Library for the Nation by Peter Biskup; Margaret HentyReview by: Julie HallmarkLibraries & Culture, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Summer, 1994), pp. 346-348Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542677 .

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346 L&,C/Book Reviews

having a background in historical knowledge for working in archives, and the Ca

nadian concept of "Total Archives." Nesmith juxtaposes authors who challenge and question each others' different opinions on archival theory. Essays on records

and media examine issues such as the special problems presented by electronic

records and the debate over segregated archives separated by material format

(such as photo- or sound-recording archives). Essays on Canadian contributions to

the profession include Wendy M. Duff and Kent M. Haworth's, "The Reclamation

of Archival Description: The Canadian Perspective," which provides an interesting

study of how Canadian descriptive standards have developed differently from Brit

ish and American standards, and the concluding essay, Terry Eastwood's "Nurtur

ing Archival Education in the University," which examines the evolution of

archival education in North America with particular emphasis on the Master of

Archival Studies program that he directs at the University of British Columbia in

Vancouver. Eastwood's description of the Canadian experience with the M.A.S.

program should be of particular interest to the American archival community, since the Society of American Archivists is discussing implementing similar pro

grams in the United States within the next few years.

Despite the fact that these essays all deal with Canadian archives and Canadian

perspectives on archival theory and practice, this collection is beneficial not only to

Canadians but to Americans and all other English-speaking archivists as well.

Most of the issues addressed are universal and not confined to Canada. The essays are well-written, insightful, and thought-provoking and provide an important con

tribution to archival literature.

Overall the book is very good, but there are a few ways in which the text could

have been strengthened. It would have been helpful for readers to have clearer ci

tations to where the original articles were published. Some of the essays are cited in

footnotes in the introductory essay, but the places of most of the original publica tions are unclear. An index also would have been helpful, especially considering that the text is over five hundred pages long.

T. Matthew De Waelsche, The University of Texas at Austin

Library for the Nation. Edited by Peter Biskup and Margaret Henty. Belconnen: Na

tional Library of Australia, 1991. 186 pp. ISBN 0-86804-475-X.

In 1901 the ancestor of the National Library of Australia, the Library of the

Commonwealth Parliament, came into existence. Officially, the National Library

itself was created only in 1960 by the National Library Act; however, in the inter

vening years "successive Joint Library Committees responsible to the Parliament

readily acknowledged that the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library had a spe

cial responsibility to build up, in the national interest, an Australian collection

which would serve as the foundation for a future National Library" (68). Thus, the

Library has evolved from a limited collection serving Parliament to an institution

of nearly 5 million volumes (including microform equivalents) and more than two

hundred thousand serials.

This collection of twenty critical essays is a special issue of Australian Academic and

Research Libraries, December 1991, and updates a similar issue of International Li

brary Review that featured the National Library of Australia in 1975. Fifteen library

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347

staff members address topics within the broad areas of acquisitions and special col

lections; international activities; document delivery and other services; networks,

systems, and cooperation; administration and public relations; the library's lead

ership role; and preservation. The diverse and interesting essays provide something for everyone and range from heritage responsibilities of the library to Asian

collections/services and online information networks to manuscript collections.

Four external authors provide perspectives from the Council of the National Li

brary of Australia and the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Ser

vices (ACLIS), as well as an examination of changing roles of the library and an

historical overview.

Editor Peter Biskup introduces a theme which appears in several essays when he

notes in his introductory remarks that the library no longer subscribes to the no

tion of universality. Having long abandoned the "one institution on one site" con

cept of national library service, the Australian library community, dealing with the

same issues and problems as their contemporaries in the U.S. ?rising costs, de

clines in funding, preservation needs, and new options for access offered by tech

nology, has embraced the concept of the Distributed National Collection.

