The Australian Library Journal
volume 47 issue 2
[editorial] John Levett
Dietrich Borchardt, the father
Max Borchardt
The clues to a good life are like the clues to a cryptic crossword. There is a right answer, but it's not always obvious. So it was living with my father. We had a good life together. He was a good friend and a confidant, and a mentor, and a good father,
and a good librarian, and a great scholar. The chronological sequence of these qualities is never quite clear. As a child along with my sisters, we knew that our father was a librarian, and we knew that he was a good one, else why would he tell us so? As
we grew older we began to see the reverence in which he was held by his peers, and by his colleagues from the university and from around the world. Our life was not normal. We were unconscious witnesses to Australian library history as it unravelled. We
saw and heard and met colleagues and rivals who chose to bring to our door their views of the library world. Some who read this may be aware of the conflict between John Metcalfe and Dietrich Borchardt. We never knew of it other than through the eyes of my
father whose personal descriptions of this opponent should not be aired here. It was not until later when I studied the Australian library history that I learned what the conflict was over. This type of conflict typified many of DHB's relations with
others. He was a highly-principled person who believed strongly in the importance of intellectual excellence. He valued peoples' contributions for what they were, not for who made them. In this regard he achieved many firsts, one in particular of which he
was most proud, namely that he achieved equal salary for equal work by men and women in the libraries for which he was responsible. Many who claim to have known him in his later years, and who considered him a sexist and a chauvinist did not know him as
well as they thought they did. So many people were ready to attack the tall poppy with little or no foundation to their criticism. To those who scoff at this comment, (as if he should be off-limits because he was old school, and what he did was in the
past) take note, that many of your contemporaries have acknowledged his greatness. There are few libraries that carry your name!
Customers are consumers of library resources and services - or are they?
Bonna Jones
Paul Ricoeur's narrative theory, when combined with the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu (1990), fosters a fresh perspective on the debate about the language of business and its influence in librarianship (Horton, 1996). The author contends that the
assertion 'Customers of libraries are consumers of services and resources provided by librarians' is inappropriate. It is suggested that narratives about readers hold promise because they capture the active nature of reading as it is described by Ricoeur
(1984), and as it is reflected in the theme of the 1996 ALIA Biennial Conference - Reading the future.
Manuscript received February 1998 - This is a refereed article
You are now entering the Age of the Mind: thoughts on the knowledge society
Bryan Riley
The late twentieth century has been described as the Age of Information, where an emphasis is placed on the external organisation, transformation and communication of information. It has been suggested that the twenty-first century will be the
Age of the Mind, where the focus on the externally observable features of information will have been replaced by a completely different set of rules and customs and modes of delivery and where people will use it according to judgments made on a
different set of criteria. Heilprin (1989)
This article was the winning entry in the 1998 Metcalfe Medallion Award. Manuscript received April 1998
Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'
Miroslaw Kruk
Public libraries emerged as educational institutions during the second half of the nineteenth-century. Their aim was the intellectual and moral improvement of individuals and societies. After several decades it became evident that public libraries had
failed as 'people's universities'. The reading public opted for entertainment instead of instruction. Public libraries came to acknowledge the provision of entertainment as a legitimate purpose and justification for their existence. 'Give them what they
want!' replaced 'Give them what they need!' as the mission of the public library. The consequences of this choice are not always fully understood.
This article was a runner-up in the 1998 Metcalfe Medallion Award. Manuscript received April 1998
When is a policy not a policy? Australia's quest for a national information policy
Nicole Willingham
Australia has yet to adopt a national information policy. Information issues have become increasingly critical to both governments and players in the global marketplace. As key participants in an information society governments need to address these issues
to ensure that their economies and citizens are well-prepared for what lies beyond 2000. The formulation of a national information policy would provide the underpinning to this process.
This article was a runner-up in the 1998 Metcalfe Medallion Award. Manuscript received April 1998
The rights and responsibilities of content creators, providers, and users: a white paper
The National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services
This white paper was developed over a three-year period by the NFAIS [US] Information Policy and Copyright Committee (Bonnie Lawlor and Jim Walsh, co-chairs) and Dick Kaser, NFAIS executive director. It was approved for distribution by the NFAIS board of
directors in November 1997. Readers are encouraged to freely distribute copies of this white paper to others.
Downloaded [with permission] from http://www.pa.utulsa.edu/nfais.html, April 1998 [no longer active]
CHEMPAGE: A model for exploring the internet for professional development
Debbie Orr, Cathy Duncum and Margie Wallin
In early 1996 the Professional and Graduate Education Consortium (PAGE) of Central Queensland University (CQU) called for expressions of interest from individual staff members willing to write subjects and professional development units to be delivered in
1997. Several members of the library staff had been involved with the creation and delivery of programs at the university and were interested in producing a series of professional development courses on access to and searching resources on the internet.
This also involved staff from the Division of Distance and Continuing Education (DDCE). It was decided to target chemists as the first professional group and to create and deliver a program (known as CHEMPAGE) via the world wide web. However, the
model developed for CHEMPAGE can readily be adapted to other disciplines.
Manuscript received December 1997
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