–Magazine for members Winter 2016 Eternally yours Message Digital citizenship ‘Digital disruption’ is a common term in contemporary ontents business. It highlights the pervasive changes wrought by Winter 2016 digital technologies on almost all aspects of the economy, employment, entertainment and our personal lives. Long established services such as the post office and the 4 WORLD PRESS PHOTO 16 28 CURATOR’S CHOICE Token of respect media industry have been profoundly disrupted. 6 NEWS Libraries have been similarly disrupted but — perhaps Calling all family 32 COLLECTION CARE because we have been using computers for five decades historians Home currency and online services since the 1970s — we have been able Robot reader to benefit from the developing digital technologies. Many cultures 34 NEW ACQUISITIONS By exploiting opportunities, libraries are now in a golden Looking for a Best in show age of service and value to their communities. typewriter indyreads Many of the initiatives by government and large Wipe Interrobang enterprises can be challenging for the public. Examples SL Monster atlas include online forms for social security claims, job THE MAGAZINE FOR STATE LIBRARY OF NSW FOUNDATION MEMBERS, MACQUARIE STREET ON THIS DAY FRIENDS AND VOLUNTEERS 8 applications, tax returns and, most recently, in plans for SYDNEY NSW 2000 38 LEARNING IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY the 2016 census. Libraries are responding actively to these BY THE LIBRARY COUNCIL PHONE (02) 9273 1414 Virtual excursions 10 EXHIBITION OF NSW. FAX (02) 9273 1255 challenges to assist their clients by providing computers Colour in darkness WINTER 2016 ENQUIRIES.LIBRARY@ FOUNDATION and WiFi, as well as training and support. VOL. 9 NO. 2 SL.NSW.GOV.AU 40 ISSN 1835-9787 (PRINT) Supporting However, a paramount need is to respect the autonomy ISSN 1836-1722 (ONLINE) WWW.SL.NSW.GOV.AU 14 COLLECTION CARE innovative learning of citizens and assist all to become fully capable digital P&D-4701-05/2016 OPENING HOURS Fine prints PRINT RUN 3500 THE GOVERNOR MARIE for schoolchildren citizens. This ideal has brought a focus onto ‘digital BASHIR AND MITCHELL LIBRARY READING ROOMS FEATURE Mona Brand Award citizenship’, the concept of how we can live as citizens 16 EDITOR MONDAY TO THURSDAY Eternally yours announced in a digital world. CATHY PERKINS 9 AM TO 8 PM Digital citizenship has many dimensions, including CATHY.PERKINS@ FRIDAY 9 AM TO 5 PM For our Friends SL.NSW.GOV.AU 20 FEATURE access to information and concerns about personal privacy. WEEKENDS 10 AM TO 5 PM DESIGN & PRODUCTION THE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS A far-flung war mania 44 RECENT HIGHLIGHTS Libraries have a role in assisting those without access to ROSIE HANDLEY AREA IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. technology or who may be lacking developed digital literacy. PHOTOGRAPHY 24 FEATURE GALLERIES OPEN TO 5 PM, 47 Q&A Libraries have taken many initiatives including access UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED THURSDAYS TO 8 PM French connection ALL PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK Anne Summers to town planners at the Wollongong City Libraries, IS BY DIGITISATION COVER AND IMAGING, SOPHIA O’BRIEN, 1841 ‘petting zoos’ which offer a range of digital devices to enable STATE LIBRARY OF NSW. BY MAURICE FELTON DG 427 (SEE P. 16) clients to ‘try before they buy’, classes in digital skills such SUSTAINABILITY as Tech Savvy Seniors, and the cybersafefty program PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA BY PEACHY PRINT eSmart Libraries. In so many ways, libraries are AUSTRALIA PTY LTD advancing digital citizenship. PAPER: BJ BALL ECOSTAR 200 GSM AND 120 GSM. ECOSTAR IS CARBON NEUTRAL AND 100% RECYCLED FROM POST CONSUMER WASTE. ALEX BYRNE NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive THE STATE LIBRARY OF NSW IS A STATUTORY AUTHORITY OF, AND PRINCIPALLY FUNDED BY, THE NSW STATE GOVERNMENT World Press Photo 16 21 May to 19 June DANIEL BEREHULAK, AUSTRALIA, FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES AN EARTHQUAKE’S AFTERMATH, NEPAL, APRIL/MAY 2015, 3RD PRIZE GENERAL NEWS STORIES NEWS Robot reader Best in show The state’s first free public automatic reader was Every year — with great care from our team of registrars Interrobang launched at the Library as part of Multicultural March and conservators — the Library sends items from our collection 2016. Readit Air helps people with vision impairment around the country, and around the world. This winter you’ll The following is one of approximately and those who have trouble reading by instantly find loans from the Library’s collections including colonial sketches 350 questions answered each month by capturing any form of text and reading it aloud. by ST Gill at the National Library of Australia, and scenes and the Library’s ‘Ask a Librarian’ service. It detects books, newspapers or other printed characters of Melbourne by William Strutt at the State Library ? I’m researching the history of the material in languages including English, Greek, of