This report offers a review of recent major acquisitions and collection development activity in the National Library of Australia. It concentrates in the first instance on Australian materials in both print and special materials formats with an emphasis in this current report on printed materials and manuscripts. For reasons of length, later reports in this series will concentrate on acquisition activity in other Australian special collections areas such as maps, pictorial materials and oral history. The report also offers details of acquisitions activity in the collecting of overseas materials.
An important part of the Library's work in developing its Australian collections is its responsiveness to issues of community debate and public interest. Two current examples of this are the euthanasia debate and racism. The Library has established contact with key groups to acquire printed materials such as newsletters, brochures and ephemera. In addition, the Internet is being monitored to identify key sites which provide a source for documents and statements of various kinds.
Planning has begun to ensure that the Library acquires a significant collection of material relating to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Similar campaigns have been mounted in recent years for such national and international events as the Brisbane Expo and the 1988 Australian bicentennial celebrations. In the case of the Sydney Olympics, contact was initially made with the bidding authority in 1993. Since then, the Library has established contact with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and a flow of material has commenced.
The acquisition plan includes maintaining contact with the key organising groups such as SOCOG, the Australian Olympic Committee. The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee and the Olympic Coordination Authority, Homebush Bay. In addition, each separate national sporting group participating in the Olympics will be contacted. Tourism, cultural events, environmental aspects and the 'green games', merchandising, anti-Olympic protests- all these aspects and others which emerge will be targeted for collecting activity. In all cases, an approach which comprehends both traditional print as well as electronic sources will be explored.
The Library recently acquired a collection of over 1500 pieces of Australian sheet music from the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). This collection became available as a result of collection rationalisation activities at the NFSA. This gift has added 675 Australian titles not previously held by the national library, together with 900 second copies. Also part of the NFSA gift was a collection of Australian theatre programs and ephemera.
In addition to major gifts such as this, the Library has continued to purchase items of retrospective Australian music through a small number of specialist antiquarian dealers. Music by the nineteenth century theatrical entrepreneur George Selth Coppin and Isaac Nathan, sometimes identified as the 'Father' of Australian music, has been added to the collection in recent months together with a selection of First World War patriotic music composed in Australia.
Attention is currently being given to the ways and means of improving the collecting and documentation of Australian popular culture, recognising that libraries sometimes lag badly in responding to the shifts which occur in what is naturally a highly volatile area. A broad range of issues and examples are being considered in a discussion which is intended to define the Library's role and collecting intentions. In the meantime, selective acquisition of material continues for the Australian printed ephemera collection. An interesting example is provided in the range of calendars issued each year in Australia and which reflect the range and diversity of specialist causes and community issues. The Library is making a special effort to acquire this particular form of publication which offers the means to document a range of causes, special or sectional interests and preoccupations and to chart shifts in Australian taste, community values, political causes and other phenomena.
More broadly, the acquisition of ephemera continues. The Library's current practice is to target particular groups or bodies in order to obtain materials which, for example, document community festivals of various kinds (such events as the Midsumma Festival in Melbourne; the First Australian Blues Festival in Goulburn; and the Tamworth Country Music Festival). Ephemeral publications also provide the means to document a range of community interests or changes in community practices or in social behaviour. For example in recent months several funeral directors (including Pets at Peace) have been asked for printed literature. Similar approaches have been made to companies specialising in 'eco tourism'.
The Library is continuing its efforts to build strong holdings of printed materials relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and community organisations. Recently, attendance at the annual conference of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Information Resource Network (ATSILIRN) held in Adelaide provided a useful opportunity to establish contact with a range of ATSI publishers in South Australia. These included the University of South Australia's Faculty of Aboriginal and Islander Studies, the South Australian Aboriginal Education Unit, the Aboriginal Health Council, the Indigenous Land Council, the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, the Aboriginal Land rights movement, the Yitya Warra Wadli Language Centre and the Aboriginal Lands Trust. It has been established that the National Library's holdings of published materials issued by these and similar organisations is poor while in a number of instances, the publications themselves are not recorded on the National Bibliographic Database. Personal visits by Library staff offer the means to rectify these deficiencies and to establish cooperative deposit arrangements. The results of a similar program of visits last year in Northern Australia continue to bear fruit. The Kimberley Land Council is placing material with the National Library on a continuing basis. This often includes materials from other bodies such as the Northern Land Council and Nungalinga College.
