From the Director’s Desk

• The National Centre of Biography has recently formed a partnership with the Australian National University’s Supercomputer Facility to manage and develop the web infrastructure used by the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. The move opens up exciting possibilities for ADB Online. As well as linking articles to a greater range of digital material including documents, sound, film and maps, we hope to soon add thematic essays to the site and create online research tools that will allow the tracking, enumeration and visualisation of social networks

• Congratulations to the following ADB authors who received Order of Australia medals on Australia Day:

• Hon Gregory John Crafter, AO
• Hon Bernard George Teague, AO
• Rev Dr William Howell Edwards, AM
• Emeritus Professor Alison Gay Mackinnon, AM
• Dr Alison Isabel Gyger, OAM

 • Transnational Ties: Australian Lives in the World was launched by Professor Jill Roe, AO, on 3 March at the Co-operative Bookshop, ANU. Transnational Ties is the first publication in the NCB’s ANU.Lives Series in Biography. At a symposium, hosted by the NCB earlier in the day, Professors Kay Schaffer (University of Adelaide), Ann Curthoys (University of Sydney), Paul Pickering (ANU) and Dr Peter Stanley (Director of the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia) discussed the meaning of the term ‘transnational’ and the extent to which the dichotomy between national and transnational could be sustained. Two of the book’s editors, Professors Desley Deacon and Angela Woollacott, responded to the comments and the session was opened up to a lively discussion. The papers given by Professors Schaffer and Curthoys have been posted on the NCB’s website.

• ADB Medals will be presented to Dr Di Langmore, AM, and Darryl Bennet on 18 May at the ANU. Initiated in 2002, the ADB Medal is awarded to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the ADB project. Fourteen medals have been awarded so far. Dr Langmore joined the ADB in 1982 and was General Editor from October 2001 until her retirement in May 2008. Darryl Bennet joined the team in 1989, becoming deputy General Editor in October 2002. He retired in April 2008. Together they oversaw the ADB Online project which was successfully launched in 2006.

• The NCB has recently launched its new website. We thank Kudasai, in particular Patrick Kenneally, for their assistance in developing the site. Our intention is that the site will act as a clearinghouse for information on biography in Australia, and will include details of works-in-progress and those that have just been published, book reviews, and news about biography awards and fellowships. We will also be commissioning essays from authors and scholars about writing biography. We welcome any feedback on the site’s design and content. 

• If you would like us to promote a forthcoming book launch, seminar or other event that is associated with biography, in the ‘News and Events’ section on our website, please send the details to ncb@anu.edu.au.

• The NCB has established a Biography Reading Group in response to calls from academics, students, practitioners and readers for a forum to discuss a range of methodological issues relating to biography. At its first meeting in March, the group decided that, rather than review a book each month, we would invite authors along to discuss the rewards and difficulties of writing biography. Dr Ann Moyal, AM, author of Breakfast with Beaverbrook (1995), Alan Moorehad: A Rediscovery (2005) and Maverick Mathematician: The Life and Science of J.E. Moyal (2006) joined us at the April meeting. We will be publishing her paper on the NCB website in the next few weeks. Membership of the group is now closed but if you have a particular interest in attending any of the sessions (click here for the 2009 the program) please contact us at ncb@anu.edu.au

• Ian Hancock and Professor Neville Kirk have been appointed NCB Biography Fellows for 2009. The NCB offers both funded and unfunded Biography Fellowships. For more information about the fellowships contact melanie.nolan@anu.edu.au.

• We are often asked for permission to reprint individual ADB entries. As long as the articles are not altered and are properly cited (including the author’s name) as being from the Australian Dictionary of Biography they may be reprinted in newsletters, magazines and books. We ask that those wishing to reprint the articles on websites instead link to the relevant ADB entry. Permission is required to reproduce a number of ADB entries in any form.