22 April 1999

Editor of the Australian Library Journal receives HCL Anderson Award

The editor of the Australian Library Journal, Professor John Levett, has received the HCL Anderson Award, the highest honour which the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) can bestow.

Professor Levett is a former director of the Department of Librarianship in the University of Tasmania and chair of the Department of Librarianship, Archives and Records in Monash University.

He was a member of the ALIA Board of Education and has been active in ALIA affairs since 1964. The association awarded him its Fellowship in 1988 and he served as president in 1991.

In making the award ALIA's General Council said Professor Levett had made an outstanding contribution to the intellectual development of librarianship, including the consideration of the ethical and philosophical issues which underpinned the profession.

The General Council cited Professor Levett's contribution to ALIA over a long period and his advocacy for education for librarianship.

Professor Levett began his career in 1954 as a library cadet in the Newcastle Public Library and gained a Bachelor of Arts at Newcastle University in 1969 and a Master of Librarianship at Monash University in 1985.

HCL Anderson, whom the award commemorates, was the principal librarian of the Free Public Library of NSW from 1893 to 1906.

ALIA has also elected two members as Fellows of the association. The honours have gone to Ms Helen Hayes, vice-principal (Information) and university librarian of the University of Melbourne, and to Mr Alex Byrne, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Information Resources) at the Northern Territory University.