Dr Sue Reynolds explores the life of Supreme Court Judge, Sir Redmond Barry and his passion and advocacy for libraries, from Melbourne to Ballarat. A prominent citizen of the Victorian colony, Barry was the presiding judge at the Eureka and Ned Kelly’s trials. He was the founder and first Chancellor of the University of Melbourne and active in numerous other Victorian cultural institutions. This talk will examine Sir Redmond Barry as a personality, the role of books in his life, and his connection with many of the libraries, including the Melbourne Public Library, the Supreme Court Library and the School of Mines libraries in Ballarat.
Dr Sue Reynolds is a library historian and library and information studies educator and researcher. Her PhD thesis was published as ‘Books for the profession: The library of the Supreme Court of Victoria’ in 2012. Sue is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, following her retirement from RMIT University. She has also taught library technicians at Victoria University, been a teacher librarian, an editor of publications for Victorian school libraries, taught cataloguing at Can Tho and Thai Nguyen Universities in Vietnam, and at San Jose State University in California, where she also worked in a bookshop café.
Attend Talking History in person at the Eureka Centre (no booking required). Past lectures can be viewed on YouTube by clicking this link.
Image: David Syme & Co, ‘Proposed memorial statue to the late Sir Redmond Barry’ 1883 (detail), print: wood engraving. State Library of Victoria, IAN05/09/83/137.
