Williamson Award 2008

The 2008 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Elizabeth Drynan and Pamela Johnstone, from Enterprise Information Management Pty Ltd, for their outstanding contribution to librarianship as editors of Online Currents.

Online Currents has been a dedicated independent published source of information about the online library industry in Australia since the 1980s. Online Currents has reported on every new development in our industry, every database, new online services, CD-ROMS, and in more recent years, search engines and websites. In providing clear, unbiased, and quality information to the library profession over many years, Elizabeth Drynan and Pamela Johnstone are very worthy recipients of the 2008 Robert D. Williamson Award.

The 2008 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Elizabeth Drynan and Pamela Johnstone reads as follows.

VALA’s most prestigious award is the Robert D. Williamson Award, which is in memory of one of the early pioneers of our industry, Bob Williamson. This biennial award is presented to an individual or organisation who or which, in the opinion of the judging panel, has made and is currently making an outstanding contribution to the development of information technology usage in Australian libraries and is positively and significantly influencing development in information technology usage within libraries.

Although originally a chemical engineer, as manager of APM’s (now AMCOR’s) research library, Bob was an early devotee of information technology in libraries. By the early 1970’s, he had persuaded management to invest significantly in relevant US computer databases and software to support the company’s business objectives. This predated all of the publicly available services. Professionally Bob was a leader. He was a quiet man, both curious and innovative, a generous adviser to colleagues, and an eager participant in the professional debates at the time. He was the industry representative on the STISEC committee convened by the National Library of Australia to quantify scientific and technical publication in Australia. When Peter Judge, of CSIRO, formed ALIA’s national Information Science Section, Bob was an obvious choice to convene that Section in Victoria just a few years before his sudden and untimely death in 1980.

There was a seismic change in our industry in the 1970s, when George Maltby and Brian Callaghan steered the Overseas Telecommunications Commission’s launch of its packet switching service MIDAS thus making online access to Dialog and Orbit financially more accessible. ACI Computer Services with assistance from the National Library of Australia launched AUSINET, the first training for Dialog and Orbit was initiated by the NSW Information Science Section and subsequently continued by Insearch/Dialog set up by Dorothy Peake at the Institute of Technology (now UTS). It was heady time learning about modems, qualifiers, string searching, proximity operators, ever increasing baud speeds and how to obtain a secure connection in a TI terminal built for American telephone handsets. In fact, Bob developed “recipe books” to help new online searchers navigate the different commands needed to access the new online services. There were lively debates about the benefits of controlled versus uncontrolled indexing and the need for high quality thesauri and of course the need for standards!
About this time, the first information businesses were also established – some more successful than others. The inimitable Grisha Sklovsky, after being Chief Information Officer at ICI for 30 years, had become joint managing director of Trans Knowledge Associates in Melbourne in 1977. His fellow joint managing directors were Frank Nicholls (ex CSIRO) and, after 38 years at APM, Bob Williamson. Diana Killen and June Anderson were running Infoquest – an information business within the Melbourne retailing icon Myer. One of the most successful was the transformation of Phil Ruthven’s IBIS research services – a market research business founded in 1971 – into IBISworld in 1987.

One can’t help but ponder on how much Bob would have revelled in the tumultuous developments since 1980. Today there are so many amazing products available in our online world both in the free web space and in the value added services, but there were many developments along the way. The National Library’s Ozline service in the 1980s and 1990s, CSIRO’s AUSTRALIS and News Ltd’s Presscom, Computer Power’s ill-fated legal service called CLIRS, and eventually RMIT’s launch of Informit as an online service in 1998. Meanwhile many overseas services slowly became available – STN, Finsbury (taken over by Reuters), Dow Jones, Reuters, ProQuest, Lexis Nexis, Factiva, Ovid, Fairfax.com – to name just a few. What would Bob have thought of some of the powerful and innovative products now on our desktops, such as mash-ups?

Meanwhile, as a means of helping us all to keep abreast of all these new exciting developments, VALA started its conference in Melbourne in 1981 and the NSW branch of the ALIA Information Science Section started its Information Online conferences in January 1986. Both conferences have been enormously successful over the past 27 years.

