Systems librarianship in Australia: a historical perspective

This paper describes and comments on the evolution of systems librarianship in Australia through two strands – the author’s personal work experience in libraries since 1977 and her professional involvement with the Victorian Association for Library Automation (VALA). The Proceedings of the 11 VALA Conferences and the Australian journal LASIE, which has been published since 1970, are used as reference material. The results of an informal survey of VALA members and other interested Australian librarians are also incorporated.