AustLit

'John Wallace Metcalf (1901-1982) had a profound influence on the course of Australian library history, playing a major part in the establishment of the Australian Institute of Librarians (later the Library Association of Australia), working for the development of free public libraries, leading education for librarianship in Australia for over thirty years and making a significant contribution to the theory and practice of librarianship. Metcalfe's extensive published works, reminiscences, interviews, surviving manuscripts and diaries may tend to perpetuate a dominant Metcalfe view of Australian library history, but Metcalfe himself acknowledged that his interpretations could never be impartial. This paper focuses on the controversy, fuelled by Metcalfe, surrounding the role of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in library development in Australia and shows how he sought to correct the record and provide raw material for future historians, in the process presenting a frankly biased and impressionistic account.' (Author's abstract)

'This paper will firstly give a brief overview of the history of the Braidwood Literary Institute, concentrating on the issues it faced in its early years. It will also examine some of the records of the Institute, which have rather fortuitously survived and are now housed in the Braidwood and District Museum.

'The records include committee minute books, annual reports, account ledgers, visitors' books, and borrowing records. The Borrowers' Register for an eighteen-month period in the early 1860s has been analysed and has revealed the reading habits of its subscribers.

'A profile of the membership in the early years is being developed using existing biographical information from a variety of sources, which, together with the members' reading habits, will allow some conclusions to be drawn about the success or otherwise of the Institute's stated aims.' (Author's abstract)