Today (7 June), the Executive Director of Library Services at Charles Sturt University (CSU) steps down after a career spanning the move from traditional print-based library collections to computerisation and the Internet 'superhighway'.
 

From library cards to information superhighway, retiring head of CSU's library services, Margaret Macpherson, has seen and been in it all! Photo: S. Dunn [High resolution picture is available from the Media Unit.]

The Foundation Librarian of CSU, Ms Macpherson is one of the University's longest serving staff members and one of the few people in higher education today whose service covers the entire period from the creation of Colleges of Advanced Education to the present.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter spoke of her dedication and enthusiasm to learning and higher education.

"She has steered the University and its predecessor institutions through tremendous change in the development of library collections and the delivery of library services through new technologies," he said.

The former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cliff Blake, AO, said that under Ms Macpherson's leadership, CSU was at the forefront of the provision of electronic resources and the move from print-based collections to the electronic storage and distribution of information knowledge.

Paying tribute to Ms Macpherson's 33-year career with the University, Professor Blake said her contribution had been immense, "most significantly because of the part she has played in the development of online learning and the building of an integrated library service across the six campuses of the University".

"Her role as a foundation member of UNILINC - a network of university and educational libraries - has given our students and the region access to immense university resources from around the country, and in some instances around the world," Professor Goulter said.

Margaret Macpherson began her librarianship career with CSU at the then Wagga Wagga Teachers' College in 1966. She became Librarian of the Mitchell College of Advanced Education in 1974 before taking on the role of integrating the libraries of the Riverina-Murray and Mitchell Colleges at the new Charles Sturt University in 1989.