From Munn-Pitt to Library Act

References

• Public Library of New South Wales (PLNSW) Trustees’ Minute Books, 21 October 1935, (State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) archives).
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• W.H. Ifould to Frederick Keppel, 6 January 1936, SLNSW archives NPL53; Ifould, ‘Some Travel Observations,’ Undated, but from context 1936, Notes for lectures and addresses, 1922–39, SLNSW archives NPL244; Ifould to Keppel, 12 November 1935, SLNSW archives NPL52; Ifould to Drummond, 13 November 1935, SLNSW archives NPL52; Leora J. Lewis, ‘The small library in regional planning,’ American Library Association Bulletin 29(October 1935): p. 786.
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• PLNSW Annual Report, 1936: p. 4; Ifould to Keppel, 12 November 1935; Ifould, Radio interview with Ken Sullivan, [1936?], Mitchell Library MLMSS 1878.
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• Ifould, ‘Library Development in New South Wales,’ In Proceedings: Second Annual Meeting and Conference held at Melbourne, June 10th-12th, 1939, by the Australian Institute of Librarians, Adelaide: Australian Institute of Librarians, 1940, p. 62; D. H. Drummond, Report of inquiries into various aspects of education during a visit to the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, and Canada, Sydney: Government Printer, 1937; Norman Horrocks, ‘The Carnegie Corporation of New York and its impact on library development in Australia,’ Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1971, p. 319.
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• Ian Morrison, ’Culture, education, and municipalisation: libraries and politics in the 1930s Australian Library Journal 42(February 1993): p. 54. Of twenty-nine office-bearers of the Free Library Movement (FLM) in 1936, only three were or became identified with the ALP. Jessie Street, a member of the Council from 1936, later contested elections as an endorsed Labor candidate; C.E. Martin, a member of the FLM Executive in 1936, became Attorney-General in the Labor Ministry in New South Wales in 1941; Dr. H.V. Evatt later became a federal Labor leader. A fourth office-bearer, Dr. W.G.K. Duncan was certainly not regarded as a right-wing figure: John Metcalfe believed that Duncan was later denied a position with the Army Education Service ‘because he was supposed to be a Communist.’ (John Metcalfe, Interview by Hazel de Berg, 29 April 1974, National Library of Australia, DeB 764–766, transcript p. 9913).
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• G.C. Remington to John Russell, Assistant to the President, Carnegie Corporation of New York, 16 February 1937, SLNSW archives ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘Free Library Movement.’
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• Free Library Movement, Free public libraries, Sydney: Free Library Movement, 1936, opposite title page.
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• Free Library Movement, Minutes of Executive meeting, 3,10,16 September, 15,22,29 October, 29 November 1937, SLNSW archives box ‘Free Library Movement’; Free Library Movement, Report of council for the year ended March 31, 1938, Sydney: Free Library Movement, 1938; Free Library Movement, Free public libraries, Melbourne: Free Library Movement [Victoria], 1937. Movements were established in Queensland (1937), Victoria (1937), and Tasmania (1938). Movements in South Australia (1944) and Western Australia (1949) did not display the energy or match the achievements of the New South Wales Movement. Ronald Mervyn McGreal (1906–92) became the first Secretary of the Library Board of New South Wales in 1945. He played a significant part in the Camp Library Service during World War II, and was Deputy Principal Librarian of the Public Library of New South Wales, 1959–71.
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• Free Library Movement [Sydney], Free public libraries.
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• Ibid, pp.16,30.
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• Minutes of a discussion between Drummond and Remington, 18 February 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘Free Library Movement.’ The transcript does not indicate who, other than Drummond and Remington, was present. However in the course of the meeting, Drummond said: Tou people, ‘presumably meaning Ifould and Metcalfe, Very wisely, have kept in the background.’
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• Minutes of a discussion between Drummond and Remington, 18 February 1937. Rodney P. Snibson (“The Free Library Movement Campaign for Public Library Legislation in New South Wales,” in Australian library history in context: papers for the Third Forum on Australian Library History, University of New South Wales, 17 and 18 July 1987, edited by W. Boyd Rayward, Sydney: School of Librarianship, University of New South Wales, 1988, p. 123) suggests that the initiative for the Libraries Advisory Committee came, not from Drummond, but from the FLM, which “believed that it had sufficient public support to ask the Government to appoint a subcommittee.’ The minutes of the 18 February meeting however indicate that at this meeting at least, Drummond was the first to mention a committee. The idea, however, could well have emerged at Ifould and Metcalfe's frequent meetings with the Movement, and the proposal may have been suggested to Drummond by Ifould during an earlier briefing, or even by A.W. Hicks, a vice-president of the Movement and a senior officer in Drummond's department.