Parallel to all these developments, in 1985 another small company was established in Sydney by a group of dedicated librarians excited about the new online world, as well as the opportunities for libraries, to benefit from the new microcomputer-based technologies. They offered a range of services, such as information management consulting, advice on setting up libraries, automating catalogues, and creating online databases. Over the years, they have trained hundreds of librarians to use various online services such as Presscom and STN, and in more recent years, the Internet. They have set up libraries for organisations, coached librarians on how to use products such as Inmagic and DB/TextWorks, and coached business people on how to find business information online. They have a fantastic reputation as indexers, editors and thesaurus developers. They also created an important database for many years. But most of all they are admired and respected for the years spent publishing Online Currents – the only independent published source of information about the online industry in Australia since the 1980’s. Online Currents has reported on every new development in our industry, every database, new online services, CD-ROMS, and in more recent years search engines and websites. Anyone wanting to trace the history of online products in Australia from financial analytics to AOL’s children’s online timer would be wise to start with the indexes of Online Currents.

VALA’s biennial Robert D. Williamson award is presented, in memory of Bob Williamson, to an individual or organisation who or which, in the opinion of the judging panel, has made and is currently making an outstanding contribution to the development of information technology usage in Australian libraries and information services and is positively and significantly influencing development in information technology usage within libraries.

Bob Williamson would have admired the 2008 award winners, because they also are enthusiastic, highly professional, persistent, knowledgeable and continually willing to share information with their colleagues. He would have admired the outstanding contribution they have made over the past 20 years or so to the online information industry in Australia – their diligence and impartial and ethical commitment to all stakeholders in the industry – practitioners, authors, businesses and educators.

It is with great pleasure that I announce the winners of the Robert D. Williamson Award for 2008. For the substantial contribution they have made to our industry, the winners are – Elizabeth Drynan and Pamela Johnstone, from Enterprise Information Management.

Williamson Award 2006

The 2006 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Lloyd Sokvitne from the State Library of Tasmania for his outstanding contribution to librarianship especially in the area of metadata and online information discovery.

The 2006 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Lloyd Sokvitne reads as follows.

So far as we are aware, unlike at least three previous recipients, the recipient of the Robert D. Williamson Award for 2006 has never been a member of the VALA Committee, although he has been a speaker at VALA conferences.

His earlier years in libraries were spent on what some might regard as an apprenticeship in cataloguing and collection development. (Other people, of course, might regard this as essential!)

In the early 1980s, this person, to whom the adjectives thoughtful, intelligent, collaborative and courteous have been applied, moved into Systems Support and Development in the State Library of his state. Here he embarked on a course of action that led to him becoming a leading force in the development of web indexing services and web portal delivery, not only in his own state, but nationally.

As Manager and then Senior Manager, he has overseen the development of his state’s government web portal and a comprehensive web indexing service, as well as a unified cross-jurisdictional government services portal. Along the way he has developed considerable expertise in metadata – in fact, one of his colleagues has described him as a “prophet with a deep concern for the quality of metadata” – and his professional interests also include information discovery on the web and web content preservation. This last interest resulted in the development and implementation of an open repository service for electronic documents in his state.

His work has already garnered him and his institution a number of awards, including the VALA Award for 2000, which was awarded to his institution, the State Library of Tasmania, for Service Tasmania Online.

This award publicly acknowledges the outstanding contribution he has made and is continuing to make to the development of information technology usage in Australian libraries, to his significant influence on the development of information services and his services to the profession. The fact that he was also willing and able, at very short notice, to fill the gap left by the unavoidable withdrawal from this Conference of Carl Lagoze is testament to his dedication and professionalism.

It is with great pleasure that VALA announces the winner of the Robert D. Williamson Award for 2006 – Lloyd Sokvitne.

Williamson Award 2004

The 2004 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Gary Hardy and Stewart Hall from VICNET at the State Library of Victoria.

The 2004 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Gary Hardy and Stewart Hall reads as follows.

We’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that 2004 is the tenth anniversary of VICNET.

The State Library of Victoria was the first free public library in Australia when it was established in 1854 and has a proud tradition of initiatives to develop Victoria’s cultural infrastructure.. Its early commitment to the collection and display of art and artefacts led to the development of the National Gallery of Victoria and Museum Victoria. In 1993, knowing that the newly elected state government was encouraging, and funding, Information Techology innovation, Helen Tait – then State Librarian – and Don Schauder – then University Librarian at RMIT, agreed to develop a proposal to take advantage of this.

It was at this stage that Don approached Gary Hardy, then working at RMIT, for input and ideas about what might be done. Gary seemed an appropriate choice as he had early on recognised that playing with the Internet could be a lot of fun. He was also running one of the earliest Australian gopher services, and was positively evangelical about the possibilities.

