Library matters

October 2004

Each year the Monash University Library receives many donations of books, journals, music scores, sound recordings and other published material. Two recent bequests have special significance. Karen Stichtenoth reports.

From left, Emeritus Professor Jean Whyte and Emeritus Professor Hector Monro with Dr Brian McMullin at the Albion Press at Monash. The bequests to the Monash University Library will benefit generations of students. Photo courtesy of University Archives

Longtime Friends of Monash University Library members Emeritus Professor Jean Whyte and Emeritus Professor Hector Monro were dedicated to higher education throughout their lives - and have ensured their commitment will be long remembered.

Professor Whyte had a distinguished career in librarianship. She was the foundation professor in the Graduate School of Librarianship (now the School of Information Management Systems) established at Monash in 1975, a position from which she retired in 1988.

She was instrumental in establishing the Master of Librarianship course and in 1976 founded Ancora Press - taken from the university motto Ancora imparo ('I am still learning'). The hand printing press, now housed within the Centre for the Book on the university's Clayton campus, was set up to support the teaching of bibliography and textual studies, specifically in librarianship and English.

Her death in 2003 saw the library receive a sizeable bequest from her estate. The funds are being used to enhance the library's research collections in English literature, librarianship and philosophy, reflecting Professor Whyte's professional and personal interests.

Emeritus Professor Hector Monro. Photo courtesy of University Archives

A keen book collector, she also left a large part of her personal collection of rare books to the library, including a substantial collection of Australian poetry and private press books.

University librarian Ms Cathrine Harboe-Ree says Professor Whyte's contribution is greatly valued.

"She was very much aware of the educational value of a world-class library collection, and she had an acute appreciation of the importance of books," she says. "One of her last public appearances at Monash was at the launch of her book of verse on librarianship - The Poems of Callimachus, published by Ancora Press in 2000."

Professor Hector Monro had been associated with Monash since its first year, joining in 1961 and establishing the Department of Philosophy. He retired in 1976.

He was a renowned moral philosophy and ethics scholar both in Australia and overseas, and the author of four books and numerous papers in philosophical journals, most of which can be found in the library.

Department of Philosophy senior lecturer and former colleague Dr Aubrey Townsend says Professor Monro was an unusual academic.

"His interests were broad - ranging over philosophy, literature and history - and his publications commonly combined these interests in ways that made his books appealing to an audience wider than usual for an academic writer," Dr Townsend says. "He wrote about ethics, humour, literary figures and the environment. And he is the only philosopher I know of who was able to publish poetry in an academic philosophy journal."

Although he had been retired since 1976, Professor Monro maintained an interest in library matters and was a regular face at library functions until his death in 2001.

He was also a strong supporter of the library's Rare Books Collection, to which he later donated his collection consisting mainly of books on humour and works of literature.

The Hector Monro Fund, established following a substantial bequest from his will, has led to the purchase of some significant 17th and 18th-century literary and philosophical works for the Rare Books Collection, in line with the late professor's wishes.

Ms Harboe-Ree says this fund and the bequest from Professor Whyte uphold a tradition that benefits current and future students and staff. "The world's greatest libraries are built on the philanthropic bequests of such individuals," she says. "Both Professor Whyte and Professor Monro had a deep commitment to supporting libraries, knowledge and education."

Action
For information on gifts and bequests visit the Monash University library website. Information on Friends of Monash University Library is also available.