\u27Not Yet Ready\u27: Australian University Libraries and Carnegie Corporation Philanthropy, 1935-1945

In recent years the Carnegie Corporation\u27s influence on Australian library development has been fruitfully examined from many angles, among them its role in promoting free-library movements in the various states. One piece of the story, however, remains mostly in the shadows: the Corporation\u27s initiatives pointing towards modernizing and professionalizing Australian university libraries. Although the Corporation\u27s philanthropic enterprise at the university level yielded mixed results at best, it was not inconsequential. It provided a blueprint for future university-library development in Australia. In one instance, at the University of Melbourne, it inspired a vice-chancellor to articulate a vision of a library future that comported with the best practices in Great Britain and the United States. In another, at the University of Adelaide, it showed how, with philanthropic intervention, university-library modernization could be expedited with salutary results