Dear IALL Members,

I am greatly saddened to report the passing of our friend and colleague Petal Kinder. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in January, and it progressed rapidly despite treatment.

Petal’s career encompassed a range of leading roles in Australian law libraries, as well as in Australian and international law library associations.

She was lecturer in computerised legal research at Monash University from 1995 for 5 years before becoming the Manager, Library and Information Services at the Federal Court of Australia. She held this post until being appointed as Court Librarian at the High Court of Australia in 2005, a post she held for a decade. Her most recent role was as CEO at Little William Bourke P/L, managing the Victorian Reports publishing project.

In addition to her distinguished career as a court librarian, Petal was active in supporting the professional work of law librarians through her involvement in ALLA (Australian Law Librarians’ Association), as a Board Member, and was a founding member of VILLANS (organisers of two law library symposia 1995 & 1996 which kick started separate law librarian conferences in Australia).

She was closely involved in the International Association of Law Libraries, where she was a Board Member 2004-2019, including a term as President from 2010 to 2013. Her achievements included responsibility for the revamping of the IALL website, the IALL Legal Research papers and numerous other developments. She championed the cause of IALL holding a conference in Sydney, and was the Board Liaison for the upcoming IALL conference in October. She relinquished this role late in 2018, as her illness returned.

Our condolences go to her family and friends.

Jeroen Vervliet,

IALL President