Gary’s proposal was to develop a World Wide Web based publishing service for community organisations, and after some discussion a proposal was put forward, resulting in a $360,000 grant from the state’s Community Service Fund.

Within the State Library, Derek Whitehead was delegated the task of establishing the project with Don. Their first moves were to appoint Gary as VICNET Editor and Stuart Hall as Technical Manager.

Amongst other things, Stuart had a long history of involvement in automation in the State Library, undertaking such important tasks as rescuing staff members who had cleared their PCs by entering “del *.*” (including for a current VALA Programme Committee member).

VICNET was born.

From a humble start running on Garys’ Mac, VICNET now runs three independent businesses. The main VICNET website was its first major achievement. Acting as both a Victorian community portal and a community publishing site, it attracted twenty million sessions in 2002/2003. It acts as an ISP, primarily serving the library and information community, and provides free training in the use of the Internet and HTML. Its Skills.net programme alone has trained over 100,000 people.

VICNET has been instrumental in expanding the horizons of library services in Victoria – and in raising the expectations of users in those services. That would not have been possible without the pioneering work and perserverance of its two operational managers. It is in recognition of this achievement that, on VICNET’s tenth anniversary, this year’s Robert D. Williamson Award goes jointly to Gary Hardy and Stuart Hall.

Williamson Award 2002

The 2002 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Hans Groenewegen from Monash University for his outstanding contribution to librarianship especially in the area cooperative automated cataloguing systems.

The 2002 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Hans Groenewegen reads as follows.

The recipient of the Robert D. Williamson Award for 2002 has practiced as a librarian in Victoria, in New South Wales and in Europe. He has worked for public librares, for special libraries, for a university library and for a library consortium. He has been a Library Assistant, a Systems Analyst, and a Library Manager.

His library automation experience started with databases and database systems, grew with the development and use of a variety of information systems, and most recently leapt forward into the realms of electronic publishing and virtual libraries. A number of the systems he has developed, worked with and nurtured, have been cooperative systems. One of the first was a cooperative system for the storage and dissemination of information for a special library – perhaps one of the earliest database systems in the library world.

A decade later he oversaw the implementation of a regional Union Catalogue, managed a cooperative automated cataloguing system and a library network. Even as a Library Assistant in the early 1970s he was closely involved in the development of new information processing techniques, such as optical character recognition, computerised photocomposition, and online real time information retrieval systems. At the time these were all revolutionary developments.

For the past decade he has played a leading role in managing the transition of a major university library from a purely print-based institution to one which has become increasingly digital. These developments have included the first CD-ROM network for the University, the University’s Campus Wide Information System (the predecessor of the Web), electronic publishing, a pilot e-reserve project, and a Digitisation Centre.
In addition he has become an expert on the economic, legal and copyright issues of e-publishing, as well as the issues relating to preservation and conservation.

He has published extensively, presented a wide variety of papers and served on the VALA Committee for a number of years, including a term as President. He has taught an online course in Information Management and Systems.

The public library was the Public Library of New South Wales, the special libraries the Australian Atomic Energy Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the library consortium was CAVAL, the regional catalogue was COOL-CAT and the university is Monash University.

This award publicly acknowledges the outstanding contribution he has made to the development of information technology usage in Australian libraries, to his significant influence on the development of information services and his services to the profession. The fact that he is here at this VALA Conference is testament to the fact that although he has retired he will continue to make a contribution.

It is with great pleasure that VALA announces the winner of the 2002 Robert D.Williamson award – Hans Groenewegen.

Williamson Award 2000

The 2000 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Derek Whitehead from Swinburne University for his outstanding contribution to librarianship.

The 2000 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Derek Whitehead reads as follows.

The recipient of the R.D. Williamson Award for 2000 has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in library and information services, despite having entered the field after a change of career. Starting in technical services in the seventies he has been witness to, and part of, many of the technological innovations that have made library services what they are today. At the same time his career has been marked by an abiding interest in facilitating information access in the broadest sense.

During the eighties he pursued his professional interests to national and international levels, developing a reputation as a key player in the national library scene and long term lobbyist for libraries. A member of many and varied committees, he also found time to complete a Master of Librarianship on library management issues and has occupied senior library posts since 1988.

