Farewell to our inimitable librarian, Barbara Palmer
This week, Varuna staff and board members gathered at the house to wish Barbara Palmer all the best for her retirement after 18 years as Varuna’s librarian (her 90th birthday is also imminent so we delivered a semi-whispered – so as not to disturb the writers in residence – rendition of ‘happy birthday’ for good measure). Amy Sambrooke delivered the speech below about Barbara’s incredible impact and career, so we thought we’d share it to mark the moment.
“Over the years I think we’ve all spent time needling Barbara for details of her life and career… in her modest, funny way, there is always something new, something adventurous, something spicy, and something just downright impressive that is revealed. Some of my best Barbara stories come from driving her places – I can highly recommend, the stories come rolling out!
A bookseller, book collector, a valuer of books and manuscripts and a librarian. A lifelong adventure for books that has seen you travel the world, build thriving businesses, handle some of the most precious books and collections - have a sideline as a successful angora goat farmer - and for the last two decades, be custodian of Varuna’s library and collection.
I want to give you some idea of the great skill, experience and passion that Varuna has been so lucky to have in Barbara for all these years. Barbara completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney, followed by a Master of Library Science at Western Ontario University, where she was later appointed Assistant Professor, as well as Assistant to the Dean. Barbara has worked at the State Library of South Australia, Fisher Library at the University of Sydney, and UNSW Library.
From 1970 Barbara also ran Out of Print – or O.P, a second-hand and antiquarian book business, travelling the world to source books for academic and state libraries in Australia.
It seemed fitting to go to the archive to research Barbara, and I was so pleased to find a speech she gave preserved in full on Trove. To give us all an insight into Barbara’s book-mad brain, I thought I’d include this … in her own words:
“Only the collector – and of course, I include the bookseller and the librarian as collectors – will recognise the thrill of the secondhand book catalogue in the mail. We have all experienced the pain when what we have ordered has already been sold and the – sometimes murderous - intent when it was a book you most coveted.”
All I can say about that is thank goodness Barbara has been on our side, working for us.
Barbara’s career is extraordinary, a leader in her field, entrepreneurial, forward-thinking, clever and practical. In partnership, she published the Australian and Pacific Book Prices Current which became a standard reference tool. Since 1975 Barbara was a registered valuer of books, manuscripts, oral history material and documentary historical photographs with the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, meaning that she had the highly specialist job of being engaged by many of our cultural institutions, museums, archives and libraries to value their collections.
Barbara became aware of Varuna when she moved to Katoomba in 2001. She attended book launches and other events. She was originally engaged to value the collection of Varuna and make recommendations about its management. But of course, here we are all these years later….
Barbara started by cataloguing the entire library collection, which now includes some 5000 books. She found over a 1000 photographs in drawers, packages, envelopes and files, and with the assistance of local historian John Low, she sorted and archived these. She used her extensive skills to value all of the heritage items within Varuna, entering their details into Mosaic, a special heritage listing tool used to register assets. She introduced an industry-standard cataloguing tool to Varuna, and professionalised our collection record-keeping – making it accessible to researchers and recording special things, such as the inscriptions in the books.
Barbara sorted through all Varuna’s paper records from 1988-2003, gleaning the information that painted a picture of Varuna’s transition to a writers’ residency - invaluable for Dr Margo Beasley to write, ‘The Founding of Varuna: Australia’s National Writers’ House’ (2018).
Barbara brought her depth of experience in heritage, and her love of literature to the preservation of not only books, but furniture, artwork, and precious objects in Varuna’s collection such as Eleanor Dark’s letter from Manning Clark and her two Australian Literature Society Gold Medals.
Her knowledge of the history of the Dark family and their contribution to Australian literature have been invaluable, and she has helped academics, historians and writers along the way – making substantial contributions to their research on Eleanor and Eric Dark.
As well as all of this, Barbara has volunteered at Open Days, events and Festivals – unofficially known by staff as our ‘Head Volunteer’ due to her incredible capacity to get things done. Noone has managed a book signing queue like Barbara.
Barbara, you have made such a significant contribution to Varuna, to literature, and to books and writing over all of your career. We have been so, so lucky to have you as part of our team and family here for so long, and your work, attention to detail, and love of this place will remain here in the magic of Varuna for many, many years to come.
We thank you.”
This speech was written with reference to Vanessa Kirkpatrick’s Alumni news feature about Barbara, available on our website here: https://www.varuna.com.au/alumni-news-features/2021/barbarapalmer