An important part of the Library's program of collecting Australian materials is the attention given to retrospective acquisition- materials which for a range of reasons have not previously been acquired. Such acquisitions are generally made from the antiquarian book market or occasionally by donation. Recent acquisitions include a rare nineteenth century broadside entitled 'Lines on the wreck of the Royal Charter'(1859); a complete set of a rare architecture journal Town planning and housing: a monthly record of achievement and advocate of best living conditions for Australians (1915-1919); a rare edition of Hal Porter's first published book Short stories, issued in Adelaide in 1942 or 1943 in an edition of 200 copies most of which have disappeared; and Pictures of the floods, Southern Queensland, February 1893, an album of 18 captioned plates reproducing sketches based on photographs of the disastrous floods. Also acquired were two rare programs for early performances in England of Dame Nellie Melba (a Command Performance at Buckingham Palace 25 June 1891) and Gladys Moncreiff at Daly's Theatre in 1927.
The Library has continued its strong manuscripts collecting program with a rich and varied range of acquisitions which have added considerably to the research strength of this collection. Some acquisitions have come in the form of additions to existing collections of personal papers or organisational records but the majority add important new holdings to the Library, ranging in time from the early colonial period to the present day.
Notable early documents include a diary of Caroline Waring, the mother of the writer Louisa Atkinson (1834-1872), covering the first portion of her journey to Australia in 1828; a letter of the missionary L.E. Threlkeld, written in 1836 defending himself against charges of extravagance; a journal kept by Edith Gedge on a voyage to Australia in 1889, providing an unusually detailed account of shipboard life, including readings of Shakespeare; an important file of papers of Christine Macpherson relating to the composition of the music of the famous Australian song 'Waltzing Matilda' in 1895; and a collection of papers of members of the family of Alfred Deakin, Australia's second Prime Minister, which include letters of his daughter Stella (later Lady Rivett) and his sister Catherine, mostly written in the years before World War I. This latter collection adds to the strength of the Library's holding of Deakin family material, including the rich personal archive of the Papers of Alfred Deakin.
A range of general acquisitions have added several notable collections to the Library: a collection of letters of Daisy Bates relating to her work with Aboriginal communities in Western Australia (this material complements the Library's rich holding of the Papers of Daisy Bates which have been held for many years); a diary of Gordon Burt, an Australian prisoner of war kept at Banka Island during the Second World War; a large collection of the papers of Maie Casey (The Lady Casey) which document her many personal interests as well as aspects of her life as the wife of Richard Gardiner Casey, the noted Australian soldier and politician who served as Governor-General of Australia 1965-1969; a collection of papers of the Chinese storekeeper and herbalist Kwong Sue Duk (1853-1929) and his family; an unpublished manuscript of the explorer Michael Terry setting out his political and social philosophy; the papers of the trade unionist and political activist Edgar Ross, including letters, diaries, journal articles and photographs (this material complements the large collection of papers of Ross's brother Lloyd who himself held important positions in the union movement and who later became the biographer of the wartime Prime Minister John Curtin); the papers of the Western Australian museum director and labour historian Andrew Reeves; the papers of Harrison Bryan the librarian and former Director-General of the National Library of Australia; and the papers of the lawyer Ian Temby Q.C., covering his work both in private practice and as a public prosecutor.
A traditional strength of the National Library's collections has been its holding of the personal papers of politicians, particularly those who have played a role in national political life. A major recent acquisition is the substantial collection of the papers of Sir Thomas White who served for a number of years in federal politics and as a minister under R.G. Menzies. White, who was also an aviator, soldier, prisoner-of-war, businessman and writer, later served as Australia's High Commissioner in London. He was the son-in-law of Alfred Deakin. Two other collections of note have been acquired: the papers of John McCallum who served in the Australian Senate 1950-1962 (correspondence, diaries, notebooks and subject files); and the papers of John Langmore (a former National Library of Australia Council member) who until recently represented the federal seat of Fraser in the Australian Parliament.
While material relating to the history of science in Australia has not been an especially strong part of the Library's manuscript holdings, several important acquisitions in recent years have begun to compensate for past neglect in this important area of national endeavour. Recent acquisitions include the following: a collection of letters of the entomologist Francis Ratcliffe written to his family during field trips in northern Queensland 1929-1931; a substantial collection of papers of the Adelaide medical researcher Professor Timothy Murrell referring in particular to his work on community health; papers of the medical researcher Mark Wahlqvist; and papers of the marine zoologist Isobel Bennett which include drafts of various editions of her book Australian seashores and papers relating to Macquarie Island.
