What's Just Happened at the State Library of Victoria?

GH has some promising news

A stopped watch is proverbially right twice a day. But let’s allow some favourable news into Et Al’s coverage of the clusterfiasco at the State Library of Victoria, previously reported here, here, here, here and here. This morning the library intranet lit up with two new appointments to its beige board and, mirabile dictu, they are good - indeed, they are exactly what Et Al and other critics, observing the paucity of library and academic expertise at its uppermost reaches, have been calling for.

For Christine Mackenzie, this will be full circle: she actually began her distinguished career at the library forty years ago. Her longest gig was twelve years as CEO of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library, and she served two years as President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, after which she was made a member of the Order of Australia. She also rocks a T-shirt, and I’d be happy to send her one of these.

Given her background, Mackenzie might want to get to grips with what happened to the old library sector engagement team at the SLV, which for years partnered with Public Libraries Victoria providing training and research to rural and regional libraries across the state. The library’s previous CEO cut its funding eight-five per cent. An external consultant was then brought in to run a half-day workshop at which participants were asked to ‘collage a picture’ describing the new partnership. They barely refrained from screwing up a piece of paper and throwing it in the bin.

Peter McPhee, who will be the first historian on the board in more than thirteen years, is one of those prodigious long-range scholars perhaps better appreciated in his field than in his country, with a mighty list of works behind him concerning the French revolution, including a first-rate life of Robespierre. Mind you, I’ve a particularly soft spot for his splendidly even-handed biography of the earthy, mercurial Pansy Wright, which in my review of ‘Pansy’ for The Bulletin I remember describing as a ‘Kylie Minogue of a book, small but perfectly formed.’ I used to think of Peter’s confession that he had ‘spent years oscillating between unalloyed admiration for Wright’s brilliance and dismay at his insensitivities’ when I was writing about Doc Evatt.

Peter, who also holds an Order of Australia, today chairs the History Council of Victoria, and in that capacity not only signed our open letter to minister Colin Brooks, but wrote to the library executive expressing concern about the infamous Strategic Reorganisation….Change….Proposal…zzzzz. I won’t say outright that these appointments are a response to our campaign for change to the library board, which was prima facie non-compliant with the Libraries Act, but they do seem designed to disarm a key thrust of external criticism. To which it’s only possible to say: ‘Great.’ Also: ‘More change please.’ Because we’re looking at our watches.