'From glancing at Amazon’s online list of published memoirs on the market, it seems that in ‘this confessional age, in which memoirs and personal revelations tumble out in unprecedented abundance’, now ‘the flood feels like a tsunami’. I would not dare describe the following reminiscences as a memoir. Nor would I describe it as strictly autobiographical. These are random snippets about life as a staff member over nearly half a century at the State Library of Victoria, one of Australia’s major cultural institutions, rather than a life story. It is a reflection, a series of memories about people and events that occurred over a certain long stretch of time in a beloved institution where I spent a very large part of my life. While it does sound like a great deal of talking about myself, what I aim to do is to document information and impressions that might otherwise go unrecorded.' (Introduction)
