6 December 2010
CITATION
Award of Doctor of Letters honoris causa
Ms Jan Fullerton AO
Chancellor,
Ms Jan Fullerton AO has made an outstanding contribution to the role of libraries both nationally and internationally.
As Director-General of the National Library of Australia (NLA) over the past decade, Ms Fullerton has taken the Library into the digital age in a collaborative manner that has attracted much praise.
She has ensured that Australia’s leading national collection is now much more readily available to students, researchers and the general public. Ms Fullerton feels a strong imperative to make the National Library visible and relevant in the world of Google, Amazon and YouTube. While working to reach new audiences and new user communities through use of new technology, she remains firmly committed to her belief in the importance of the library as “place”.
Two of the NLA’s greatest initiatives have taken place under Ms Fullerton’s stewardship: the “Picture Australia” website, drawing on the pictorial holdings of major libraries and museums around Australia, has proved a boon to students, scholars and the wider public as has the Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program. This growing resource, taking newspapers from each state and territory, is used by thousands of people each day.
Ms Fullerton has demonstrated leadership both within her team at the NLA and more broadly in the Australian library community.
She has represented Australia on the international library stage on many occasions. For her achievements, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2005, an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2006 and was awarded the HCL Anderson Award in March 2010. The latter award is the highest honour which can be bestowed on an Associate Member of the Australian Library and Information Association.
With her at the helm, the NLA has forged firm links with universities in a number of Australian Research Council Linkage projects.
Chancellor, in recognition of her distinguished career and distinguished service to Australia, I present to you Ms Jan Fullerton AO, Bachelor of Arts from The University of Queensland in 1966 and Graduate Diploma of Librarianship from the University of New South Wales in 1967, for the award of Doctor of Letters honoris causa bestowed by the Senate of The University of Queensland.