‘Agencies of Good Will’: Australian LIS Education and the United States Office of War Information Agency in World War II

This article discusses the influence on library and information science education of a group of women librarians from the United States who were sent to establish Office of War Information libraries operating in Australia and New Zealand between 1943 and 1947. Focussing on the LIS profession this paper asks if the arrival of these librarians had a long-term impact on the aspirations and structures for local professional education. Focusing on Australia, and using contemporary accounts, the article provides an overview of the context in which these librarians worked and examines how these women viewed their educational mission and responsibilities. It reviews the development of current structures for LIS education in relation to the work of these US librarians and any possible long-term impact their presence may have had. Finally, it asks why the significant and extensive work of these librarians in World War II has remained relatively unknown and unrecorded in seminal Australian library history works despite their high professional and community profile during their tenure.