The Australian Library Journal

Yadlamalka girl shaped Australian librarianship

Jean Primrose Whyte, Emeritus Professor, Graduate School of Librarianship, Monash University 27 June 1923-18 March 2003

Brian McMullin

Jean Whyte was born in Adelaide; home was Yadlamalka, an 855-square-kilometre sheep station sixty-four kilometres north of Port Augusta, where her father, Ernest Primrose Whyte, was manager. She died in Melbourne on the anniversary of the death of her mother Kitty (nee Macully), who was killed by a white pointer shark off Brighton, South Australia, in 1926.

Until the age of 11, when Jean became a boarder at St Peter's Collegiate Girls School in Adelaide, she and her younger sister Phyllis (Billie) were cared for by their father and a succession of eight governesses.

In an autobiographical letter of November 1952 Jean notes that 'as a scholar I was not outstanding', despite excelling in English and history. School for her 'meant debating, writing poetry, tennis and hockey'.

On leaving school she went back to Yadlamalka, and was expected by her father and stepmother (her mother's sister), who did not believe in higher education for girls, to stay at home, but Jean was determined to attend university and returned to Adelaide, becoming a part-time student in 1942.

To support herself she found a job at the Public (now State) Library - not because she wanted to be a librarian but because the library was only two doors from the university. She soon caught what she called 'library mania' and by 1946 had passed the qualifying examination of the Australian Institute of Librarians and became a professional librarian.

In 1948 she assumed responsibility for lectures to training classes for members of the library's staff, eventually becoming staff personnel and training librarian. She observed: 'After my first lecture I realised that I had found the work that I wanted to do. I was not a good lecturer or teacher, but I wanted to be a good teacher more than anything else.' Henceforth, her career was devoted to the practice of librarianship and to education for the profession.

Meanwhile, she continued her university studies, completing her BA in 1951 with first-class honours in English literature and the award of the John Howard Clark Prize for first.

The critical event in Whyte's early career was the period spent at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, then the most distinguished such school in the United States. She graduated in 1956 with an AM, which included a thesis comparing education for librarianship in the United States and Australia.

The Chicago years resulted in numerous lasting friendships and reinforced her commitment to the North American pattern of professional education: graduate study within a tertiary institution, as opposed to the prevailing British system of external examinations administered by the professional body. The experience also led her to encourage Australian librarians to undertake further study in the United States.

In 1959 Whyte joined Andrew Osborn, the newly appointed librarian, at the University of Sydney, first as reference librarian and then as associate librarian (reader services), a period coinciding with the early years of the new Fisher Library.

In 1972 she moved to Canberra as director, information, reference and research at the National Library of Australia, being one of only two women (and 850 men) in the second division of the Commonwealth Public Service.

Finally, in 1975 she was invited to accept the position of foundation professor in the Graduate School of Librarianship, Monash University, from which she retired as an emeritus professor in 1988.

At Monash Whyte was able to implement some of her ideas about professional education. The first program was an advanced M.Lib, with a large component consisting of a thesis - this as a means of fostering research, an area little regarded at the time. A first-award MA followed in 1980; unlike programs elsewhere in Australia, it required two years of study and the writing of a thesis, and unlike programs elsewhere it had a strong component of historical studies and an emphasis on the principles underlying practice.

Both programs produced some outstanding graduates and promoted research, but both were to become victims of changes in federal government funding policies, as well as of an unwillingness by employers to recognise superior qualifications, so that now Monash programs adhere to the prevailing norms.

As part of her commitment to education for the profession Whyte served as a member of the Board of Education of the Library Association of Australia for most of the years 1957-77. She was a member of accreditation panels, and her advice was sought by fledgling departments and by institutions examining the workings of their libraries.

She also was editor of The Australian Library Journal (1959-71), raising it to the point where it was accepted internationally as a reputable reflection of Australian librarianship.

In 1987, in recognition of her contribution to the profession, the association honoured Whyte with the highest award available to a professional librarian in Australia, the H C L Anderson Award. Other forms of recognition came too: Fellowship of the Library Association of Australia, membership of the Order of Australia, and an honorary D.Litt. from Monash. Whyte was a regular speaker at conferences and published more than 100 articles, chapters, reviews and reports. Her experience was valued on bodies such as the Library Council of Victoria and the Council of the National Library of Australia.

Her life was not confined to professional matters, important as they were to her. From early childhood she had written poetry. In adult life this often took the form of perceptive and metrically varied verses written for occasions such as staff retirements and resignations.

She also was a great reader of poetry in English, and had a prodigious capacity for quoting it - not just the standard poets but the now-obscure and the contemporary Australian. This interest in poetry stemmed from the childhood years at Yadlamalka, when, isolated from other entertainments, she devoured her father's collection of poetry, which ranged from Milton to the early 20th century.

Among the recreations listed in her entry in Who's Who in Australia Whyte included 'hand-printing'. She had learnt the rudiments with Harrison Bryan in Sydney, and on arrival at Monash was instrumental in setting up the Ancora Press, which has continued in a modest way to print small pieces on an Albion and other hand-presses.

Her last public appearance was to read at the launching of the Ancora publication of her sequence The poems of Callimachus, which combined her interest in poetry, library history and hand-printing.

She also was keenly interested in the visual arts, especially contemporary Australian painting. Her own walls were home to a variety of works, some now in public galleries, but her influence was more widely felt at Monash through her years as chair of the Art Advisory Committee.

Despite the years spent elsewhere, Whyte remained at heart a South Australian. In a late doodle she wrote:

Oh take me back
Where the dust blows thick
Please take me back
For I'm home sick.

She regularly holidayed at Carrickalinga, at the beachside house she shared with Billie and Dame Roma Mitchell, whose friendship extended back to childhood. She was knowledgeable about wines, and when entertaining made a point of serving reds from McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Her travelling was not confined to Australia: besides regular trips to North America and most parts of Europe, she visited such out-of-the-way places as western China, the Galapagos Islands and East Africa, these last in company with her long-time friend the late Professor Hector Monro, who shared with her a love of animals. On the domestic front this encompassed a series of cats and dogs.

Whyte had a wide circle of friends scattered around the globe. Physically she was imposing, and students could remain in awe of her, but those who were prepared to meet her standards were likely to become life-long friends in whose careers she continued to take a practical interest. She recognised dormant talent in both students and colleagues and encouraged them to higher things, to strive to attain the ideals she herself espoused.

Her death marks the passing of one of the dominant figures in Australian librarianship in the second half of the 20th century.

Biographical information

Brian McMullin was formerly a member of the Graduate School of Librarianship, Monash University.

This definitive obituary was published in The Age newspaper on 18-19 April 2003; the editor is grateful to Dr McMullin and The Age for their generous consent to its reproduction here