Crowther and his library.
November 1, 2007... Sir William Crowther (1887-1981), a Tasmanian medical practitioner, assembled a library of extraordinary range and depth. This paper explores Crowther's reasons for presenting his collection to the State Library from the early 1960s until his...

Sir Charles Nicholson and his book collections.
November 1, 2007... Sir Charles Nicholson, first Chancellor of the University of Sydney, is known as a major benefactor of that institution both during his time in Australia (before 1862) and afterwards, up to and beyond his death in 1903. The paper looks first at...

A tale of tension and neglect: state archives in New South Wales 1788-1960.
November 1, 2007... Explores the administration of archives in New South Wales from 1788 to 1960, showing how little attention was paid to non-current public records until the opening of the Mitchell Library in 1910. Political inertia and conflicting ideas on how...

Unfinished business: John Metcalfe and his professional association.
November 1, 2007... John Metcalfe of the Public Library of New South Wales played a leading role in founding the Australian Institute of Librarians (ALL) in 1937 and twelve years later in transforming it into a more sustainable and influential body, the Library...