National Library of Australia - Gateways>

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 55 | February 2002


Margaret Nichols Retires

Margaret Nichols

Margaret Nichols has made an enormous contribution to the development and operation of the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) and Kinetica during the past 20 years. Margaret joined the National Library of Australia's information technology division in 1980 and was part of a group of applications programmers who were responsible for the implementation of the original ABN system.

She later worked in a variety roles including as manager of the Library's computer centre and the ABN database manager. During this time she made a major contribution to the enhancement of the ABN system. In the mid-1980s Margaret spent several periods working at the National Library of Canada and the Western Library Network (WLN), each time bringing the benefit of her experience back to the Library. In 1990, she was one of the authors of the original feasibility study for the replacement of ABN. More recently Margaret has worked for IBM GSA, the contractor responsible for the operation of the Amicus and LibriVision software used for Kinetica. She has played a significant role in the development and operation of Kinetica, first managing the migration of data from the old ABN system to Kinetica, and then as the IBM Amicus Support Manager for the past three years.

Margaret's unique combination of library background and extensive IT experience has been invaluable to the Library and, through ABN and Kinetica, to libraries around Australia. Margaret is well known to customers through her regular attendance at Annual User Meetings.

Margaret retired on 14 December and is looking forward to enjoying her broad range of interests including: travel, gardening, quilting, and spending time with her two grandchildren, with a third due any moment.

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