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• Remington to Drummond, 3 March 1937, SLNSW archives, box libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC Appointment.’ The Report by Archibald Grenfell Price, entitled Libraries in South Australia (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1937), was presented to the South Australian Parliament in 1936. It resulted in the introduction of a Library Bill in September 1937, but this generated such opposition that it lapsed. Another Bill was introduced in the following year, and, heavily amended, passed in 1939, but largely preserved the status quo. (M.R. Talbot, A chance to read: a history of the institutes movement in South Australia, Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1992, pp. 163–65).
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• Free Library Movement, Report of Council, 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Free Library Movement.’
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services: report of the Libraries Advisory Committee to the Honourable D.H. Drummond, M.L.A. (Minister for Education in New South Wales), Sydney: Government Printer, 1939; reprint 1940, p.viii.
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• Remington to Drummond, 3 March 1937; Drummond to Howie, 23 April 1937; Howie to Drummond, 26 May 1937, SLNSW archives, box “Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC appointment.’
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• Drummond to Howie, 25 March 1937; Drummond to G. Ross Thomas, 29 April 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC appointment’; Drummond to H. J. Bayliss, Honorary Secretary, Literary Institutes Association of New South Wales, 13 July 1937, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• Drummond, Minute regarding appointment of Libraries Advisory Committee, 18 March 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC appointment.’
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• PLNSW Annual Report, 1937: p. 2; 1938: p. 1.
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• G. Ross Thomas, Memorandum regarding the appointment of Trustees, 8 March 1937, Department of Education, Subject Files, Public Library, 1937–38, Archives Office of New South Wales (AONSW) 20/13010; PLNSW Annual Report, 1937: p. 2; 1938: p. 1.
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• Note on cover of Ifould's copy of K.S. Cunningham, The Australian Council for Educational Research and library services in Australia, Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research, 1961 (Mitchell Library, MLMSS 1878).
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, ‘LAC Questionnaire’ file, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ folder ‘LAC.’
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• Ifould to Drummond, 7 October 1937, SLNSW archives box libraries Advisory Committee (contd), file ‘LAC Press’; Ifould, ‘Report on Library Activities in N.S.W. 1937–1938,’ 1938, SLNSW archives NPL56.
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• Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 1937.
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• Sun, 7 October 1937.
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• Free Library Movement Minutes of Executive Committee, 2 September 1937. Aldermen John Stanton, J. Lyell Scott and C.C. Faulkner are listed as members of Council of the FLM in Free Library Movement, Constitution, 2d ed., Sydney: Free Library Movement, 1936, p. 3.
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• As Ifould later reminded Purnell when commenting on proposals for library development in South Australia: “What have you got in South Australia which is anything like the English county local administration unit? How on earth are you going to bring about a system for your State depending on a local organisation which doesn't exist? How do you think you are ever going to persuade Parliament to set up a separate unit of local organisation and give it power or force it to apply a system of rating for such an educational] development as libraries?’ (Ifould to Purnell, 4 October 1940, SLNSW archives NPL62).
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• Free Library Movement Minutes of Executive Committee, 2 September 1937.
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• Ifould to H.V. Evatt, 13 April 1938, SLNSW archives NPL56.
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• Ifould to Cunningham, 23 February 1937, SLNSW archives ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ folder ‘Free Library Movement.’
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• Ifould, ‘Report on Library Activities in N.S.W. 1937–1938.’ At the Committee's fourth meeting on 2 August 1937, Remington presented a first draft, headed ‘The Public Libraries Act, 1937.’ (SLNSW archives, box labelled libraries Advisory Committee File and Shires Abercrombie-Bland’).
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• Snibson, The Free Library Movement campaign,’ p. 123, states that Johnson was ‘appointed to represent local government interests.’ If this was the intention, it was singularly ineffective. When the composition of the proposed Library Board was later being considered, the Local Government representatives told Drummond ‘they did not accept the representative of the Department as their representative; he was a representative of the Government.’ (Report of a conference [between the] Local Government Association and Minister for Education, 7 July 1939, PLNSW Confidential Papers, SLNSW archives).
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• E.S. Spooner to Drummond, 10 November 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC appointment.’
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• ‘Australia's lack of libraries,’ was the Sydney Morning Herald's headline on 20 October 1937. ‘Spooner wants good council libraries,’ Daily Telegraph, 20 October 1937. ‘Culture with your fun,’ Sun, 19 October 1937. (SLNSW Archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file'LAC Press’).
