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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000


Recent acquisitions

Carol Carpenter & Maurice Saxby

Carol Carpenter interviews Maurice Saxby in the Oral History Section

The National Library has acquired a variety of exciting and unusual items for its collections in the last six months.

Australian Printed Materials
Two significant items relating to the botanical history of Australia were purchased. These are: Josef Gaertner, De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum (Leipzig, 1801-1805); and Ch. L. L’Heritier de Brutelle, Sertum Anglicum, seu Plantae Rariores quae in Hortis juxta Londinum, imprimis in Horto Regio Kewensi Excoluntur, Ab anno 1786 ad annum 1787 observatae (Paris, 1788-1792). These books contain some of the earliest documentation of a number of Australian plants. An additional botanical item purchased from another source is Louis-Isidore Duperrey, Voyage autour du monde … Histoire naturelle, Botanique. Atlas (Paris, 1826). This volume completes a set for the Library. Another nineteenth-century natural history title, Heinrich Rudolf Schinz, Naturgeschichte und Abbildung des Menschen der verschiedenen Rassen und Stamme … Dritte vermehrte auflage … (Zurich, 1845) includes some early studies of Australian Aboriginal people and is not listed in Sir John Ferguson’s Bibliography of Australia.

Six travel posters acquired in the last six months are a valuable addition to the travel posters already in the Library’s collection. One German poster from the late 1950s, Anton passagier und Schneillfracht Linie / Nach Australien / Gemeinschaftsdients Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg-Amerika Linie …, is a beautiful depiction of kangaroos and gum trees. A poster by Percy Trompf, 3 Vital Words / Made in Australia / For Value … / Wherever you trade / Buy / Australian made (c.1950) is a visually appealing record of a promotion for Australian goods.

Australian Electronic Publications
Negotiations were successfully concluded with three publishers of e-books. The publishers, Zeus Publications, Jacobyte Books and bob-e-books have agreed to provide their titles for archiving in the Library’s PANDORA archive. These titles will be available within the Library for five years, after which they will be freely available without restriction.

Oral History
Interviews with a broad group of eminent Australians have been added to the Library’s Oral History Collection. These include businessman Leon Fink; food writer and festival director Leo Schofield, and writers Shirley Hazzard (recorded in the United States of America by James Murdoch), Maurice Saxby and Laurie Copping. Interviews with medical researcher Professor David Penington and former politician Neville Wran were conducted as part of the Library’s series of interviews with former Australians of the Year. Other eminent Australians interviewed were folklorist Dr Gwenda Davey; anthropologist Dr Martha Macintyre; RSL state president Bruce Ruxton; and publisher Peter Ryan.

A number of other notable interviews cover Australians active in the field of music. Pioneer musicologist Andrew McCredie, formerly Professor of Music at the University of Adelaide, was interviewed by the National Library’s new Curator of Music, Robyn Holmes. Anthony Fogg, currently artistic administrator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was interviewed in the United States, again by James Murdoch. And finally, Donald Hollier and Moneta Eagles were interviewed in Canberra and Melbourne by Larry Sitsky and Ruth Lee Martin respectively for the Library’s Australian composers oral history project.

Asian Collections
Asian language reference works in electronic form are becoming increasingly important. Recent acquisitions include Fu yin bao kan zi liao [Chinese newspaper and periodical abstracts] (Beijing: Information Centre, Peoples University of China; 4 CD-ROMs for the full text for 1999 plus 1 CD-ROM index), and Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan zosho mokuroku [National Diet Library of Japan catalogue for the Taisho period (1912–1925) on CD-ROM] (Tokyo: National Diet Library and Kinokuniya, 1999).

The Library has strong holdings of beautifully illustrated publications on many aspects of the arts and cultures of Asia. Interesting new titles include Zhongguo ming yuan = Chinese famous parks and gardens (Shanghai: San lian, 1999), covering over 90 ancient and modern parks and gardens in China; Mark Hanusz’ Kretek: the culture and heritage of Indonesia’s clove cigarettes (Jakarta: Equinox, 2000), a serious study of this important Indonesian industry; Art and art-industry in Siam, edited by Charles Doehring (Bangkok: Siam Society, [1915]), one of a limited set of 100 reprints produced in 1999 to commemorate the Sixth Cycle of HM King Bhumiphol Adulayej of Thailand; Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan 50-nen no ayumi [Photographic history of the National Diet Library of Japan, 1948–1998] (Tokyo: National Diet Library, 1998) and Zhongguo lao gu piao = Old share certificates of China (Shanghai: Fudan University, 1999) looking at Chinese share certificates from 1872 to the present.
—Philip Jackson

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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