ALIA WA Retirees

With a new State Librarian now in charge we decided that it was time to catch up with the State Library and were fortunate that she had the time to give us a short address in the Library’s Board Room on its future directions.

After which we were taken around the premises including the Better Beginnings children’s library facility:

A tour of the conservation area:

And at the end of the event most of us had Christmas lunch at the café in the library:

L-R: Julia Johnson, Anthea Harris, Margie Lundy, Kerry Smith, Christina Burnop, Agnes Norhuna, Bernadette Waugh, Sandy Hayward, Lyn Trouchet.

Dr Kerry Smith
Convenor ALIA WA Retirees

Our first coffee meeting at the café at the State Library of WA was in June this year where we thought it was time to get cracking with a visit or 2 for the remainder of the year. One of our group was a former University Librarian at Curtin University and said that it was worth a visit as it had been completely refurbished. So off we went in September and what an interesting visit this was for some of us like myself who had had connections with the Library in years past:

From this in 2015:

To this in 2023: Meeting in the new foyer.

Photo: Most of the books now stored in rows and rows of compactus.

Photo: Lots of space for students with the occasional bookshelf.

Photo: On a new deck at the end of the tour.  L-R: Margie Lundy, Bernadette Waugh, Nicola Carson (Curtin Library), Christine Richardson, Imogen Garner, Peter Green, John & Judi Wilmott.

With the essential coffee catch up afterwards.

Dr Kerry Smith, Convenor ALIA WA Retirees.

Interestingly we had visited the old Fremantle Public Library premises in November 2016:

We decided to squeeze in one more library visit before Christmas was upon us, so off we went to the new Fremantle Public Library where library staff members Leanne Thorp, Margo Kopsen and Local History Officer Stewart Alger gave us an informed tour.  As you can see from the pic below, the new location in this modern building looks a bit different:

As does the interior, from this:

To this:

Pictured L-R: Stewart Alger, Ruari Jack & Rosemary Spark, Imogen Garner, Christina Burnop, Kerry Smith, Margie Lundy, Agnes Noronha, Leanne Thorp.

Now onto 2023.

Dr Kerry Smith, Convenor ALIA WA Retirees

We would like to think that we are now back in touch with each other, and given the challenges in trying to find a day that works for all, 7 of us were able to visit this newly constructed library and its adjoining museum. Nicole Richards, the Coordinator of the Library and Museum Hub, gave us a well guided tour through the premises and as you can see from the pics, what a different place it is!

L-R: Kerry Smith, Margie Lundy, Sally Eaton, Imogen Garner, Christine Richardson, Karen Wintle, Bernadette Waugh

And as we had the essential coffee after the tour we are now planning out Christmas 2022 event.

The COVID situation and our ages and health issues for some of us have meant that our group has not been able to meet since October 2019!  In line with our theme “Staying Connected”, how glad we were to catch up again, and it was the inspiration of a past State Librarian, the late Ali Sharr (Francis Aubie Sharr (1914-2002) ) and his book Western Australian plant names and their meanings: a glossary, published in 1978 and revised in 1996, that had our member Imogen Garner suggest a walk through the Kings Park Botanical Garden just before the COVID shut down at the end of 2019, so it did not happen then.  It was on December 3, 2021 that we took this lovely walk and mused about the marvel of WA‘s native plant species and the way in which Ali Sharr was attracted to them in such a way to develop his tome.  As the photos show, what a lovely outdoor walk it was, followed by an outdoor lunch at the Kings Park Zamia Café where we were joined by a few colleagues who could not come on the walk with us.  

Our interest and regard for our libraries is not forgotten and we have our fingers crossed that we will be able to visit at least two new libraries in metropolitan Perth in 2022 - on which more soon.

The walkers: L-R Karen Wintle, Bernadette Waugh, Christina Burnop, Christine Richardson, Imogen Garner, Julia Johnson (pic: Kerry Smith also a walker)

Wow! The Boab tree in Kings Park Botanic Garden

Lunch after at the Kings Park Zamia café where a few extras joined us

Our theme is staying connected.

Staying connected enables us to keep in touch with colleagues and with libraries we have worked in and to renew connections with former friends. To facilitate this we host occasional social events in various locations in WA. Our group has been going for quite some time and in earlier years was under the stewardship of the late and much respected librarian Pat Gallaher http://alia.org.au/patricia-gallaher

As you can see from the notes below, the last real gatherings our group had were in 2019. After that the COVID issue hit us all. The ALIA WA Retirees group have acted carefully and avoided gatherings since then and are certainly looking forward to getting together again. So more soon – we hope.

Here is what we got up to in 2019:

• Our New Year coffee at our usual haunt the First Edition café at the State Library of WA was on 15 March 2019. It was a good turnout and amongst our gossipy discussions, we were thinking about library visit/s to refurbished libraries. We had another coffee meeting in July before our library visit mentioned below. And our chats include discussions on all sorts of library matters including a proposal, that fortunately went nowhere, to amalgamate WA cultural institutions, and which ALIA had taken a position on
• One of our retirees Bernadette Waugh, former librarian at CSIRO and other special libraries, together with her husband Russell each received an OAM in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours list, see: https://www.communitynews.com.au/midland-reporter/news/swan-view-couple-awarded-the-medal-of-the-order-of-australia/

• Member Julie Ham organized a visit to the refurbished Riverton Library in October which a few of us were able to make: 

• And our last event for the year was a Christmas lunch at a metropolitan Perth pub: the Albion Hotel in Cottesloe – a lovely historical venue where some of us started off in “the tram” without air conditioning but then moved to a cooler part of the restaurant for Christmas cheer. We also welcomed some new members to our group. One reason we decided on The Albion as a venue was because it had come up that conversations that were underway regarding the funding of The Grove Library (a partnership of 3 local governments) and we thought we should meet nearby so that we could be updated on the matter.

So now it's onto 2020

Kerry Smith

Convenor, ALIA WA Retirees