Dietrich Borchardt

Dietrich Hans Borchardt (14 April 1916 – 6 June 1997) 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 Bachelor of Arts in 1944 and Master of Arts 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 (1950–52) and then chief librarian (1953–1965) 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 (1963; updated in 1976), his Australian Bibliography (3rd edition, 1979), his Australia: A Guide to Sources (1987), and his Australian Official Publications (1979).

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 (1958–78).

Public service

Borchardt was founding editor of the journal Australian Academic and Research Libraries (1970–84), a foundation fellow of the Library Association of Australia, and a long-term member of the Standing Committee of Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographical Services and convenor on the Working Party on Bibliography.

Awards

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