The Wisest Help: Frederick Keppel and his Consultants’ Impact on Australia and New Zealand Libraries

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2013

Department 1

History

Abstract

Aspects of the Carnegie Corporation’s philanthropic initiative in Australia and New Zealand, which helped transform the library landscape, are examined through the lens of Corporation President Frederick Keppel’s interaction with key advisers, among them James Russell, Dean of Columbia University’s Horace Mann’s Teacher’s College; Ralph Munn, Director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; and William Warner Bishop, Dean of the Library School at the University of Michigan. Drawing on original materials in the Carnegie files as well as pertinent memoirs and secondary sources, the back-story is created of a library revolution in Australia that could not have happened as it did without the contributions of Frederick Keppel’s American collaborators. Particular mention is made of Bishop and Munn, who were especially influential in devising travel programmes, sifting the qualifications of applicants for further education, and advising Keppel about resource allocation as well as mentoring applicants who would subsequently effect fundamental changes in the way Australian libraries did business at every level of librarianship.

Comments

Original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1758348913Z.00000000047

DOI

10.1179/1758348913Z.00000000047

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