17-23 May 1999
A special project of the Australian Library and Information Association

Warren Horton to give ALW Oration

Warren Horton is the Director-General in the National Library of Australia, having been appointed to that position from 29 July 1985. He was state librarian of Victoria from August 1981 to 1985, and prior to that worked in the State Library of New South Wales from 1957 to 1981. He was deputy state librarian of New South Wales at the time he took up the Victorian appointment.

He has been very active professionally. Warren was president of the Library Association of Australia (now the Australian Library and Information Association) in 1984, and has held numerous other offices in the Association. He convened the Corporate Plan and Review Committee in 1984 to 1986, which reviewed the structure, governance and functions of the Association, and was a member of the Steering Committee for the ALIA/ACLIS/NLA Strategic Review of Library Co-ordination and Representation in 1997.

Warren Horton was a member (nominated by the Victorian Government until 1985 and then the Commonwealth Government) of the Australian Libraries and Information Council (ALIC) from its establishment in 1981 until amalgamation into the new Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS) in 1988, and president of ALIC from 1986 to 1988. He has been an ex-officio member of the National Council of ACLIS since 1988.

From 1991 to 1997 Warren was an elected member of the Executive Board of the International Federation of Library and Information Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the world body for librarianship, and IFLA treasurer [one of the four executive offices in the Federation] from 1993 to 1997. He has also been very active in the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL). IFLA conferred the Gold Medal on him in 1997, in recognition of his distinguished record of leadership and many contributions to the success of international librarianship.

Warren Horton has been chair of the Commonwealth Government's Public Lending Right Committee since September 1991, was a member of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO from 1993 to 1996, and is president of AIMA Training and Consultancy Services Limited. Other appointments he has held include membership of the Commonwealth Government's Consultative Committee on Cultural Heritage in a Multicultural Australia from 1989 to 1991, chair of the Australian Federal Libraries Committee appointed by the Commonwealth Government to scrutinise the performance of Australian Public Service departmental libraries from 1988 to 1990, and leader of the Australian Libraries Delegation to China under the Australia-China Cultural Agreements in 1987 and 1991. He chaired the Steering Committee for the Australian Libraries Summit meeting of 1988.

Warren was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in June 1992. He has been a Fellow of the Australian Library and Information Association since 1985, and the Association in 1988 conferred on him the HCL Anderson Award, which is the highest professional honour open to an Australian librarian. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters (HonDLitt) in the La Trobe University in Victoria, and was awarded the National Book Council Gold Medal in 1996.

Australian Library Week Oration [link to press release]