The Library That Made Me

Richard Neville is the Mitchell Librarian and Director, Learning, Scholarship and Outreach at the State Library of NSW. With a research background in nineteenth-century Australian art and culture, he has curated numerous exhibitions and published widely on colonial art and society. He has also been extensively involved in the acquisition, arrangement, description and promotion of the Library’s renowned Australian research collections. A judge of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 15 years, he is also the author of Mr JW Lewin: Painter and Naturalist and co-editor of Reading the Rooms.

Phillipa McGuinness is the editor of Openbook, the State Library of NSW’s quarterly magazine, and the Library’s Lead, Editing and Publishing. A former non-fiction book publisher, she is the editor of Copyfight, and author of The Year Everything Changed 2001 and Skin Deep: The inside story of our outer selves. A keynote speaker and regular host of literary events, she has written for Griffith Review, Meanjin, The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Australian Magazine, The Australian Women’s Weekly and The Monthly.