GEM OF TIME RECIPIENT – STEVE HOWELL 2019
Steve has had a long and distinguished career working in the JS Battye Library of West Australian History and with its unique collections. He joined the State Library in March 1977 and soon built a formidable reputation as a foremost expert on the materials and research sources in the Battye Library. His retirement in January 2018 brought the curtain down on 41 years of dedicated service to the Western Australian public.
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One of Steve’s greatest boons to family historians was his book Dead reckoning: how to find your way through the genealogical jungle of Western Australia which was published by the Library Board in 1997. With funding from the Friends of Battye Library’s Sholl Bequest, Steve’s work was updated as an online publication and remains an essential source for researchers. He has also compiled numerous subject specialist guides which have served to make the Battye Library accessible to everyone from novice researchers to the most eminent historians.
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Steve has written and given lively presentations on diverse topics in our early history and often little known aspects of the lives of well-known pioneers. Many of Steve’s articles have been published in specialist journals as well as the Friends of Battye Library Newsletter. He has also curated important exhibitions and mounted historical displays which have showcased the collections of the State Library and State Records Office. Crucially for researchers, he was responsible for liaising with the National Library over digitisation of selected WA newspapers for Trove.
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As a reference librarian, Steve was unfailingly gentle and patient with people seeking help with their research and will be irreplaceable as the go-to Battye Library expert for staff and researchers alike.
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Colleagues who were privileged to work with Steve over the years have wonderful memories of his companionship, generosity, commitment, incisive wit, and dreadful puns. He is a gifted wordsmith and his wickedly witty and incisive poems delighted, and on occasion scandalised, his colleagues and audience. At the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Battye Library in December 2016, the recitation of Steve’s Ballad of the Battye Library was a highlight.
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Steve’s influence on Western Australian research is an enduring one and although we wish him a wonderful retirement, he will still be very much missed by all who benefitted from his expertise, breadth of knowledge, and kindness.
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The Friends of Battye Library (Inc.) would like to add to Steve’s many achievements and show our appreciation of his contribution to Western Australian history by listing him as a ‘Gem of Time’, an award that celebrates living treasures who have had a long-term and significant commitment to the Battye Library and the State Records Office. The list of Gems will last to acknowledge the contribution of outstanding men and women to the recording, collection, and preservation of Western Australia’s history.
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In honour of Steve’s award, Patrick Cornish (Journalist and author) penned the following poem which was recited at the November meeting.
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Ode to our Steve
For the future we must relish the past
And seek sources whose range can be vast.
For wily Steve Howell, as wise as an owl,
Our respect and affection will last.
Looking long back over the years
We need guides who stand out from their peers
When it comes to a reference
Steve Howell was our preference
For knowledge, for wit, give three cheers.
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Celebration for the anniversary of 60 years of the
J S Battye Library of West Australian History
14 December 2016
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Steve Howell, who has been the Battye Library expert for more than
three decades, is also a noted versifier of wit and humour.
He penned the following commemorative ballad.
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The Ballad of Battye Library
His name was Jim and his sight was dim
by the winter of Fifty Four
He’d lost his vim, wasn’t sound of limb
by July he was no more
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But back in his prime,
Battye was a collector sublime
who’d travelled all over the State
He deemed it a crime, not to grab at the time
documents of importance great
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Records of the CSO, manuscripts from high and low
newspapers, maps, books and serials
Battye Library’s seeds did he sow, although this he wasn’t to know
but at least he got the materials
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Battye began the State Archive, way back in 1945
but it didn’t go far enough
under Mollie Lukis it would thrive, and for a time she would strive
to collect Government stuff
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Battye’s replacement was Sharr, who was to become a star
although he started off green
but he raised the bar, and he would go far
in the WA library scene
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So Sharr had a thought, for which he long fought
to reorganise the old place
Enthusiasm he brought, which would have come to nought
if he couldn’t revamp the space
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All through 1956, old SRL they did fix
and on 14th of December it opened with a good mix, of sundry subject topics
which we’re here today to remember
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In honour of old JSB, records of WA history
all came together at long last
to recognise the role that he had played in provision of free
access to WA records past
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Thanks to Lukis, Medcalf and McCall; Allen, Jamieson, Carter and all
who ever over the years gave their best
the staff always had a ball and they never hit the wall
working hard for the people of the West
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So that’s the Battye story and if I’ve been too laudatory
I’m sorry but that’s just the way I think
It’s been sixty years of glory, from many people contributory
so let’s all salute them with a drink