https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8825-1979
Michael Ramsden will be remembered by many for his contribution to education for librarianship at the College of Librarianship Wales (now Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth University) and at RMIT University. At RMIT, he served as Head of the Department of Librarianship, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Communication, and Acting Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Projects). He was also a founding member of the Australian Society of Indexers. Over the years he contributed much to the profession through research, teaching, and publications, for which he had an international reputation. He is remembered by former colleagues and students as a mentor, leader, and as a teacher who was supportive and kind and who took time to listen.
Michael John Ramsden was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, on 17 April 1935; the elder of two boys. He completed his education at Scunthorpe and then Cheltenham Grammar Schools. In 1957, as the first member of his family to go to university, Michael graduated from Southampton University with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours. After graduation, he took up a position as a Graduate Trainee Librarian at Gillingham Public Libraries and commenced studies for the Library Association Registration Examination, which he completed in 1959. The subject that most interested Michael in the Registration Examination was Classification Theory. At that time, faceted classification was quite a new theory, and Michael became an enthusiast for this approach. He continued his career in public libraries in roles at Gillingham Public Libraries, Bexley Public Library, and as Regional Librarian, Sherwood Region at Nottinghamshire County Libraries.
From 1961, Michael had been the representative of the Kent Division on the Association of Assistant Librarians (AAL) Council. He would continue to serve on the Council, in various positions, for ten years. In 1964, he was elected to the position of Honorary Secretary and as such became a representative of the AAL on the Library Association Council.
During the mid to late 1960s, education for librarianship was undergoing significant expansion. In 1967, Michael joined the staff of the recently established Coleg Llyfrgellwyr Cymru – the College of Librarianship Wales (CLW) as a Lecturer in the Department of Information Studies. In 1970, he completed a thesis for Fellowship of the Library Association (FLA), becoming a Fellow in 1971. The thesis, on the history of the AAL from its foundation in 1895 to the end of the Second World War, was published by the AAL in 1973.
In December 1970, Michael was offered and accepted a position as Lecturer in Librarianship at RMIT and migrated with his wife Sylvia and their three children to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in August 1971. In 1972, he became a Senior Lecturer, and then Head of the Department in 1977, following the retirement of the foundation head, Jean Hagger. During this period, he completed a Master of Social Science, becoming the first graduate to receive this award from RMIT Librarianship.
In 1974, Michael received a research grant from the Library Council of Victoria (LCV) to investigate the standard of public library service in Victoria. The resulting landmark study ‘Performance measurement of some Melbourne public libraries' was published by the LCV in 1978.
Michael became a member of the Library Association of Australia (LAA) on arrival in 1971 and the following year was elected to the committee of the Victorian Branch, on which he served until 1978, including a term as President 1973–1974. He was a member of the LAA Standing Committee from 1976 to 1977, and Executive Secretary of the committee organising the LAA Conference in Melbourne in 1975. In 1988, he was he was elected a Fellow of the LAA.
He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Communication, RMIT, in 1986. He continued to support the profession of librarianship, conducting many professional development programs and workshops in Australia and overseas. On several occasions, he delivered lectures or seminars for students in the Master of Information Science program at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) in Beijing. He served on the editorial boards of two international journals: ‘Social Science Information Studies', and ‘Education for Information'. In 1994, he took up the role of acting Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Projects).
Upon his retirement from RMIT in 1995, Michael took up freelance indexing. A notable project was the completion of the indexing of Historical Records of Victoria, which he inherited from Jean Hagger. Michael compiled the index to Volume 7 and assisted with compiling the cumulative index.
He was a lifelong lover of cricket, playing for his school and maintaining a lifelong keen interest in the sport. Former students who were taught the Dewey Decimal Classification System by Michael quickly became familiar with the number 796.358. He was an obvious choice to index the ‘Bradman Albums', published in 1987.
Michael was devoted to his family, and beloved by them. As his children and grandchildren grew up, he was always there for their special occasions, sporting events, ceremonies, and graduations. He was particularly proud to attend the graduation ceremony of his granddaughter with a Master of Information Management from RMIT in 2018 – the third generation of librarians to complete the Master's program that he initiated at RMIT.
Michael is survived by his brother, Brian, his wife, Sylvia, three children, eleven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.