Our Nation's Album: Link to home page
Our Heritage Revealed

Birth of a Library
Bush Capital Pioneers
A Great Public Library
Our Heritage Revealed
From the Bush to Beyond
Housing the Collection

click to view film 1
View Film 1
click to view film 2
View Film 2

 


In 1968 the National Library moved to its new and permanent home on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin. The new building united the separate collections, formerly dispersed around Canberra. Through the Asian Collections, Manuscript, Map, Pictorial, Rare Books, Newspapers, Music and Ephemera Reading Rooms, the collections were now available to scholars and readers under the one roof. An impressive Main Reading Room provided access to the general reference collection. The theatre could operate both as a space in which to view films from the collections and a forum for conferences and seminars. Room for exhibitions and displays were also provided.

Alec Bolton, Printer and Publisher c.1988

enlarge imageAlec Bolton, Printer and Publisher c.1988
photograph
Pictorial Collection

Since 1968, visitors to the Library have been able to view individual items from the Pictorial Collection on request, as well as a range of free exhibitions. The new building invited the public inside to appreciate the magnitude and diversity of the Library's Collection. However, the building was also a statement about the complex interactive role the Library played in Australia’s cultural life.

In 1970 the Library appointed Alec Bolton as publisher. Although the Library had been publishing since its early years, Bolton’s background in mainstream publishing injected new life into the Library’s publications. Until his retirement in 1988, Bolton oversaw the expansion of the Library's Publications program, directing attention to the wealth of material held in the Manuscript, Map and Pictorial Collections.

 
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