(Download) "Andrew Osborn's the Library Keeper's Business: Its Impact and Relevance Today." by Australian Academic & Research Libraries * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Andrew Osborn's the Library Keeper's Business: Its Impact and Relevance Today.
- Author : Australian Academic & Research Libraries
- Release Date : January 01, 2002
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 223 KB
Description
Andrew Osborn's return to his native land in 1958 introduced ingredients which were badly needed in the Australian academic library sector: new blood and new ideas, based on wide and varied experience at a high level. His energy was immense and he made a dazzling vision of the scope of libraries seem a reality within grasp. The academic library world he found in Australia might best be described as a provincial, cocooned milieu where developments had been at best modest. This is not to say that there were no librarians of talent working at the time. The stagnation was rather a reflection of the economic, social and historical factors which determined the course of the Australian federation from 1901. Whilst Australian librarianship could achieve, even under adverse circumstances, some respectable gains, the overall position was not particularly impressive. The Munn-Pitt report of 1934 may be cited as evidence of this. Admittedly, several State Libraries had, by virtue of their age and by the calibre of some of their chiefs, succeeded in building up collections that were noteworthy in a context where the standards and expectations were modest. The added fact that Great Britain, to which Australians had long looked for inspiration and models, was able to offer little encouragement, had a dampening effect in Australia. Gradually the recognition that the United States offered the best examples of progress in the field began to make headway in Australia. After the end of the Second World War, this knowledge became irresistible, above all in academic librarianship. The major postwar change in the Australian university library scene came in 1957 when the Menzies Government appointed Sir Keith Murray, a British higher education expert, to head a committee to evaluate the Australian universities. This committee's Report found grave deficiencies in the university sphere in general, including in the libraries and other infrastructure. (1) The Government accepted the report's recommendations and began to implement massive financial improvements and expansion of the university sector and its infrastructure. A period of new and badly needed vitality swept across the tertiary educational sector in Australia. The Murray Report and its great promise for academic libraries led Andrew Osborn to return to his native country after an absence of three decades. The post of University Librarian at Sydney University was to fall vacant in 1959 with the retirement of the incumbent, E V Steel. Osborn accepted a call to Sydney, coming in 1958 as Associate Librarian, with the understanding that he would succeed Steel. He had thus a settling-in period and a chance to size up the task confronting him. In his new role as head of the oldest university library in the country, Osborn achieved in a period of under five years results that were unrivalled in Australian library history.
 "Andrew Osborn's the Library Keeper's Business: Its Impact and Relevance Today." by Australian Academic & Research Libraries * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}