The papers of a number of leading Australian academics have in recent years added substantial research strength to the Library's collection. Recent acquisitions include the diaries and memoirs of the legal academic and constitutional expert, the late Geoffrey Sawer and the papers of the anthropologist Nigel Oram relating to field work in Papua New Guinea. Also received was a major addition to the papers of the historian John La Nauze, a collection which includes family papers and correspondence with many of the notable historians of his generation. These papers join others previously deposited which document the work of John La Nauze as biographer of Alfred Deakin.
One of the greatest and best established strengths of the National Library is its holding of papers which document aspects of the literary history of Australia. The Library continues to see the enrichment of these holdings. In recent months, acquisitions include: a small but valuable collection of the letters of Lillian Neustatter written to her sister Henry Handel Richardson in the period 1899-1909 which complements the major holding of the papers of Henry Handel Richardson; a volume of letters, manuscripts and photographs of the editor and critic A.G. Stephens; a volume of letters and manuscripts relating to John Shaw Neilson assembled by the collector Harry Chaplin; two letters of the poet Rosemary Dobson written to Norman Lindsay in 1947-48; a substantial collection of the playwright and critic Alan Seymour which includes the manuscript of his famous Australian play The One Day of the Year; drafts and associated material of Thomas Keneally's book Outback; further papers of Judith Wright; and the papers of Hazel Rowley relating to her biography of Christina Stead, including copies of many of Stead's letters. This latter collection complements a collection of Stead's own papers acquired some years ago following the death of this prominent Australian writer.
While the literary arts have always been important in the collections of the National Library, so too have been other areas of artistic and cultural practice. Notable recent acquisitions include: a volume of letters, photographs and ephemera of the composer and concert pianist Percy Grainger; correspondence, cuttings and exhibition catalogues of the cartoonist Unk White; further papers of the actor, singer and festival director Robyn Archer; papers of Janet Karin, a former Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet , relating to her career as a dancer and more recently as Principal of the National Capital Ballet School in Canberra; and a collection of the correspondence and other papers of the folklorist John Meredith.
Complementing a number of collections of personal papers in several of the categories referred to above, the Library has acquired several important organisational records. These include: a large addition to the records of the Returned Services League; a major addition to the archives of the Australian Ballet; further records of the magazine Art and Australia; further records of the Australian Christian Movement; further records of the Australian Library and Information Association; and records of the National Florence Nightingale Committee.
The Library has recently ordered a number of publications from overseas which have been selected with a view to improving access to existing collections ot to extending the range of existing collections.
For some years, the Library has held the Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature, a microfilm of two major collections in the literature of economics and business: the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston. Research and reference access to this resource will be greatly enhanced by the purchase of an index, now available on CD-ROM and published by Primary Resource Media.
A number of major microform sets have been ordered to extend the Library's existing collections of material relating to Asia. These include two sets of Confidential US State Department Central Files, China: Internal Affairs 1940-1944 and Formosa: Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs, 1950-1954 both published by University Publications of America. the Far Eastern Economic Review has been purchased on microform for the years 1946 to 1996.. This will extend the Library's holdings as far back as the first issue of the journal and permit replacement of incomplete paper copy files.
Two other purchases have been made which, although they have important links to Asia, also enrich the strength of the Library's collection relating to international relations for the period of the 1950's. The Correspondence Series and Speeches Series of the personal Papers of John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) and the John Foster Dulles Oral History Collection together make up 80 reels of microfilm containing correspondence, diaries, journals, speeches, statements, press conferences and interviews with individuals who worked closely with Dulles during his years as Secretary of State. The Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, edited by Dennis Merrill and published by University Publications of America comprises 20 volumes organised thematically and covering such topics as the atomic bombing of Japan, the origins and onset of the Cold War, the Korean War, the establishment of NATO and US perspectives on the Communist takeover of China in 1949
With the weighting given to Asian materials in the Library's Collection Development Policy. a number of significant acquisitions are of interest. These include a bound set of Berita negara (the Indonesian Government Gazette), 1995 in 104 volumes; an order has been placed for an important large set on the history of Korea- the first complete translation into Korean of a classical Chinese text of the history of the Yi dynasty (1392-1910) which is to be published in 461 volumes over two years; and the Library has just acquired a translation into English by the Thai King, H.M. Bhumibol Adulyadej, of the story of King Mahajanaka, one of the stories from the great Buddhist religious work, the Tripitaka. This latter publication, beautifully bound and illustrated, was published in 1996 to commemorate the Golden Anniversary of King Bhumibol's accession to the throne.
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