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Curtin University
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
Curtin University Library

Innovation and new ways of working: Australia's first prime ministerial library

By Dr Vicki Williamson, University Librarian, Curtin University of Technology

Society of American Archivists 65th Annual Meeting, August 27 - 2 September 2001, Washington, DC

INTRODUCTION

Professional colleagues, I'm speaking to you today from Australia's first Prime Ministerial Library - the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Several important matters have precluded me being with you at this time. I trust you are having a successful meeting thus far.

This session is to explore how Australian institutions have responded to the US presidential library model in developing equivalent prime ministerial libraries and demonstrate how differing political, legislative, geographic, archival and cultural conditions have influenced their development and led to virtual solutions.

The Australian context in terms of the broad political, legislative, geographic and cultural difference and challenges has already been covered and the video presentation has introduced you to the JCPML.

SPECIAL FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT

I'd like to continue to explore the themes of political, legislative, geographic and cultural differences and challenges - but from the perspective of how these factors influenced JCPML's innovative development of productive partnerships and our digitisation strategy.

Geographic

  • Perth is Australia's (and perhaps the world's) most isolated capital city. Located in Western Australia, a state that takes up half the country. WA has a population of approx 1.3 million people, approximately 1.1 million who live in Perth.
  • The tyranny of distance and the sense of isolation are real. On a good day it takes almost five hours to fly to Sydney or Singapore; 10 hours to Johannesburg, in South Africa.

Cultural

  • The Tall Poppy syndrome (the desire to diminish or denigrate those who are successful, high achievers) is a very Australian characteristic. As a nation we frequently engage in cutting down tall poppies. We do not have a tradition of honouring and respecting our national leaders. The prospect of doing so through the establishment of a prime ministerial library, some 50 years after the person's death, was in some regards a bold move.
  • We have no philanthropic traditions. Corporations and big business are not known for their community sponsorships and donations.

Politics

  • Developing Australia's first Prime Ministerial Library has not been without its politics.
  • 'Politics' emerged at several levels and at various times during the establishment and development of the JCPML.
  • At the local institutional (Curtin University) level, some key stakeholders questioned the viability of the concept vis-à-vis the likely costs involved. Could the vision for an electronic archive be realised? What would it cost?
  • At the professional practice level there was the politics of trying to bring together best practice from a variety of professions - archivists, librarians, educators, and journalists. Why is the archive called a library?
  • At the party political level, how do you convince politicians and governments of different political persuasions to provide public funding for the establishment of a prime ministerial library?

THE VISION

Therefore, the conceptualisation of the JCPML had to be visionary and challenging but realistic and convincing. In our conceptualisation we melded what we could learn from US presidential libraries but took account of the special factors unique to Australia and developed innovative solutions to take account of all of this. For example, given our location we were not going to attract huge numbers of individual researchers and visitors, and so an 'electronic archive' and dynamic website would help us to overcome the tyranny of distance. However, it was easy to talk about the concept. Turning it into reality brought us many technological challenges.

We needed to be mindful of Australia's attitudes to their national leaders and so we placed the emphasis on research and scholarship, rather than creating a memorial. That is why the JCPML's motto is 'Learning from the past in order to build a better future'. That is why we have developed strong programs to promote scholarship (e.g. the JCPML Visiting Scholars' and publications programs).

We needed to accept that we would never hold all of the materials relevant to John Curtin, the man and his times, the office of the prime ministership and those directly associated with it and the Australian-American relationship. Therefore, our focus was to concentrate firstly on private records about John Curtin. Secondly, through our digitisation strategy, we have worked to develop links to records in relevant collections world-wide. Thirdly, we will over time develop our other collection themes. For example, we have accepted a donation of private records from Mrs Hazel Hawke, the former wife of the Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, who was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991.

The JCPML's strategies have involved overcoming the political, cultural, legislative and geographic challenges by building partnerships and applying innovative technological solutions.

PRODUCTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Long before our institution adopted the strategy of productive partnership a key to achieving its vision to be a world-class university of technology, JCPML had several key partnerships in place.

Our partnerships vary in type. For example, some are long term and developmental, such as our relationship with the National Archives of Australia. Other partnerships are project based; such was our relationship with the then Digital Corporation.

For us, partnerships are a matter of survival as they not only deliver direct dollars, but also specialist support in-kind and help us to build prestige and credibility. For example, Federal and State Government support, corporate and individual dollars.

All of our partnerships are strategic and determined 'top-down'. The partnership strategy has been deliberate and has required JCPML to be strategic in our approach in determining alliance partners. We have deliberately cultivated people and institutions that we believe to be critical to the success of the JCPML. For example, early on we made a very strong commitment to work with the surviving members of John Curtin's family and to always respect their feelings and privacy.

Partnerships can be hard work and often require hours of behind the scenes work. Others have been opportune and have 'just come to us'. Above all, our experience has shown that successful and sustained partnerships require a strong and fundamental commitment to shared values - especially professionalism, respect for family and memories, etc. In all that we do at the JCPML, we have always looked to the vision, leadership and sense of community demonstrated by John Curtin to guide our work. JCPML seeks to fulfil its vision for Australia's first Prime Ministerial Library; by showing leadership within our professional practice; and seeking to share our experiences with our communities.

Our best partnerships have involved the leaders being of 'like-mind'. This reinforces the point that for partnerships to be successful there must be shared values between the partners. Anything less than shared values mean the relationship or interactions are not true and sustainable.

We have several productive partnerships; all are special and each one has come about through individual circumstances. The partnership with the National Archives of Australia started in 1995 with a project to curate a major travelling exhibition and continues today with a number of significant collaborations. This partnership has been our most significant to date. The then Digital Corporation provided hardware and software solutions that supports our vision for an electronic research archive. A local company, Touchstone, worked with us in the early days on a number of digital projects and this work gave us the confidence to move enthusiastically into the new digital environment.

One of the reasons I'm not with you in person today is that Curtin Library and Information Service has just signed a partnership agreement with Ex Libris (Australia) Pty Ltd. Among other things, this partnership will see us working with Ex Libris in the development of their exciting new Digitool product, and is the newest productive partnership for the JCPML.

CONCLUSION

Differing political, legislative, geographic, archival and cultural conditions have influenced the development of the JCPML. It has led to innovative virtual solutions and the development of productive partnerships. Only time will tell whether other prime ministerial libraries will use the JCPML model. Or are the factors of politics, legislation, geography, and archival and cultural practice such that, future Australian prime ministerial libraries will develop their own responses, to reflect the individuality of their prime minister and their situation?