Dr Phillip Law died yesterday, at the age of 97, in Melbourne. I had known him since 1999, when I first started working on the arrangement and description of his records at his home in Canterbury. I should write more about this, but right now I’d just like to remember him.

When he moved from Canterbury to Balwyn Manor, we kept in touch, and a few times we went out together for morning tea – we both absolutely loved the passionfruit kisses (sponge, real cream and passionfruit icing) at the cafe close by.

I went to visit him regarding further work on his papers in March 2008 and took Iris, my then 11 month old daughter. She was in to everything of course, knocking over wine bottles and curious about it all. I thought that perhaps Dr Law, not having had children of his own, might find her annoying. But he didn’t. He thought she was wonderful and loved her curiousity. He held her for this photograph, and said it had been the first time he’d held a baby in a very long time, and I know it gave us all pleasure. If she grows up to be half as curious as Phillip Law, she’ll be lucky, like him.

Vale Phillip Law.

Media

• Antarctic pioneer dies, ABC News website (Melbourne), 1 March 2010.
• Australian Antarctic pioneer dies at 97, Australian Antarctic Division website, 1 March 2010.
• ‘Mr Antarctica’ Phillip Law dies in Melbourne aged 97, Courier Mail (Brisbane), 1 March 2010.
• Antarctic pioneer Dr Phillip Law dies, aged 97, in Melbourne, Herald-Sun (Melbourne), 1 March 2010.
• Mr Antarctica, former Geelong teacher Phillip Law, dies at 97, Geelong Advertiser, 1 March 2010.
• Phil Law ‘Mr Antarctica’ dies, The Mercury (Hobart), 1 March 2010.
• Mr Antarctica dies in Melbourne, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 2010.
• Dr Phillip Law 1912-1910, (Audio interview with Tom Maggs, AAD) ABC News website (Canberra), 2 March 2010.
• Pioneer who opened up Antarctica dies at 97, The Age, 2 March 2010.
• Antarctic pioneer dies at 97, The Canberra Times, 2 March 2010.
• Australian Antarctic explorer Phillip Law dies, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 2 March 2010.
• Geelong’s Antarctic explorer Law dies at 97, Geelong Advertiser, 2 March 2010.
• Pioneer who opened up Antarctica dies at 97, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March 2010.
• Vale Dr Phillip Law (1913-2010), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery website, 3 March 2010.
• Phillip Law was the ice master, The Warrnambool Standard, 3 March 2010.
• Scientist planted strategic flags on Antarctica: Phillip Law, 1912 – 2010, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 March 2010.
• Phillip Law, Telegraph (London), 5 March 2010.
• Phillip Law: Antarctic Explorer, The Times, 9 March 2010.
• The Daily Goodbye (obituaries), The Washington Post, 9 March 2010.
• Great explorer left footprint in Antarctica: Dr Phillip Law, Antarctic Explorer/Educationalist, The Age, 12 March 2010.
• Phillip Law (obituaries), The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 12 March 2010.
• Australian Explorer Established Three Antarctic Stations: Phillip Law 1912-2010, The Wall Street Journal, 13 March 2010.

I love the National Library of Australia for many reasons. This is one of them. They do many things right web-wise and deliver on their promise to reach out and engage with the community. The PictureAustralia-Flickr project is a case in hand.

Another case is the Libraries Australia service and the potential it allows for building networks of information and connecting people with books – always a good thing! Take, for example, the use we have been able to make of persistent identifiers in citing into this resource in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition. (My colleagues and I at the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre at the University of Melbourne are the technical – but so much more than that – partners involved with getting the ADB online.) Rather than the user coming to a page of information about a publication giving only straight bibliographic information, they can now follow a link into Libraries Australia which lists all the libraries in Australia (one hopes one near you) where the publication can be found.

The National Library has also provided the code to add a Libraries Australia search box to your own website, something we will investigate for the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition.

But I’m not really as excited about that as I sound. Just thought I’d give you some academic and community minded reason to care. What I did enjoy doing this morning was putting in the names of myself and three of my friends who have published books in the last two years and seeing whether any public libraries in Australia have our books – and they do!

Blue Mauritius has been out in Australia since 17 October (8 weeks) and in that time it has been procured by 12 public libraries in Australia (and one in America that I know about because they contacted me – the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). I’m so pleased.

Angela Savage’s book Behind the Night Bazaar is currently available at 36 libraries (wow!) and Jill Koolmees’s book My Desert Kingdom is at 78 libraries (wow wow!). Russ Weakley’s book CSS in 10 Minutes is at two public libraries here in Australia (but that still excites me).

So go on and find some books to borrow! (I just wish someone could tell me why the code doesn’t display the box properly… Russ?)

EDIT (29 December): Another excellent thing I’ve noticed, as a result of the persistent URL, is that when I search Google on Blue Mauritius Helen Morgan (as one does occasionally) the Libraries Australia reference comes up in the first page of results. Well done National Libary.

There are currently only two copies in Australia, and I have them both. His and hers you might say. Mine already has scribbles in it. Mike’s is pristine. He’s up to chapter three. This morning he said reading it helps him go to sleep! I ask you!

The site was designed by my friend Russ Weakley, so it’s good for you as well as gorgeous!