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Guide to collections of manuscripts relating to Australia

Canberra, National Library of Australia, 1965-1995.
ISSN 0725-9107


The purpose of the Guide was to locate and list collections of manuscripts existing in Australia and of Australian interest. The need for such a guide had long been recognised and often discussed, but no plan was evolved until a Conference on Source Material for Australian Studies was convened in Canberra in July 1961 by the then Chairman of the National Library Council, Sir Grenfell Price.

Although the primary purpose of the Conference was to find some basis for cooperation in collecting, the participating authorities also wisely recognised that a guide was fundamental to the location and use of collections. The National Library accepted responsibility for the editing and publication of the Guide.

The Guide was published in successive instalments of 300 entries and cumulated in series of four instalments each, or 1200 entries. The first two instalments were published in 1965, and further instalments were issued at irregular intervals thereafter. Series B (instalments 5 - 8) commenced publication in 1967 and Series C (instalments 9 - 12) between 1972 and 1979. Series D (instalments 13 - 16) was issued in 1986 as part of a microfiche edition that reprinted all previous series and included a cumulated index. Series E, the last, was published in instalments, commencing in 1990 with Instalment 17. The 20th instalment of the Guide was issued on microfiche in December 1995, thereby completing Series E.

The Guide always had serious weaknesses. It survived for thirty years, which is no mean achievement, but the 6000 collections described in it represented a small proportion of the total number of manuscript collections in public repositories in Australia. Some major repositories contributed hardly any entries, while no repository could claim that all its collections had Guide entries. It is difficult to know how much use the Guide received, either by researchers or archivists. However, anecdotal evidence suggested that in later years many academic researchers were unaware of its existence or had assumed that it ceased publication long ago. The change to microfiche format in 1986 almost certainly led to reduced use. For these reasons the National Library decided in 1996 to discontinue publication and to replace the guide with an online register.

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Last updated Monday 26-Mar-2007
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