'Not Yet Ready': Australian University Libraries and Carnegie Corporation Philanthropy, 1935-1945

Authors

Michael J. Birkner, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Department 1

History

Abstract

In recent years the Carnegie Corporation's influence on Australian library development has been fruitfully examined from many angles, among them its role in promoting free-library movements in the various states. One piece of the story, however, remains mostly in the shadows: the Corporation's initiatives pointing towards modernizing and professionalizing Australian university libraries. Although the Corporation's philanthropic enterprise at the university level yielded mixed results at best, it was not inconsequential. It provided a blueprint for future university-library development in Australia. In one instance, at the University of Melbourne, it inspired a vice-chancellor to articulate a vision of a library future that comported with the best practices in Great Britain and the United States. In another, at the University of Adelaide, it showed how, with philanthropic intervention, university-library modernization could be expedited with salutary results.

Comments

Originally presented at the conference Collections, Characters & Communities: The Shaping of Libraries in Australia and New Zealand, held June 26-27, 2009, at Swinburne University; later published in Collections, Characters & Communities: The Shaping of Libraries in Australia and New Zealand edited by B.J. McMullin, Melbourne: Australia Scholarly Publishing, 2010.

Copyright Note

This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.

Recommended Citation

Birkner, M. J. (2010). ‘Not Yet Ready’: Australian University Libraries and Carnegie Corporation Philanthropy, 1935-1945. In B. J. McMullin (ed.), Collections, Characters and Communities: The Shape of Libraries in Australia and New Zealand (pp. 77-93). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.