Collaborating with Warren Horton: a personal view.(Column)

Warren and I shared an increasingly close working relationship over 11 years from the time of his appointment as Director-General of the National Library of Australia in 1985 until the completion of my term as National Librarian of New Zealand in late 1996. We believed at the time that we had created a form of collaboration that was unique among national libraries. Our collaboration extended beyond the organisational bounds of our libraries into international library activities. It also formed the foundation for the increasing contribution Warren came to play within the wider New Zealand library community.

Our collaboration was founded on a history of cooperation that had been built between the two national libraries and between other libraries across the Tasman. One pertinent example of this tradition was Harrison Bryan's direct support to the National Library of New Zealand which was critical to the successful implementation of the New Zealand Bibliographic Network. This was the foundation for later technology cooperation.

Some external factors facilitated cooperation. Our terms of office occurred in a period when there was increasing cooperation and harmonisation of government policies between the two countries. Our business and economy had also become closely linked. So there were precedents for conducting commercial and public joint ventures across the Tasman.

The watershed that occurred in communications technology was another major contributing factor. Distances and time shrank; we were no longer dependent on time consuming travel between Wellington and Canberra as the main form of communication. It is now difficult to remember the world before email, but its immediacy was crucial to the early solution of problems. I learned from watching Warren in his office that he could not resist responding to emails as they arrived. The advent of teleconferencing and videoconferencing was also vital.

There is a significant amount of shared values and history, including sporting rivalries, between the two countries that assists cooperation. However, there is mixed current of similarity and difference that runs through trans-Tasman relations. This is reflected in the functions of our…