The State Library of NSW is advertising for a new state librarian and chief executive after Alex Byrne's decision to retire at the end of his five-year term in September.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dr Byrne brought 30 years' experience in libraries to the job in 2011, when he took over from American Regina Sutton, who came from a business background.
He had previously been a librarian at the University of Technology, Sydney, spent 14 years in the Northern Territory, where he was the foundation librarian at Charles Darwin University and helped develop new ways of addressing indigenous collections, and served as president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
Dr Byrne launched a $25 million fundraising campaign in December 2013 to "revitalise" the historical Mitchell wing of the State Library, opening more heritage rooms to the public, with changing exhibitions, and restoring the reading room to its pre-1988 public role while absorbing budget and staff cuts.
A petition signed by almost 10,000 people, including writers David Malouf, Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey and musician Nick Cave led him to reverse plans to remove books and researchers from the 1942 Mitchell Reading Room, but restoration of the room's heritage design was completed.
Dr Byrne continued the digitisation of the library's collections, including diaries kept by World War I soldiers, and was keen to dispel an image of the library as a silent place overseen by disapproving librarians.
"We like to think it is a mall of ideas and knowledge," he said in 2012 as he worked to bring more people into the institution for more diverse activities, and extend the library's geographic reach.
Dr Byrne, 65, is a qualified electrical engineer and an amateur printmaker with a love of the library's visual collections of art, objects and documents as well as its books.
He told Fairfax Media in 2014 that his favourite item in the library's collection was the Tasman Map on delicate paper, which shows the Australian coastline discovered on Abel Tasman's trips in 1642 and 1644 and was given to the library in 1933.
The modest and quietly spoken Dr Byrne declined a request for an interview about his retirement from the library.
The NSW government's advertisement for a new state librarian seeks a "resilient leader with highly developed communications, influencing and negotiation skills and the ability to deliver results through people", and with experience at senior executive level in library and information management.
The ad notes the library is "one of the great libraries of the world, with a history dating back to 1826". It says the library's renowned historical and contemporary collections comprise more than 6 million items.
"The State Library informs, educates and inspires through its rich heritage collections, contemporary print and digital materials and partnerships with the public library network and communities," the ad reads.
Key challenges for the new appointee include "developing innovative strategies that position the State Library as a world leading library and centre of digital excellence, client development and engagement, fostering a culture of innovation and transformation and building strategic partnerships with government, business, philanthropy, cultural and educational institutions".
