Dietrich Borchardt, 1916-1997

This special issue of Australian Academic and Research Libraries honours its Foundation Editor, Dietrich Hans Borchardt.

Dietrich Borchardt was one of the towering post-war figures of Australian librarianship. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he escaped Nazism via Italy and then New Zealand, where he studied at the Victorian University of Wellington and the New Zealand Library School. Starting as Acquisitions Librarian at Otago University, in 1950 he was appointed Deputy and three years later University Librarian at the University of Tasmanaia. In 1965 he was appointed Foundation University Librarian at La Trobe University, from which post he retired in 1981. The library he founded was named the Borchardt Library and a dozen years later a Festschrift, Australian Academic Libraries in the Seventies: Essays in Honour of Dietrich Borchardt, was published.

Such a thumbnail sketch does scant justice to the man, whose strong and idiosyncratic personality shines forth from the various papers contributed to this issue. All were friends and colleagues; many were also employed by him, and worked with him on particular projects which they recall.

It will be apparent that the name of the Borchardt has featured in the pages of this, his journal, on many previous occasions. Recently Victor Crittenden wrote an appreciation, 'Dietrich Borchardt at Eighty', and Harrison Bryan his obituary. His has properly been an achievement celebrated in other pages as well, most recently in the Australian Library Journal where five friends and colleagues remembered him. Russell Cope in particular, who also appears in the present issue, contributed a substantial review, 'Borchardt and Bibliography'. Other appreciations have included an obituary in inCite.

As Ives notes in these pages, few Australian librarians have published more then Borchardt himself. This issue includes one significant contribution of his, 'Establishing the La Trobe University Library'. Originally published in the La Trobe institutional history, Building La Trobe University, and reproduced here by kind permission of the University, few outside La Trobe may have seen this. In it he describes not only what he did at La Trobe, but why, providing an insight into his professional philosophy.

As editor, I am indebted to several colleagues to have helped with the prepartaion of this issue. At La Trobe University itself, in the Borchardt Library I thank Earle Gow and his staff, and in particular Ann Millar. Other who have been of great assistance include Russell Cope and Victor Crittenden

Peter Clayton
Editor