At the Public Library of New South Wales

In 1912 the Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales recommended Ifould to the Minister^[7] and he was appointed to the position of Principal Librarian of the Public Library of New South Wales (now State Library of New South Wales) a position he held from 1912 until his retirement in 1942.^[2][3]

When Ifould took up his position at the Library, the new Mitchell Library building had recently opened in 1910^[8] while the public library remained in a building on Bent Street.^[9] The poor state of the Bent Street building was noted in Library Annual Reports^[9] and debated in the local press.^[10] As the collections grew in the 1920s the conditions at the library became very crowded in both the Mitchell Wing and the Bent Street building. The Mitchell wing had been designed as the first instalment of a proposed National Library.^[9]

William Ifould cultivated the interest of Sir William Dixson as a library benefactor. Dixson, a wealthy bachelor with an interest in collecting paintings, manuscripts and an extensive Australiana collection, had a long association with the Library. In 1919 Dixson wrote to Ifould, offering his pictures collection to the NSW Government if they would provide a suitable space for them to be stored and displayed.^[11] Ifould persistently advocated the completion of the library building to the government.^[1] In 1924 Ifould provided information to a Sydney Morning Herald journalist about the value of Sir William's collection and the importance of it being accepted by the Government and housed in a new wing of the Mitchell Library building.^[12][13] In 1925 the Library Trustees reported that work was to begin on the new sections of the library building.^[5]

Ifould oversaw the design and construction of the next stages of the Mitchell Library, the basement section to house the Country Circulation Department in 1928, the Dixson Wing which opened in 1929 and the central portion and entrance which was completed in 1942 to house the general reference collection.^[5][8] The plans for the enlarged and remodelled central portion and north-east wing were prepared by the Government Architect, Cobden Parkes, with advice from Ifould and Nita Kibble the Principal Research Officer at the Library.^[8] Ifould was very involved in the design and decoration of the Library.^[1]

Ifould also oversaw the establishment of the Research Department of the General Reference Library in 1919–20 as an extension of the reading room reference service^[8] creating a library service that was accessible to the public, including people living in country areas not just to researchers and scholars. Ifould built the reputation of the Library as a leading institution in the Commonwealth for collecting records and documents relating to Australian history.^[1][14]

As Principal Librarian during World War I, William Ifould recognised the significance of the personal stories of Australian servicemen in World War I^[15] to the nation's historical record. In December 1918 he launched The European War Collecting Project. Ifould placed newspaper advertisements around Australia, New Zealand and in the United Kingdom seeking diaries, letters, photographs and related material from servicemen and their families to be deposited in the library collection.^[16] Approximately 500 diaries were collected by the Library through the campaign.^[17]

In 1933 he was approached by Elizabeth and Margaret MacPherson who had inherited money that their Scottish born grandfather had made. It was decided to create the Donald MacPherson Collection of Art and Literature. Purchases were made and the two sisters made further donations.^[18] The collection includes books by Giovanni Boccaccio, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett and Sylvia Plath and books from historically important publishers like Kelmscott and Nonesuch.^[19] The sisters left their money to the collection when they died.^[18]

The New South Wales Library Act 1939

There were very few free public libraries available to the people of New South Wales in the early years of the twentieth century.^[20] Different types of subscription libraries, including mechanics institutes, schools of arts and some commercial lending libraries were the only option in many communities. Several municipal libraries had begun only to close down and by the 1930s there were only two free lending libraries which served the people of Broken Hill and Sydney.^[2]

In 1934, at the instigation of the Australian Council for Educational Research^[21] the Carnegie Corporation of New York funded two commissioners, Ralph Munn and E. R. Pitt, to tour and inspect Australian libraries and to publish their report.^[22] The Munn-Pitt report examined the differences between regional library networks in Australia and the United States of America and England.^[23] The report was highly critical of the state of libraries across the country. The main recommendations from the Munn–Pitt report were the strengthening and growth of the profession of librarianship in Australia through the establishment of a library association to raise the status of trained library staff; fostering the National Library's development; combined state-municipal libraries in all capital cities except Sydney; the establishment of rate-supported municipal free libraries outside the capital cities, with continued state government subsidies; the establishment of district or regional library services covering small towns and rural areas.^[24] Not all of the Munn–Pitt recommendations were adopted, however two of these recommendations were priorities for William Ifould "to establish tax-supported municipal 'free libraries'; and to strengthen and extend librarianship by professionalising the training and registration of librarians."^[25][26]

In New South Wales, the Munn–Pitt report was the impetus for the establishment of a lobbying group. William Ifould addressed a public meeting held on 26 June 1935 in Chatswood where the Free Library Movement (FLM) was established.^[27] They enlisted a range of high-profile supporters and created a publicity campaign which included distributing transcripts of a speech by Geoffrey Cochrane Remington,^[28] a prominent Sydney solicitor, an address by Mrs Hubert Fairfax to the Country Women's Association in 1937^[29] together with several radio interviews all promoting the introduction of public libraries.^[27] A visiting Carnegie scholar, Hartley Grattan, also published a leaflet Libraries: a necessity for democracy in 1938 supporting the free public library cause.^[30]

In response to the lobbying of the Free Library Movement the Minister for Education, D. H. Drummond, established the Libraries Advisory Committee which was chaired by William Ifould.^[31] The Committee prepared a report^[32] which was adopted in principle by the New South Wales Cabinet in January 1939 and led to the preparation of a Library Bill.^[33] Some of the Munn-Pitt report recommendations, including the establishment of free public libraries in every local council area, were enshrined in the Library Bill,^[34] which Ifould and Deputy Principal Librarian John Wallace Metcalfe helped to draft.^[1][35]

The progress of these activities was interrupted in September 1939 by the outbreak of World War II. In September 1939, Cabinet deferred the introduction of the Library Bill into Parliament. The Free Library Movement continued to lobby the government. Ifould approached members of the exclusive Australian Club winning their support along with other businessmen and newspaper editors.^[31] Ifould suggested to the Minister that the Act could be passed but the financial clauses deferred, adding that "If the Government drops the Library Bill at this stage every important metropolitan newspaper will hammer it as showing no courage or leadership. I will give the newspapers all the pabulum they require for such a campaign. I must, of course, first resign from the service."^[36]

Cabinet met on 10 October 1939 agreeing to introduce the Bill into Parliament while suspending the financial provisions. The Library Bill passed through the New South Wales Parliament on 3 November 1939 with bipartisan support.^[31] The involvement of Australia in World War II delayed the full implementation of the Library Act 1939 until Premier William McKell announced that the Act would be fully proclaimed, including the financial clauses, taking effect from 1 January 1944. Municipalities began to introduce public library services, with 32 councils adopting the Act by the middle of 1945.^[31]

Another of the Munn–Pitt report recommendations, that professional training be made available for librarians, was also implemented by Ifould when a Library School was established at the Public Library of New South Wales in 1939. It also experienced an interruption due to World War II and was suspended during 1940 but reopened in 1941.^[37]

Australian Institute of Librarians

During the Great Depression awareness of social and political issues had grown in Australia, including censorship and the freedom of expression. As a profession, librarians responded by establishing the Australian Institute of Librarians (AIL). Fifty-five librarians attended the inaugural meeting of the AIL in Canberra on 20 August 1937 to form the association. William Ifould was elected as the foundation president (1937–38).^[38][39][40] John Metcalfe wrote that they believed in access to "the best that has been and is being thought and said, pictured and played, written and read by our people, and throughout the world"^[41]