Port Macquarie librarians of the 1970s reminisce

LIBRARIANS Kay Browne and Karen Bale have known each other since they worked at what was then the Port Macquarie Library in the 1970s.

The Port Macquarie Hastings Library Service celebrated its milestone 75th birthday in July and that inspired Kay (now 80) and Karen (67) to share some of their memories of the new, old space in the municipal building in Clarence Street.

When Kay started working at the library in 1974-75, there was a staff of about five.

Vera Kirkness was the librarian and then Min Tobitt took over.

“I was made second-in-charge as I had partial training and, by 1978, I was made responsible for the children’s section,” said Kay.

By 1980 Kay was responsible for introducing a Local Studies section, under advice from the State Library.

By 1983 the State Government made genealogical records available to rural libraries and this became Kay’s responsibility as well.

When the second floor was built (c1981), the area was shared by council rooms.

“We had about two-thirds of the space, a very generous work area, and the remainder dedicated to reference and children’s sections with a corner used for family history,” she said.

“It was a busy library in the 1980s, with an aging population in Port Macquarie, so large-print books and the home library service were introduced.

“I left Port Macquarie in late 1988 to work in research at The Australian War Memorial.”

Kay returned in 1999 and worked in Reference as well as Local Studies and Family History again until 2009.

“Working with libraries and archives suited me so well and the ability to point people to information they needed was extra important,” she said.

“The older style library suited me much better.”

One of Kay’s stories was about learning the skill of indexing by using a phone book. She and Karen also reminisced about cataloguing using cards, and Microfiche.

They still have the Dewey Decimal System in their heads, as will many readers of a similar vintage.

“I loved indexing including The Port Macquarie News and the Ryerson Index, a national database, which I only gave up two years ago,” Kay said.

Karen finished her Higher School Certificate in 1976 then took on a trainee Library Assistant position with the town library. During her career she went on to become Teacher Librarian at both MacKillop and St Joseph’s Regional Colleges.

“I commenced studying my Bachelor of Library and Information Science degree at Riverina College of Advanced Education – by distance with Kay,” Karen said.

“We received our lectures on cassette tapes, our background notes on copious sheets of paper, and we posted off our completed assessments in big yellow envelopes.

“I worked with some great people – Min Tobitt, Kay Browne, Wendy Samuelson and Wendy Hagney.

”I absolutely loved learning on the job.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity afforded me to forge a career in library work – and to the many wonderful people, teachers and students whom I’ve met along the way,” said Karen.

Karen and Kay remained in libraries throughout their professional lives and still frequent the local Port library.

These two librarians have both been great readers since childhood and value reading and books.

Kay now has books selected and delivered to her via the Home Library Service and Karen is a regular borrower and attends many library events.

By Pauline CAIN