Formalized initially by a resolution of the 1988 Australian Libraries Summit, this

approach requires evaluation of present collections, coordination of collection

development throughout the country, effective linking of libraries by the Austra

lian Bibliographic Network accompanied by the development of the National

Bibliographic Database, nationally coordinated preservation, and improved ac

cess. Henty comments on some rather formidable unresolved questions in this

undertaking: Who will be responsible for national coordination? How will

allocation of commitment for specific areas be determined? What are funding

priorities? How will "Australiana" be defined in terms of formats and collection

responsibilities? A second theme, that of leadership, recurs throughout the collection as we learn

of the Library's several roles in networking, document delivery, preservation of

Australia's heritage, system development, and so on. Templeman describes the li

brary's strategic five-year plan, Shaping our Future, Preserving our Past: National Library

of Australia Strategic Plan, 1990-1995, which articulates a new leadership role for the

library. Published in 1990, the plan emphasizes a "coordinated and dynamic approach

to the marketing of the National Library's collections and services to a wide range of geographically dispersed users" (29). Through a sustained media campaign, ex

pansion of the Library's publication program, strengthening of links between the

National Library and the Australian writing community, new educational pro

grams and promotional activities aimed at informing the public about the library's

collection, and the physical transformation of the library itself, the plan advocates

the means for achieving "recognition by the Australian community of the impor tant roles that the Library serves in our society

. . . with the aim of securing the

resources needed to support our long-term objectives" (30). As a recent visitor to

the National Library, this reviewer can certainly attest to the physical, artistic, and

intellectual appeal of the library's "new persona." Cathro's fascinating description of the first decade of the Australian Biblio

graphic Network (ABN) further illustrates the library's continuing leadership role.

Alternately criticized and praised by the Australian library community, the library

persevered in planning and developing an online shared cataloging network. Read

ers will relate to the usual problems, decisions, and conflicts concerning software,

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348 LScC/Book Reviews

telecommunications, competition from individual states and regions, cost recovery,

standards, authority control, and so on.

Overall, this reviewer was impressed by the clarity and focus of the goals and

achievements of the library as articulated by both staff members and external con

tributors. Offering a nice blend of Australian library history, views of the present

scene, and future prospects, this slender little volume will no doubt inspire many

readers to visit Australia and her magnificent National Library.

Julie Hallmark, The University of Texas at Austin

Books to the People: A History of Regional Library Service in New Zealand. By Mary Ronnie.

Clayton, Australia: Ancora Press and the New Zealand Library Association, 1992.

xi, 122 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-86862-016-5.

While the title suggests the subject is the story of actual regional library services,

it might more accurately have been entitled: "Efforts to provide regional library

service in New Zealand." Ronnie's study presents the story behind the failure.

The first chapters review the early library history of New Zealand. Libraries

were set up almost as soon as the first European settlers arrived in New Zealand in

1840, but, as Mary Ronnie points out, their growth was impeded by the way in

which local government developed. The first constitution (1852) envisaged strong

central and provincial governments. When the provinces were abolished in 1875,

first counties, cities, boroughs, and town districts succeeded them, then a host of

special-purpose authorities with concerns as diverse as hospitals, harbors, and

rabbit eradication. No strong middle tier existed, comparable to the British county or the U.S. state. More telling, most public enterprises were centrally funded and

controlled.

The first major move forward in the provision of libraries came at the turn of the

century with the support of the Carnegie Corporation, which sponsored the con

struction of free public libraries, the most notable being that in Dunedin, the "cap

ital" of the Otago province. A second Carnegie initiative resulted in the Munn-Pitt survey of libraries and in

a series of developmental proposals, the most notable of which would have been a

regional demonstration in Taranaki, which was, in the event, superseded by the

new Labour government's decision to fund country-wide library service instead.

From this point on, Ronnie offers a more detailed presentation. The often acri

monious discussions over the Carnegie report are presented in depth, drawing on

printed and archival records. Foremost among the players were G. T Alley, a pro

ponent of centralized service, and A. G. W. Dunningham, who favored a regional

basis. World War II, while it did not suspend discussion, slowed actual plans and

introduced several new elements. These included the influence of Jessie Carnell,

USIA librarian, who, with Alley, then Head of the Country Library Service, de

veloped the Army Education Welfare Service, whose library efforts were based on

several regional depots, but with central planning and financial control. Carnell

felt that New Zealand as a whole formed the only viable financial unit. The new

Library School, under the umbrella of the new National Library Service, from 1947

on began to produce the trained librarians so often noted earlier as essential.

Dunningham's efforts to strengthen the regional centers are noted, as is the fact that

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