Dietrich Borchardt


Dietrich Hans Borchardt was an Australian librarian and bibliographer.

Career

Born in Hanover, Germany, to Jewish parents, Borchardt escaped Nazism via Italy and emigrated to New Zealand. There he studied at Victoria University, Wellington, and graduated with a BA in 1944 and an MA in 1947. He gained a library diploma from the New Zealand Library School.
He was Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Otago Library in 1949 to 1950. He was appointed as deputy librarian and then chief librarian at the University of Tasmania. He also tutored in modern languages at that university.
In 1965 Borchardt was appointed foundation librarian at La Trobe University where he worked until he retired in 1981. The library was named the Borchardt Library after him on his retirement.

Writing

Borchardt wrote many reference works and bibliographies on Australian studies, including his Australian Bibliography: A Guide to Printed Sources of Information, his Australian Bibliography, his Australia: A Guide to Sources, and his Australian Official Publications.
He also wrote extensively on editing, printing, the book in Australia, the growth of librarianship in Australia, and on the literature on philosophy and psychology, statistics and government publications, including his Checklist of Royal Commissions.

Public service

Borchardt was founding editor of the journal Australian Academic and Research Libraries, a foundation fellow of the Library Association of Australia, and a long-term member of the Standing Committee of AACOBS and convenor on the Working Party on Bibliography.
He was also actively involved with the Committee of Australian University Librarians and the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand. He played a leading role in the International Federation of Library Associations.
Borchardt periodically contributed to the library scene in other countries. In 1964 he spent a period as a UNESCO library expert in Ankara, Turkey. in 1968 and 1973 he was a visiting professor of librarianship in the United States. On another occasion he advised on developing library services in Indonesia.
Borchardt did a lot of work facilitating access to Australian government information by developing the La Trobe University Library government publications collection and writing publications, and submitting to and appearing before the Joint Committee on Publications of the Commonwealth Parliament.

Awards

The Library Association of Australia made Borchardt a Fellow in 1964 and gave him an H.C.L. Anderson Award in 1978. His achievements as a librarian, bibliographer and a scholar were recognised with the award of a Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee medal in 1977. In 1982 he was made Member of the Order of Australia "for service to librarianship, particularly in the field of bibliography"