AARL

Obituary

Eoin Howitt Wilkinson

Those who knew and admired Eoin Wilkinson feel keenly the loss of such a complete professional and gentle man from among the ranks of leading Australian librarians.

Although since July 1987 Eoin had been retired from his position as University Librarian at Macquarie University, Sydney, he remained strongly supportive of that library and of the profession's association, expressing that support in many practical ways. He also took great pleasure in maintaining contacts with colleagues, and, in company with his wife Betty, devoted a lot of time to his local community and was much appreciated there for his active role in ensuring its wellbeing.

One would wish that his happy and productive retirement could have lasted longer, but that was not to be. Approximately seven months after the diagnosis of a brain tumour, he passed away peacefully on 15 April 2004, surrounded by his family, at the age of 78.

Eoin was one of many young librarians whose careers began at the State Library of New South Wales, in January 1949, then known as the Public Library. This followed graduation with Honours in History from the University of Sydney in 1948 and completion of the library school course run by the Public Library in the same year. He was seconded as librarian of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College in 1951-1953 and was librarian of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture between 1953 and 1960.

In 1957 and 1958 Eoin took up a scholarship at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago, and received his Master of Arts degree from this prestigious institution in 1960. Whilst in the United States he received a travel grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which enabled him to study the organisation and administration of research libraries in North America.

In 1960 Eoin was appointed reference librarian at the University of New South Wales; in 1961 he was also a part-time lecturer in its School of Librarianship. Thereafter, for nine years he served at the Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, as deputy librarian - working for some time under Ira Raymond, his great friend and mentor. The nine months from May 1967 to February 1968 Eoin spent overseas, pursuing interests such as education for librarianship, automation and the planning of library buildings in North America and Europe.

Although Eoin came to Macquarie University as university librarian in February 1971 with a markedly different personal approach to that of founding Librarian Barry Scott, they had many professional interests and aims in common, including a national vision for libraries and empathy with the university community and its academic goals, in particular its philosophy of encouraging interdisciplinary studies. Each in his own way set about to create a genuine personal rapport with staff and students and supported the concept of a unified library which was truly the heart of the university. Among other things, both saw the university as a place where works of art could be displayed and enjoyed by all.

With deputy librarian Mollie Thomson, Eoin continued the innovative programs already established in reader education and in collection development. For ten years their combined wide experience and vision guided the library. The value of staff development and a national approach to questions of collecting and sharing were to the fore. But then, Eoin, who had come to Macquarie one year after the untimely death of his predecessor in 1970, had to see the library through the further loss of its deputy librarian. Eoin had always valued Mollie's work and professionalism very highly. When she became terminally ill in 1980, he did all he could to help her, and to assist the staff in their loss, finding numerous ways in which to pay tribute to her and to preserve her memory within the library.

One of his actions was to propose that a stained glass memorial window be installed near the library entrance. The artist Cedar Prest was commissioned - a precedent which has been followed in honouring some other campus identities, thus enhancing the beauty of the library building.

Planning of stage IV of the library commenced shortly after Eoin's arrival at Macquarie, while stages II and III were still being completed. Bearing overseas models, particularly the work of Keyes Metcalf in mind, by 1978 Eoin's careful collaboration with the architect-planner produced a result that has proved both lasting and adaptable to change. An innovation along overseas lines introduced by Eoin was the reading annex to permit continued use of library materials after the library had closed; also he foresaw the need to set aside an area where multiple computer terminals could be used by readers in the future.

Both Eoin Wilkinson and Mollie Thomson were keen for Macquarie to join the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) at the earliest opportunity for its national resource-sharing potential. The library also participated in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) online pilot project and other early online subject retrieval trials. As well, Eoin saw that automation would need to be developed for local applications: he and his colleague and counterpart Jeff Hazell of the University of Wollongong encouraged staff collaboration early on, both libraries at the time having similar needs and access to Univac computers.

Serials were always a special concern of Eoin's. The question that caused him the greatest, ongoing concern was of course that of the national scale of serials cancellations and the failure to arrive at a workable cooperative concept of 'library of last resort'. At home, however, he had some satisfaction from the development of a computerised serials list that was to assist in the eventual annual cancellation exercises over many years of budget restrictions.

The only special cataloguing requirement I can remember Eoin making concerned, sensibly, the need for consistency in treatment of serial titles in multiple formats. In other instances, too, his eye for detail was exercised, but only where it mattered because of wider implications.

Like all first-class library directors, collection development was one of Eoin's major concerns throughout his career. For him this was always in a national context. In 1963 he was one of a small group of collection developers on a National Book Resources Development Committee of the Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographical Services (AACOBS) chaired by Cliff Burmester, charged with preparing and costing an appropriate national action plan - no small task. The continued failure of efforts at devising a national framework for cooperation and occurrences such as the dispersal of the CSIRO main library serials collections, made him despair.

At Macquarie, he ensured that selection and collection maintenance policies were consistent and appropriate to the institution's service, given the budget restrictions that then applied. The Macquarie University Library Friends' group, established on Eoin's initiative and launched by Vice-Chancellor Edwin Webb in November 1986, has attracted interest from a range of people associated with the campus over the years. Some Friends share Eoin's appreciation of fine publishing and rare books: he would very much have liked to develop a sizeable historical collection around the life and times of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, but was realist enough to allow only a very limited amount of special collecting. He was troubled by the prospect that many relatively recent Australian publications with short runs might quickly become hard to obtain; consequently he took what steps he could to provide a copy for the future, but this initiative, too, could be only very limited in scope.

