ALIA West

December 2002

Francis Aubie (Ali) Sharr

5 October 1914-16 November 2002

It is with much sadness that members of the library community in Western Australia note the passing of Francis Aubie (Ali) Sharr who left us, peacefully, on 16 November 2002 after a short illness. Ali was predeceased by his wife Flo (McKeand) who died on 9 November 2002.

By all accounts Ali Sharr, esteemed library colleague of so many UK and Australian librarians, had a good innings. His love of cricket is one of the many recollections he shares with us in his book Recollections where he mentions split loyalties during his childhood of cricket matches between Lancashire and Yorkshire, UK. He was born in Manchester though spent much of his childhood in Leeds, Yorkshire. He writes that his parents never pressured him to choose a career, though his father sought the advice of the headmaster at his school "who suggested librarianship because I was good at English. ... the suggestion appealed to me because I thought that a librarian could be useful to other people without there having to be a loser in the transaction" (Sharr, 1990, p.7). Ali Sharr took his undergraduate degree where he read English, French and Economics at University College London, graduating in 1935. His postgraduate qualification in librarianship followed, this being at the University of London School of Librarianship.

It is interesting reading Sharr's recollections to see how much of what he learnt in his early employment in UK libraries he brought with him to Western Australia. His first professional job was as an assistant in the Information Department of the National Central Library, adjacent to the University College, where he worked on inter library co-operation and lending. When the library service for Western Australia (WA) was being planned, a system of inter-library co-operation across all types of libraries in the state formed one of the initial and integral elements. He looked back on this job as affording him "almost a bird's eye view of the whole British library scene" (Sharr, 1990, p.17).

His move to public librarianship was in 1937 when he joined the staff at the Kent County Library where he became a branch librarian, with considerable freedom. It was also when he first became involved in professional matters, joining the Kent Division of the Association of Assistant Librarians. He returned to the Kent County Library for a while after his war service and moved onto the deputy librarian's position in Derbyshire in 1946. It was here where his interest in public administration was first demonstrated when he joined the Royal Institute of Public Administration, of which he remained a member for some 40 years, holding portfolios including president of the Western Australian Regional Group from 1960-62.

He took the "plum job" of deputy city librarian of Manchester in 1949, joining "an old, proud, and rightly proud service" whose reference library had "a magnificent heritage of stock" and which in his words had the finest music library open to the British public. His interest in professional matters increased and he became involved in the Library Association (of the UK), and other professional bodies. He was elected president of the Association of Assistant Librarians in 1952. He was president of the Library Association of Australia (LAA) from 1969-70, received a Fellowship from the LAA in 1964 and was awarded the Association's highest honour for a professional member, the HCL Anderson Award, in 1980. He was chairman of the State Librarians Council in Australia from 1973-76.

Ali Sharr admits to occasionally contemplating emigration as a young man, though his descriptions of life in various parts of England are wistful and obviously happy ones. Yet his account of what prompted him to come to Western Australia is memorable. It starts: "one dreary wet Saturday morning in the summer of 1952" he was visited by what we would today call a headhunter from the Library Board of Western Australia (WA) seeking applications for a new post. Sharr continues: "he painted an attractive picture of the beauties of Perth ... including that there was an average of nine hours sunshine per day throughout the year. I looked out of the window at the steady rain" (p.48) and the rest, as they say, is history.

When Ali Sharr arrived in Perth, WA in 1953 he was accompanied by his mother, then aged 64. They left an England with five inches of snow on the ground and landed by ship with a cyclone hovering, humidity at 90% and the temperature 98 degrees F (30 degrees C). He set about to equip WA, a state where 82% of the local authorities at the time had less than 6 000 population, and 60% less than 2 500, with a viable public library service, providing shelf ready bookstock which was exchanged between all of the libraries in the State and made available to all residents through a free inter-library lending system. His goal was to have a public library in every local authority. This dream came to fruition in 1982, and the public library service of Western Australia stands as his memorial.

The number of library services was to grow because of population increases which made the general philosophy which still stands today, of all citizens of the vast state being of equal importance, an added challenge. He admitted that not all of the assumptions made in the early days were well founded. The vastness and isolation of the populations in the state turned out to be a particular challenge; one that could only be appreciated by visiting the areas.

He reconnoitred the state in a variety of ways: accompanying Ministers on their rounds, his first trip covering the wheatbelt towns of Narrogin, Dumbleyung, Lake Grace, Bruce Rock and Merredin. He later acquired a car and drove himself. The early beginnings, with a Treasury allocation of 5 000 pounds (when he requested 15 000 pounds) an initial staff of 5, and an office in West Perth are remembered with some fondness by those who joined him then or soon after. The early appointments included familiar names in Western Australian librarianship: Joyce Jackson (later Pugh), Val Creasey, James Hammond, Ali's late wife Flo (McKeand), Arthur Pugh. Others included Bill Chape, Lennie McCall, Jenni Woodroffe and Cec Florey.

The first new public library was established in York in 1954. The first three metropolitan libraries were established by 1956, these being Claremont, Fremantle and Kwinana. The amalgamation of the library services provided by the Library Board and those provided by the Trustees of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia took place at the end of 1955 and the State Reference Library of WA, including a local history library, to be known as the J S Battye Library of West Australian History, was a result.

Sharr's interest in library education began with his professional involvement at Kent County Library and continued when he was at Derbyshire. Here the librarians ran a UNESCO course in rural libraries for overseas librarians. In 1950, Manchester was asked by the British Council to run a similar course. This was where he first met Flo McKeand, who after spending time in Toronto Canada, and joining the initial library staff in Western Australia in 1954, became his wife in 1962. Ali Sharr became a senior examiner in Library Administration for the Library Association. Formal qualification for librarians in WA was attained through the registration examinations of the LAA held at part time evening classes which he helped to establish at Perth Technical College. In 1971 the library school was established at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) now Curtin University and Ali Sharr played a significant role in this. Before that, in 1953, he persuaded the Trustees of the Library Board of Victoria to accept two graduate cadets per annum from WA into their library school, the only one then available in Australia, though applicants were slow in coming despite advertisements.

His contribution to the library community continued well past his retirement as state librarian in Western Australia in 1976. In 1976 the WA Branch of the LAA awarded the first F A Sharr medal for the most promising new graduate, to Jean Ryding and the award has continued since. Ali is well remembered for his attendance at Curtin University of Technology student presentations and graduation ceremonies. He joined the stage party at Curtin graduations after receiving an Honorary DLitt from the University in 1990. He attended many local functions of the LAA (which later became ALIA) and until very recently would drive himself to them in his trusty Volvo.

There were other things that were important in Ali Sharr's life apart from libraries. His interlude in the army from 1939-46 was spurred by the Munich crisis in 1938 when he joined the Territorial Army in the UK, a reserve for the regular forces. He became a full-time soldier when this unit was mobilised in August 1939. He had an early interest in drama whilst at university, moving from acting to stage management. He maintained an interest in the early history of England and was a keen photographer, bird watcher and gardener. And there was Flo.

Kerry Smith, FALIA, and past president, ALIA, with the help of colleagues
Curtin University of Technology

References

Sharr, F A (Ali). (1990). Recollections. Personal ms copy.