AARL

Celebrating Warren

Ian McCallum

Abstract In discussing Warren Horton's commitment to helping young librarians, the author focuses upon his contribution to the Aurora library leadership program.

This contribution to the Festschrift is a lightly edited transcript of a short speech made at the Celebration of Warren Horton's Distinguished Career held at and hosted by the National Library of Australia on 26 March 2004 - four months after his death.[1] My brief was to speak on Warren's commitment to helping young librarians.

For the record, this was the second of three formal celebrations of Warren's contribution to his chosen profession. The first took place within the Aurora[2] community in February 2004, and the third happened on the Gold Coast in September 2004 in conjunction with ALIA's Biennial Conference.

Warren Michael Horton AM. He might well have begun with: Good evening comrades...

It is a curious thing that a man so highly feminised (thanks to Fran Awcock[3] for the phrase) would so often use such a masculine form of greeting. And it was a curious thing that a man so consistently attired in director-general's robes would in the Aurora context choose frequently to open them to reveal the person within. Larger than life in the library; life-size in Aurora.

Jean Whyte, writing in Harry Bryan's encyclopaedia in 1989,[4] described him as 'active in library politics, at home in the bureaucracy, energetic, enthusiastic and confident.' He certainly was. She commented 'He will play a leading part in preparing Australian librarianship for the twenty-first century.' And so he did.

Through Aurora, Warren made a major contribution to identifying and developing young and sometimes not-so-young talent in librarianship in both Australia and New Zealand - and he also encouraged senior librarians from both countries to renew their commitment to our cause by acting as unpaid mentors.

Aurora is a library leadership program modelled on the Library Leadership Institute at Snowbird (supported by the Salt Lake City Public Library) and brought to Australia and run first by Brenda McConchie through AIMA.[5] Today the parent body is a non-profit, tax-exempt, financially self-sustaining foundation largely established and bank-rolled by Warren. So far seven leadership institutes have been held, producing 232 graduates.[6] Warren attended all but the last. Aurora was the last professional concern he relinquished, and back in November 2003, just days before he died, he was asking me about arrangements for Aurora 7 which was held in February 2004.

Over six days in a structured environment of four learning groups of eight, each with two experienced mentors, we teach leadership through self-awareness, a bias for action and responsibility for results. Organisation development consultants John Shannon and Becky Schreiber,[7] close personal friends of Warren's, are the course leaders, introducing material and encouraging participants to understand their reactions to the content, and to the people around them. 'Lead from anywhere, learn from everything' is the message.

Aurora encourages frankness and openness. Participants are urged to examine and then discuss their personal influence and performance in a series of group exercises, and mentors have an opportunity in a session called 'My practice, my passion' to talk about triumphs and failures in their professional lives.

It was in this context that the man usually in the pin-striped suit, but now in a blue shirt, no tie and fawn slacks (and sometimes even shoes without laces) decided to take the plunge and reveal his determination to do what he could for the next generation of library leaders, before Jimmy Dancer claimed him.

Despite his protestations that after retirement he wasn't going to hang around, when Brenda asked him to come back to Aurora not as the director-general, but as a kind of 'super mentor' still with the tag Grand Poo-Bah (a person with much influence and many functions), he leapt at the chance. Brenda says he literally skipped in delight from her office.

And Aurora brought him great pleasure. He eagerly anticipated each Institute, closely scrutinised all applications, derived devilish - and often scurrilous - merriment from selecting the mentors, and then participated to the hilt for the full six days.

He encouraged the shy and cautious by allowing them to see him as a mere mortal (mind you, this was an acquired skill, and it took him a while to believe it himself), and encouraged the bold by sharing with them the absolute correctness of all his political decisions - especially the most controversial.

Aurora became his family. His own was interstate. And then as the pain of his condition almost engulfed him, we began to think that it was keeping him alive. Another six days at Thredbo to look forward to, 32 new participants to encourage, eight mentors to measure, and his good friends John and Becky to hang out with. As his health deteriorated we changed the frequency from every two years to annually, willing him to keep going, involving him in our preparations, and keeping him in contact with past mentors and participants. I'm sure that just as the spacecraft Voyager went on for much longer than the experts expected, this was for him the bonus part of his mission. Ask anyone who was there. He shone. The star was brightest before it burst.

So what did Warren do for young librarians?

Most importantly, he was genuinely interested in them. He provided career advice (both sought and unsought), encouraged those he thought likely to contribute to the cause, provided training opportunities - sometimes funded from his own pocket - and invited them to ALIA and National Library functions, where he greeted them warmly. His knowledge of who was where (and who should be where) was encyclopaedic.

When the top man is so approachable, the effect on young librarians is extremely encouraging and many developed great loyalty and fondness for him, especially if they knew of his struggle to stay alive. To face death, yet still have energy for identifying, mentoring and sponsoring the next generation of librarians was inspirational. Such courage reflected his judgement of the value of the profession, and his views were easy to share. When he died he gave again. He left the Aurora Foundation such a generous legacy that it is now financially self-sustaining.

Warren showed young people what success as a librarian looked like; he demonstrated the value of working together and the camaraderie and fun involved in supporting each other. He proved that librarianship is a deeply personal as well as a professional commitment. Like our present director-general he lived this commitment unconditionally.

Rest In Peace Warren Michael Horton AM. We're missing you already.

Notes

1. The National Library's written tribute to Warren appeared in National Library News vol XIV no 4 January 2004
2. The object of the Aurora Foundation Ltd, a non-profit, tax-exempt company, is 'to provide and promote education, development and training opportunities in leadership to the library and information services profession and associated information and cultural communities'. Full details may be found at: http://www.alia.org.au/aurora/
3. Former state librarian Victoria and Warren's successor in this position
4. H Bryan ALIAS: Australia's Library Information and Archives Services - An Encyclopaedia of Practice and Practitioners Sydney ALIA Press 1989 vol 2 p32
5. AIMA, the Australian Information Management Association was set up by Margaret Trask hosted by the National Library of Australia and managed by Brenda McConchie then spun-off in 1998. It was wound up by its directors in 2001
6. With the completion of the Eighth Aurora Leadership Foundation in February 2005 there are now 264 Australian and New Zealand alumni
7. For details of their work see: http://home.flash.net/~jonbeck/

Ian McCallum (please remove '.nospam' from address) is director of Libraries Alive! Pty Ltd, Company secretary of the Aurora Foundation Ltd, and a recipient of the ALIA's HCL Anderson Award.