John's Gospel: Metcalfe and the Writing of Australian Library History (original) (raw)
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Great minds: Metcalfe, McColvin and 'Public libraries in Australia'
In 1946 the prominent British librarian Lionel McColvin was invited to Australia in controversial circumstances to examine and report on public library developments. During a three month visit he assessed progress in all States since the landmark 1935 survey of Australian libraries by Ralph Munn and E. R. Pitt (the Munn-Pitt Report) and subsequent library legislation in some States. This paper examines the dynamic relationship between McColvin and Australia’s leading librarian, John Metcalfe, President of the Australian Institute of Librarians and principal librarian of the Public (now State) Library of New South Wales. It concludes that, as McColvin himself surmised, the visit would prove useful not so much for the substance of his report and recommendations, as for the way in which debate on public libraries was stimulated.
Unfinished business: John Metcalfe and his professional association
John Metcalfe of the Public Library of New South Wales played a leading role in founding the Australian Institute of Librarians (AIL) in 1937 and twelve years later in transforming it into a more sustainable and influential body, the Library Association of Australia (LAA). This paper describes some of the work which lay ahead for the new association, including library promotion, expanding membership, professional publications, national and international recognition and a university school of librarianship, in all of which Metcalfe figured significantly. His career after 1949 and some of his activities, including cataloguing and classification theory, education for librarianship and public library development, are outlined and identified as fertile ground for further research.
Raw Nerves: John Metcalfe and the Encel Survey of Librarians in New South Wales
Australian Library Journal, 2013
The 1972 publication of Librarians: a survey by Sol Encel, C. G. Bullard and F. M. B. Cass was the culmination of a six-year research project at the School of Sociology, University of New South Wales (UNSW), at the behest of the Library Association of Australia (LAA). The study was intended to cover the social and educational backgrounds of library employees in New South Wales, their attitudes to their occupation, the structures in which they worked, their gradings and salaries. Questionnaire responses were supplemented by interviews and research by Cass and Bullard, two of Encel’s honours students. A draft of the survey was even-handedly reviewed in the Australian library journal (ALJ) but then scathingly criticised within the LAA. Attention was drawn to factual errors, lack of analysis of supply and demand, and failure to distinguish between professional and non-professional workers. There was dismay at the report’s emphasis on the ‘second-class status’ of women in libraries. These criticisms were expanded in the ALJ by John Metcalfe in an excoriating review of the report and of the theses of Encel’s collaborators. Metcalfe questioned ‘the authority, reliability and credibility of all three’ works. This paper examines the background to and conduct of the survey, the LAA criticisms and Metcalfe’s reactions. It explores why Metcalfe was disturbed and affected by the implication that there had been systemic discrimination against women in librarianship in Australia, particularly at the Public Library of New South Wales, in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Australian Library Journal, 2013
Although the University of Melbourne was founded in 1853, it was not until 1892 that the post of Librarian was inaugurated. Edward Hippius Bromby built collections, facilities and services to support the growing curriculum of the remote young university. The paper examines Bromby the person and Librarian, the collections that he assembled and the physical manifestation of the Library on campus. Scarce funding coupled with inadequate student and collection spaces posed particular challenges in the post Gold Rush economy. The paper posits that these environmental factors and the limited response provided by the university were a source of disappointment for the first librarian. While Bromby did not achieve the outcomes he hoped for in library accommodation and collections, he laid the foundation for future developments.
Public library development in New South Wales
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A short account of the development of public library services in New South Wales, from subscription and schools of arts libraries beginning in the nineteenth century, through generally poorly-supported municipal libraries in the mid nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a burgeoning free public library system from the 1940s onwards. Identifies milestones and key movements and individuals and seeks to explain why developments in New South Wales lagged behind those in comparable environments.
This three-part series traces efforts to establish a system of free public libraries in New South Wales from the time of publication of the Munn-Pitt Report in 1935 to the passing of the New South Wales Library Act in 1939. The series delves beyond the published accounts of events and describes the actions and interactions of the interested parties - the senior librarians at the Public Library of New South Wales, the Free Library Movement, the Library Group, the Libraries Advisory Committee, New South Wales politicians, the media, local government bodies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Australian Council for Educational Research. There are also insights into the public and private views of key individuals, including Ralph Munn, W. H. Ifould, D. H. Drummond, and G. C. Remington. The third part outlines the immediate effects of the Libraries Advisory Committee Report and the protracted negotiations between the Government, the Free Library Movement and local government interests to finalise library legislation. The impact of the outbreak of war on library developments is described, together with the eventual implementation of the New South Wales Library Act.
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Throughout its history Australia has been a melting pot of diverse cultural influences. This has led to a society where competing philosophical and ideological ideas have co-existed: experimentation with radicalism and idealism, and a utopian strand of nationalism has sat alongside deep conservatism. At times there have been acrimonious battles between allegiances and loyalties to old world traditions and aspirations to new world ideals. These battles have helped define Australian society and its cultural institutions