This year’s recipient is highly regarded for his professional vision and his capacity to sense, and act upon, emerging trends in the library profession. His long experience in lobbying governments, both state and federal, and the private sector, together with his success in forging working partnerships have led to his playing a central role in the development and use of new technology by libraries across Victoria. This is best demonstrated by his pivotal involvement with Australia’s most significant community networking enterprise and his efforts to achieve Internet access throughout the Victorian public library system, again underlining his commitment to equity and access.

Launched in 1995, VICNET has proved to be a unique achievement both within Australia and internationally. It is Australia’s largest and busiest community web site, playing host to over 200 virtual Web servers and nearly 2000 Websites for Victoria’s community groups, while attracting around 10 million hits per month. A commercial operation of the State Library of Victoria, VICNET generated a turnover of $1.7 million in 1998/99. It has also provided the foundation for innovative projects such as Skills.Net and Libraries Online. A $5 million program, Skills.Net is creating a network of more than 100 community-based centres throughout Victoria to provide free or affordable Internet access and training to those Victorians who would otherwise miss out. The result of a far-reaching policy document developed by the recipient, the Libraries Online program has helped to advance the goal of an integrated Victorian library system, increasing access to online communications, information resources and multimedia computers.

His collaborative approach also led to the formation of the Artsvicmm group, bringing together arts organisations to discuss the latest developments in digital technology and multimedia. Beginning with the State Library and the Museum of Victoria it now includes representatives from 8 organisations and 3 government agencies. In 1998 this group ran a major research project, ZAVIER, utilising the Z39.50 standard to allow cross searching of paticipating institutions catalogues. He was also instrumental in the digitisation of the State Library’s pictorial collection and subsequent participation in the Image Search project, allowing searches of distributed image collections from a single site.

In addition he has been a member of ABN Network Committee, the Information Society Committee, the Victorian Government IT and Telecommunications Policy Committee, convenor of the CAVAL Digitising Working Group, chair of the Digital Access and Preservation Task Force and a member of the ABA’s Task Force on Children and the Internet, and the board of Net Alert – the Commonwealth Government community advisory board on Internet content.

For his involvement over time with many aspects of library automation, his efforts in lobbying and promotion and his influence on the conception and development of several major automation projects, this year’s recipient of the R.D. Williamson Award is Derek Whitehead.

About the Williamson Award

Nomination for the Williamsons Award 2024 are now open!

Nominations close Friday 26th April 2024.

Any queries, please email vala@vala.org.au.

Nature of the Award

VALA’s most prestigious award is the Robert D. Williamson Award, established in memory of one of the early pioneers of our industry, Bob Williamson.

In keeping with Bob’s legacy, this biennial award honours those who demonstrate leadership, curiosity, excellence and innovation and, in the view of their peers, are outstanding contributors to the development of information technology usage in Australian libraries and information services.

The Williamson Award is open to both individuals and organisations in the Library and Information Science profession within Australia.

The Award consists of a framed certificate, medallion and cash to the value of AUD $2,000.

Celebrating over 40 years of the Williamson Award

Robert (Bob) D Williamson was a leader, with an innovative mind and endless generosity. A pioneer of information technology in libraries, Bob took a leap of faith to invest in computer databases and software. He was an integral part of various committees dedicated to libraries and information technology and was valued greatly by his peers before his untimely death in 1980.

Bob Williamson’s legacy is one of leadership, curiosity, innovation, and bravery. Bob made outstanding contributions to the development of information technology in Australian libraries and information services. The prestigious Award made in his name was first received by Jim Gilmore of the CSIRO in 1981, and most recently by Anne Stevenson from the CSIRO in 2022.

For many years, the Williamson Award was presented to the recipient by Enid Williamson, Bob’s wife, who passed not long before the VALA2022 conference, at the outstanding age of 101 years. Robert and Enid’s son Bruce will continue the connection with VALA into the future. The continuum of dedication and excellence represented by the Williamson Award is personified by family’s long and keen association; we are buoyed and encouraged by their presence.

For over the past 40 years, the names of the true pioneers in the library industry have been added to the list of Williamson Award recipients. They are dedicated and influential contributors to the development of technology in the library industry across Australia and New Zealand, who have exhibited remarkable achievements, leadership and innovation.

The Williamson Award is as an opportunity for our industry to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable strength, courage, growth and perseverance of the library fraternity and the contribution that libraries and the technologies which enable them have made to the global community through this challenging and unprecedented time in our history.

Previous Williamson Award Recipients

Click HERE for reflections on the history of the award from Enid Williamson.

