About the Contributors

Don Aitkin, AO, has been Vice-Chancellor and president of the University of Canberra since 1991. In the mid-1980s, he was the chairman of the Australian Research Grants Committee, a member of the Australian Science and Technology Council, and the chairman of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University. He was the Foundation Professor of Politics at Macquarie University in the 1970s and Professor of Political Science at the ANU in the 1980s. Don was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1975 and a Fellow of the Australian College of Education in 1995, and made an Officer in the Order of Australia in 1998.

Alex Byrne chairs the Committee on Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE - http://www.faife.dk) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA - http://www.ifla.org) and is the University Librarian at the University of Technology, Sydney. E-mail: alex.byrne@ uts.edu.au. He is the immediate past chair of the IFLA Standing Committee on University and General Research Libraries and immediate past president of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL - http://www.anu.edu.au/caul)

Dennis Pearce is Emeritus Professor, Law Faculty, Australian National University. He was a member of the Copyright Law Review Committee from 1983 to 1995, Chair of the Copyright Law Review Committee, 1996-2000. He has been a member of the Copyright Tribunal since 1998.

Janine Schmidt is university librarian at the University of Queensland. She has more recently been described as the University Cybrarian. A graduate of the University of Queensland with a Master's degree in librarianship from the University of New South Wales, she returned to Queensland to manage the library services following Derek Fielding's promotion to Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Academic Services. Changes in information technology, teaching and learning, and customer service have altered dramatically the nature and delivery of information services in a tertiary education environment. She has overseen the refurbishment of physical facilities and the implementation of new applications of information technology. In 1998 the University of Queensland Library won an Australian University Teaching Award for services to students with its University of Queensland Cybrary and in 2000 won the same award for its AskIT computer help and training service. In 1999 Janine was jointly awarded the ALIA Library Manager of the Year Award. Prior to this position, Janine held senior positions at the State Library of NSW, the University of NSW Library, and CSIRO Central Library. She was also a member of the teaching staff in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Technology Sydney.

Spencer Routh, reference librarian extraordinaire, was described as the Library's Living Treasure when he retired in 1997 after 39 years of service. He has been a member of the Queensland Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography since 1975 and written numerous articles for the ADB. He played various roles in the Library Association of Australia (now known as the Australian Library and Information Association) and the Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographical Services. He and Derek Fielding worked closely together.