National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 64 | August 2003


National Library Farewells

Elizabeth Jovanovic

Elizabeth Jovanovic

The National Library recently bid a fond farewell to two of its most respected and experienced cataloguers—Mary Hamilton and Elizabeth Jovanovic.

Mary Hamilton

Mary Hamilton

Mary began her career in pharmacy, but the library world beckoned and after completing library qualifications she joined the National Library’s Cataloguing Section in 1983. There she worked on monograph cataloguing, eventually taking a key role as trainer to the (then) annual intakes of new young librarians joining the Australian National Bibliography section—well known for its exacting standards of cataloguing. Later, Mary moved to the challenging area of serial cataloguing and processing, supervising staff in the Australian Serials Unit and ISSN Agency. Her excellent cataloguing skills combined with a pragmatic approach succeeded in distilling order from the chaos of serial publishing, while she continued to pass on her skills and knowledge with characteristic enthusiasm.

Mary’s colleague, Elizabeth Jovanovic, originally joined the National Library as a Librarian-in-Training in 1970. After a period working outside the Library and raising a family, Elizabeth returned to the Library full-time in 1982, working as a supervising cataloguer with both the Rare Australian collections and the overseas collections. Elizabeth’s great strength was her ability to inspire others to achieve the same high standard of work as she did. At a time when reduced budgets meant pressure to do more with less, Elizabeth remained dedicated to producing accurate and elegant cataloguing, and as Senior Librarian of the Cataloguing-in-Publication Unit she set the high standard of service which is so much valued by Australian publishers. Elizabeth will probably best be remembered as a talented and natural trainer, and her training materials and documentation are sure to remain in use by National Library cataloguers for some time to come.

Both Mary and Elizabeth will be greatly missed by their colleagues. Between them they take away a reservoir of professional knowledge and understanding, as well as outstanding personal qualities of warmth, tolerance and generosity. Both were quiet achievers who made a vital contribution to the Library’s goals and represented values which remain enormously important to all of us.

—Julie Whiting and Amelia McKenzie

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