Recipients of the Williamson Award are in auspicious company, with previous winners including:-

2022 – Anne Stevenson, CSIRO

2020 – Anna Raunik, State Library of Queensland

2018 – Rose Holley, University of New South Wales, Canberra

2016 – Mal Booth, University of Technology, Sydney

2014 – Alyson Kosina, former VALA Executive Officer

2012 – Christine Mackenzie from the Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service

2010 – Anne Beaumont from the State Library of Victoria

2008 – Elizabeth Drynan and Pamela Johnstone, from Enterprise Information Management Pty Ltd

2006 – Lloyd Sokvitne from the State Library of Tasmania

2004 – Gary Hardy and Stewart Hall from VICNET at the State Library of Victoria

2002 – Hans Groenewegen from Monash University

2000 – Derek Whitehead from Swinburne University

1997 – Geoff Payne

1995 – Informit

1994 – Peter Stansfield

1993 – Geoff Huston

1992 – Kim Jelbart

1991 – Warwick Cathro

1989 – Jeff Leeuwenburg

1988 – Elizabeth Swan

1987 – Sherrey Quinn

1986 – Susan Wannan

1985 – Hans Zwillenberg from ADSATIS (Australian Defence Scientific and Technical Information Services)

1984 – Des Tellis from Australian Mineral Foundation

1983 – Ian McCallum from ACI Computer Services

1982 – Neil Speirs from Australian Business Index

1981 – Jim Gilmore from Systems and Development Group, CSIRO

The VALA web site provides details about some of the Robert D. Williamson Award recipients.

About Robert D. Williamson

Although originally a chemical engineer, as manager of APM’s (now AMCOR’s) research library, Robert (Bob) Williamson was an early devotee of information technology in libraries. By the early 1970’s he had persuaded management to invest significantly in relevant US computer databases and software to support the company’s business objectives. This predated all of the publicly available services.

Professionally Bob was a leader. He was a quiet man, both curious and innovative, a generous advisor to colleagues, and an eager participant in the professional debates at the time. Bob also developed “recipe books” to help new online searchers navigate the different commands needed to access the new online services.

Bob was the industry representative on the STISEC committee convened by the National Library of Australia to quantify scientific and technical publication in Australia. When Peter Judge of CSIRO formed ALIA’s national Information Science Section, Bob was an obvious choice to convene that Section in Victoria just a few years before his sudden and untimely death in 1980.

It is therefore fitting that VALA’s most prestigious award is named after Robert D. Williamson.

Williamson Award 1983

The 1983 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Mr Ian McCallum from ACI Computer Services.

The 1983 Robert D. Williamson award citation:

Mr Ian McCallum, of ACI Computer Services, was awarded the 1983 Robert D. Williamson Award in recognition of his efforts in the development of AUSINET. The award also recognised Ian’s work at the National Library with the Online ERIC project, and at ACI in new product development in the information area, as well as his involvement with with the Australian Database Development Association.

The certificate and a cheque for $550 were presented by Mrs Enid Williamson at the VALA Conference dinner, held at the Windsor Hotel.

It is with great pleasure that VALA announces the winner of the 1983 Robert D.Williamson award – Mr Ian McCallum.

Williamson Award 1985

The 1985 Robert D. Williamson Award went to Hans J Zwillenberg. The Award which he won from 10 others considered by the Committee acknowledges his contribution to the development of Information Science in Australia.

The 1985 Robert D. Williamson Award Citation for Hans J Zwillenberg reads as follows.

Important steps in this country’s information science development were achieved by Hans’ involvement in ADSATIS (Australian Defence Scientific and Technical Information Service), in the Defence Information Exchange Agreement between Australia, the US and the UK, and, with Barbara McDonough from the Defence Group Libraries, his organising of Australia’s first exercise in resource sharing.

Hans produced a Directory of Information Sources fro Industry and also worked on the industry information network, preparing the first directory of computer-based information services available to the public in Australia.

In the National Library he became the Director, Technology and set up the Australian Industry Information Network Liaison Committee.

Hans’ activities have ranged beyond his profession. As well as conferences and meetings associated with information science he has also developed his keen interest in military history.

The cash award of $550, plus a framed certificate were presented to Hans by Mrs Enid Williamson at the VALA Conference dinner held the Melbourne Town House in November 1985.

It is with great pleasure that VALA announces the winner of the 1985 Robert D.Williamson award – Hans Zwillenberg.