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All Publication Details
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Appears in:
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Script and Print
vol.
43
no.
1
2019
20034677
2019
periodical issue
'On 17 February 1969, a group of “librarians, scholars, collectors, printers and antiquarian booksellers” met in the board room of the State Library of Victoria to discuss the founding of a bibliographical society for Australia and New Zealand.1 As Wallace Kirsop’s contribution to this issue makes clear, this did not happen out of the blue, but rather as a result of decades of increasing enthusiasm and energy for this field of research in both countries, stimulated in part by the model of—and local participation in—the Bibliographical Society in London (founded 1892). As he also notes, 1969 was a significant year for bibliography for two other related reasons: namely, the death of Sir John Ferguson and the subsequent publication of the last volume of his magisterial Bibliography of Australia, 2 and the publication of A. G. Bagnall’s New Zealand National Bibliography to the Year 1960. 3 Round-number anniversaries always tempt reflection, and so it was that almost exactly 50 years later, on 26 February 2019, a group of BSANZ members met at State Library Victoria (as it is now known) to mark a significant milestone in the history of the Society in an event co-convened by Monash University’s Ancora Press (founded in 1977). We were especially fortunate to have as convenor of this gathering Wallace Kirsop, one of the founding members and indeed the first President of BSANZ, elected that day in February 1969; rarely can a scholarly society have the opportunity to reflect on a 50-year history through the eyes of a single individual, singularly well-placed to lead those reflections.' (Anna Welch, Introduction)
2019
pg.
9-19
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