We are sad to advise that
our ex-colleague, professional associate and
friend Dorothy Harris died at Canberra Hospital on 31st
December 2012 after a short illness. She
will be especially missed by her husband Tony Ralli and her daughter Leslie
Thompson to whom we express our deepest sympathy
Dorothy Harris moved to ACT
from Perth, where she had already had a long and successful library career, in
1990. She rapidly began to have an impact on Government libraries, first at the
O’Connell Education Centre (part of the ACT Education Authority) and later as
head of the national Defence Library and Information Service. In her career in
school and government libraries, Dorothy demonstrated considerable vision and
effective management skills, assisting in the development of quality library
services and managing significant change.
At the Department of Defence she steered the national defence library
service towards a new, more integrated structure and service base.
As ALIA ACT President in
1998 she successfully achieved the merger of ALIA and ACLIS in our region. She
was active as a member of many ALIA divisions. She also strongly encouraged
links with the ASLA (ACT) branch feeling government and school libraries had
much to learn from and to teach each other. She was for many years the
Copyright Expert for the Federal Libraries Information Network. Copyright and
the challenges of changing technologies presented by copyright were always of
particular interest to Dorothy.. She and Tony received jointly the ALIA ACT
award in 2001 for their dedication and contribution to the library and
information profession. She greatly valued ALIA as a source of professional
support, (and) networking and of professional development, particularly for more junior staff members
whom she actively encouraged to participate fully.
Dorothy was always forward
looking, grasping the challenges of changing technologies and service
priorities. She had a strong management ethic which enabled her to successfully
drive change. She also displayed a
great capacity to analyse client need, to maximize the libraries response and
even anticipate needs they had not yet identified. Dorothy was very astute
about making sure her libraries were visible and were offering innovative and
relevant services. She greatly valued initiative and flexibility in her
colleagues especially urging junior staff to be adventurous and expand their
horizons.
We thank Dorothy for her
energetic contribution to the growth and development of library and information
services in a computerized world. We
also acknowledge her efforts to raise the image of the information professional
in our region and beyond.
Libby Coates
