It was 1967, and after stints at CSIRO and the University of Western Australia (UWA), Allen was appointed Foundation Principal Librarian at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), Curtin\u2019s predecessor institution.<\/p>\n
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Before starting the job, Allen, and architect Vincent Davies, took a walk around the growing Bentley campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cVin and I stood on the hill where the library was going to be, and we talked about how it should look,\u201d Allen recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the problem was nobody knew what WAIT would become, or how big it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen and Davies envisaged a campus with several thousand students and designed a large, mostly windowless (\u201cfor better light control\u201d) multi-storey building. To many at the time, the library plans were ambitious, the building too big. Few imagined that one day the campus would be home to tens of thousands of students and staff.<\/p>\n
Taking a sip of tea, Allen smiles wistfully as he remembers the challenges and fun of those early days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s most librarians\u2019 dream to build their own library,\u201d he says. \u201cBut not many people get the opportunity to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Named the TL Robertson Library, Allen would go on to lead the establishment for the next twenty-five years, championing major changes in reader education and computer literacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I went to a major library was as a student in Oxford \u2013 and I had no idea how it was organised,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody taught me. I had to find out for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He realised the importance of teaching students and staff how to navigate the library and access its resources. He instigated compulsory \u201creader education\u201d workshops (now known as information literacy) for all first-year students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI travelled overseas in 1969 looking for examples of reader education but I didn\u2019t find very much,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trailblazers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s\u00a0pioneer program was a success. But he had no plans to rest on his laurels. It was the 1970s and new-fangled computer technology was attracting attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was first introduced to computers in the 1960s and I knew they were going to be important,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As a librarian at UWA, he was tasked with finding \u201csome way to use a computer\u201d to demonstrate its utility. He came up with the idea of writing a program to produce recall notices for overdue books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured that the notices would be a very visible way of using the computer!\u201d he laughs. It took a few years of experimentation but the program was operating successfully by the time he left for WAIT in 1967.<\/p>\n
![\"Curtin](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/computer-centre.png\")
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In the early seventies, WAIT acquired its first computer and Allen negotiated with the Computer Centre for access to their new facilities. There had been many attempts to automate library activities but, possibly as a consequence of trying to create one comprehensive system, many had failed. Allen adopted a piecemeal approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided not to write an entire system in one go,\u201d he says. \u201cFirst we created an acquisition system that was relatively straightforward, and then a circulation system and finally a cataloguing system. We used the same database with the idea that we would eventually combine them.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the late 1970s, the TL Robertson Library was one of the most automated libraries in the country.<\/p>\n
The pace of technological growth matched the increasing size of the campus. In 1979, student enrolments at WAIT had risen from 4,500 to 12,000.<\/p>\n
In 1987, the growing institute was renamed the Â鶹ֱ²¥ of Technology.<\/p>\n
![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/project-library-dune.jpg\")
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Today, the imposing TL Robertson Library rises high above the very same hill where Allen and Davies first discussed their vision. A focal point of Bentley\u2019s busy and bustling campus, the library is open 24\/7 and welcomes more than two million visitors a year. A significant project is underway to transform the historical building into a modern-day space for creativity and collaboration, further enhancing its benefits to students and the wider community (see artist impression<\/em>).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 1970s were a time of rapid growth for the library, but a difficult decade for Allen personally, who suffered the breakdown of his first marriage. There was little time for music.<\/p>\n But by the late \u201980s, the head librarian had re-married and was enjoying a period of relative stability and calm.<\/p>\n Excited to learn that an upcoming Curtin conference would conclude with a concert, Allen offered to write some music for the event. The result was his Watercolours Suite for flute and piano. Sadly, the concert failed to eventuate, but the suite was later premiered in the library\u2019s new lecture room and recorded by Curtin FM.<\/p>\n In 1989, a trip to Spain also reignited Allen\u2019s passion for composition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never been to Spain before,\u201d he shares. \u201cAs my wife and I travelled through the country on a tour bus, listening to dismal stories of Spain\u2019s bloody past, I was really moved.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen returned to Perth and wrote a long piano sonata, characterised by Spanish harmonies and rhythms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first really big thing I wrote,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s resurfacing passion coincided with the emergence of music software for computers. He purchased the software and taught himself to produce printed sheet music. By the time he retired from Curtin in 1992, he had become proficient at producing and printing music and launched his own publishing company, The Keys Press.<\/p>\n \u201cI bought a photocopier and built up quite a clientele in the years that followed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a while, I was the leading publisher of classical music in Australia!\u201d<\/p>\n In 2014, having published more than 500 classical works over twenty years, Allen gave away the business to focus on his own music.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy that it\u2019s all coming together,\u201d he beams. \u201cI hope more people will discover my music now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Geoffrey Allen sonatas will be released on two double albums next year by Divine Art recordings.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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A musical renaissance<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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