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• Ifould to Undersecretary, Department of Education, 8 July 1937, SLNSW archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ folder ‘LAC.’ As at 30 August 1937, thirty-two municipalities and forty-four shires had failed to respond. (Libraries Advisory Committee, ‘LAC Questionnaire’ file, [1937], SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ folder ‘LAC’).
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• Frank Oliver, Shire Clerk, Abercrombie Shire, to Libraries Advisory Committee, 17 Aug 1937, SLNSW archives box labelled ‘Libraries Advisory Committee File ‘and’ Shires Abercrombie-Bland.
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• ibid.
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• ‘Neglect of Library and Gallery distresses Trustees,’ Sun, 18 November 1937. (SLNSW Archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC Press.’)
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• ‘Minister on the Trustees,’ Sun, 18 November 1937. (SLNSW Archives, box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC Press’).
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• Ifould, ‘Report on Library activities in N.S.W. 1937–1938’; Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services, p.viii.
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• South Africa, Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Libraries of the Union of South Africa, 1937, Cape Ibwn: Cape Times, 1937.
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Preliminary report, 4 February 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd)’; G. C. Remington, ‘Suggestions regarding appointment of officers to Libraries Advisory Committee,’ [c. 15 January 1938], SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee contd).’
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Preliminary report, 4 February 1938.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 8 February 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee contd).’
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• Drummond to Ifould, 12 April 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• Ifould to Drummond, 28 April 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ folder ‘LAC.’
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• Drummond to Ifould, 9 May 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• Ifould to Drummond, 20 May 1938; Libraries Advisory Committee, Draft report, [May 1938], SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• Unimproved Capital Value (UCV) is an estimate of the value of land, excluding any buildings or structures on it, or other improvements such as filling or levelling. It was commonly used as the basis for local authority rating in New South Wales.
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• Ifould to Drummond, 19 October 1938, PLNSW Confidential Papers; another copy in SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee contd.’
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services, pp54–55.
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Draft report, [May 1938].
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• Ifould to T. D. Mutch, 14 August 1939, SLNSW archives NPL59.
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• Ifould to Drummond, 19 October 1938; Ifould, File note, 24 June 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd)’; another copy in PLNSW Confidential Papers; Ifould to Undersecretary, Department of Education, 28 July 1938, SLNSW archives NPL57.
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• Ifould, File note, 24 June 1938.
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Final draft report, [1938], SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’ 1835 Final draft.
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• ibid.
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• ALIAS: Australia's library, information and archives services, edited by Harrison Bryan, Sydney: ALIA Press, 1989, vol. 2: p. 86.
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• Ifould to the Chairman, Honorary Commission on the University of Sydney, 6 December 1928, SLNSW archives NPL94.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 27 September 1938, PLNSW Confidential Papers.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 27 September 1938.
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• Ifould to Drummond, 28 September 1938, TL copy, PLNSW Confidential Papers.
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• Bruce MacGregor, Editor, Newcastle Sun, to Ifould, 21 November 1938, SLNSW archives box libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ file ‘LAC.’
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• PLNSW Trustees’ Minute Books, 16 May 1938.
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• Ifould to Drummond, 28 September 1938.
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• Ifould to Drummond, 19 October 1938; Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services, p.viii; Libraries Advisory Committee, First draft report, [1938], p. 1, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• The language used to describe schools of arts is an example; the final draft report reads: ‘Our inquiries show them to have failed abroad and in every state of the Commonwealth. They must be either superseded or absorbed by public libraries. ‘(Libraries Advisory Committee. Final draft report, p. 2). In the published report, ‘failed’ and ‘must’ are nowhere to be seen in the section dealing with schools of arts. Instead we read: ‘The schools of arts, and literary and mechanics’ institutes have not provided this modern [library] service [described in the preceding paragraph’, even when the subscriptions on which they depended were subsidised, as they were up to 1932. Experience in other countries has been similar to that in Australia.’ (Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services, p. 3).
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• Ifould to Drummond, 19 October 1938.
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• ibid.
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• ibid.
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• ibid.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 25 October 1938, SLNSW archives box “Libraries Advisory Committee (contd)’, another copy in PLNSW Confidential Papers.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 3 November 1938, PLNSW Confidential Papers; Ifould to Drummond, 7 November 1938, SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd),’ Unnecessarily ornate buildings had also been a problem with early Carnegie benefactions, and had led to changes in the way in which applications for Carnegie funding were handled. See Free Library Movement, Free public libraries, p. 14.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 25 October 1938.
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• Drummond to Ifould, 27 October 1938, SLNSW archives box “Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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• Libraries Advisory Committee, Public library services, pp13–14; Drummond, ‘Statement for Submission to Cabinet: Free Libraries, 29 November 1938,’ SLNSW archives box ‘Libraries Advisory Committee (contd).’
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