Eoin Wilkinson and Mollie Thomson encouraged staff to look outward for ideas. In the staff tea room a small display of current journals in librarianship was set up. A staff member suggested a 'journal club': this led to the formation of a group which met monthly at lunchtime to share and discuss recent articles on a variety of library issues. Needless to say, Eoin's contributions to those informal meetings were greatly appreciated, not just for his manifest breadth of knowledge, but for the enjoyment and ease with which he shared it. He also encouraged input into the planning of the library building extension and in various other ways consulted with and drew out the best in his staff. He was a model of tolerance, even-handed in recruitment, always conscious of the need to provide for continued vitality within the profession. Because of this he placed great importance on professional development and mentoring.

When library staff had the opportunity to see Eoin enter fully into the spirit of a Christmas party or other social get-together, some were surprised to find another side of him and came to admire the enthusiasm with which such a seemingly mild and reserved man was willing to join in.

The university librarian always took the time to ensure that consultative processes were thoroughly understood and carried out, while being quite clear as to his own role and responsibility as ultimate decision-maker in library matters. The lengthy process of successfully negotiating the non-lending of serials was a case in point. For formal functions and meetings, he was meticulous in ensuring that preparations were complete, down to the last detail.

In the event of any changes that might affect them, Eoin was insistent on full consultation with staff unions and user groups. Prior to the existence of the library committee, liaison committees were in place with both students' and schools' representatives.

The library committee was set up in March 1979 on the librarian's initiative, as a committee of Academic Senate. It became an effective forum in which the librarian could consult with and gain the understanding of academic members. Just before Eoin's retirement from Macquarie University, which took effect on 10 July 1987, the library committee chairman, Professor Edwin Judge, said in tribute to him, among other things:

[Eoin Wilkinson] has regularly shown himself to have a wider concern for the interests of the university as a whole than those of us anchored in particular disciplines can easily attain. No one could imagine Mr Wilkinson taking up a partisan position, even in favour of the library. It is characteristic of him personally, and true to the noble tradition of scholarly librarians, that he has kept himself aware of developments in the learned world, and in tertiary education in particular. Indeed such broad concerns are always in the forefront of his thinking. He approaches the practical problems alert to their larger framework. Such an approach embraces also the interests of the public and of the nation...

With his wide-ranging knowledge and interests and collegial style, Eoin entered in many ways into the work and life of the university, not only on administrative committees but also by playing his part in campus organisations such as the Staff Club and the Rhetorical Society.

His conviction that more inter-library cooperation was urgently needed led him to enter fully into the formation and work of the NSW Office of Library Cooperation, which was formed when academic libraries in the Sydney area began to share their experiences in automation, particularly with regard to ABN. As a contributor also, of course, to national bodies such as the Committee of Australian University Librarians and AACOBS, Eoin won the respect of his colleagues and developed close professional relationships, quite a few of them enduring in retirement. Harrison Bryan in his autobiography No Gray Profession (1994), refers to Eoin as 'my oldest friend in the profession' with a 'quiet determination... not to allow old friends to lose touch completely'.

Education for librarianship was another of Eoin's lifelong interests. For a long time he chaired the advisory committee for the School of Library and Information Studies at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education and sat on its continuing education committee. He participated in discussions leading to the restructuring of the diploma courses of the School of Librarianship of the University of New South Wales. In 1982 and subsequently he strongly supported Margaret Trask as she introduced US-designed management courses for senior library staff, and he became a director of the Australian Information Management Association that was formed as a result of this initiative.

Having worked for the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) under its earlier name earlier in his career as office-bearer, conference organiser and participant, and for some years as an official examiner for the registration qualifying examination, Eoin was pleased in retirement to enter into the work of the University and College Libraries Section (UCLS). Furthermore, once ALIA had taken the decision to move its headquarters to Canberra, he contributed a generous amount of his free time and experience into planning for and facilitating that move.

Eoin did not go into print often on his own account, but when he did, the result was well written and thorough. Furthermore, he took enormous care to do justice to the numbers of books of others that he reviewed. Among his own writings are significant contributions to two major publications, Design for diversity: library services for higher education and research in australia (1977), and Australian academic libraries in the seventies (1984). He also used to put a lot of thought into carefully crafted letters to the National Library and others about resources issues. Whenever Eoin rose to speak, he would command attention in his own quiet way, because people knew that what he had to say would be well considered and constructive. He would begin by outlining the background of an issue, moving forward to develop his argument and present a perspective for the future. While always considerate of others, he certainly did not shrink from disagreement, but his reasoning would always be presented firmly and with such manifest good will, that no one could doubt the generous spirit in which it was being offered. His judicious views and moderation engendered high regard. He was widely admired for his integrity and held in great affection by many.

As Emeritus Professor Bruce Mansfield, a lifelong friend of Eoin's, recollected in an extensive tribute to him, in his last year at Knox Eoin was appointed head of the school's library committee - which might, Professor Mansfield said, have been 'a measure of perceptiveness on the part of the headmaster, ... who perhaps saw Eoin's capacity for leadership and for managing not just the modest stock of the school library, but the diverse and sometimes difficult human relationships that cluster around any library'.

Eoin Howitt Wilkinson leaves behind a close-knit family to whom he was devoted, and many friends and colleagues. A memorial service, which was held on 20 April at St Andrews Uniting Church, Turrumurra, contained fine tributes attesting to his goodness and intellect, also recalling the happiness with which he embraced life. Given the fullness of Eoin's contributions to his chosen career, he has left us with a rich professional legacy as well.

Eugenie Grieg