Victoria. Seven artworks featuring dogs have been dispatched Alexandra Palace, a historic recreation Italian, French, Romanian and Spanish. to Orange Regional Gallery as part of their exhibition Best in Show: venue in London. I’m looking for examples MARI-PAZ OVIDI USING THE READIT AIR IN THE GOVERNOR MARIE BASHIR Dogs in Australian Art, until 3 July. Among them is Thomas of pantomime librettos from the Palace’s READING ROOM, PHOTO BY MERINDA CAMPBELL R Balcombe’s Kangaroo Dog Owned by Mr Dunn of Castlereagh theatre and have only been able to locate Street, Sydney, painted in 1853 (above). one here in the UK. ! The Library has three pantomime librettos from performances at the Alexandra Palace: ‘St George and the Dragon; or, Harlequin the Seven Champions of Christendom’ by ‘The Brothers Grinn’, ‘Dick Whittington Calling all family historians and his Cat’ by GB O’Halloran, and ‘Harlequin Little Jack Horner, or Goody Two Shoes The Library has a range of great resources and The Three Bears’ by Frank Stainforth. to assist you with your research. All you need They are printed in black and white and is your Library card. Exclusive to Findmypast feature illustrations of some of the characters. is the 1939 National Register, which gives a snapshot The three librettos date from 1877 to 1879 of the civilian population of England and Wales and are bound together in one volume along just after the outbreak of the Second World War. with several other pantomime librettos from With Ancestry Library Edition, you can download Many cultures indyreads other venues in London. The book was part charts and forms that will help you keep track Community leaders have joined our Cultural and Linguistic New ways of making ebooks and local history information available of David Scott Mitchell’s original collection of your research. During Family History Month Advisory Board to assist the Library in responding to the to communities are being explored in the trial of a platform called and appears to have been purchased from in August, join our hands-on sessions for these needs of the diverse NSW population. Its members, from indyreads, launched earlier this year by State Librarian Alex Byrne the bookseller Dymocks. It includes genealogy search tools. different parts of the state, are deeply involved in advocacy at Leichhardt Library and Parramatta City Library. Developed by a bookplate signed ‘D.S. Mitchell’ the State Library in partnership with Odilo, indyreads gives public and a label from the bookseller. MOTHER AND BABY, C. 1930s, SAM HOOD and support for their communities and will serve on the HOME AND AWAY - 2899 library members access to a growing collection of Australian and NOTE: THE ALEXANDRA PALACE OPENED IN NORTH LONDON committee for three years. ON QUEEN VICTORIA’S 54TH BIRTHDAY IN 1873 AND BECAME international ebooks sourced mainly from independent publishers. A POPULAR VENUE FOR CHRISTMAS PANTOMIMES. IT SURVIVED THE LIBRARY’S CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ADVISORY BOARD AT ITS FIRST MEETING TWO MAJOR FIRES (INCLUDING ONE ONLY 16 DAYS AFTER IN OCTOBER 2015, PHOTO BY JOY LAI Digitised local history material, including oral history recordings ITS OPENING) AND HOSTED THE FIRST PUBLIC TELEVISION BROADCAST BY THE BBC IN 1936. FRONT ROW: RANDA KATTAN, FRANK NEWAH-JARFOI, ORIANA ACEVEDO, and videos, can also be hosted on indyreads, which provides EMAN SHAROBEEM, ANTHONY PANG, NAJEEBA WAZEFADOST; BACK ROW: JOHN ARKAN, ALEX BYRNE, MICHAEL CAULFIELD, THANG NGO, MARTIN NAKATA a seamless experience for downloading material to many www.sl.nsw.gov.au/ask different devices. 6 / SL MAGAZINE Winter 2016 State Library of New South Wales SL MAGAZINE Winter 2016 State Library of New South Wales / 7 on this 4 June 1629 The Dutch trading ship Batavia is shipwrecked off the coast of Western Australia. Mutineers attacked the other survivors while the ship’s fleet commander, Francisco Pelsaert, was away on a rescue mission. COMPILED BY Anna Corkhill, Research & Discovery THE MUTINEERS ATTACKING THE OTHER SURVIVORS OF THE WRECK OF THE BATAVIA, 1629, 1647, FRANCISCO PELSAERT DSM/C 530 3 July 1850 Construction work begins on the Sydney to Parramatta railway. The Sydney Railway Company was 6 June 1888 incorporated in 1849 specifically 19 August 1839 The British Crown annexes Christmas Island. for the project, which was to be The invention of the daguerreotype First discovered by European explorers Australia’s first railway line. is announced to the world. Invented on Christmas Day 1653, the island attracted However, the line didn’t open by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre Britain’s interest in 1888 after large natural until 26 September 1855, a year after in 1839 after years of experimentation, lime deposits were found. Its sovereignty the railway between Port Melbourne it was the first commercially available was transferred from Singapore to Australia and Flinders Street Station was photographic process. Each for $20 million in 1958. completed in Victoria. daguerreotype is a unique image TURNING THE FIRST TURF OF THE FIRST RAILWAY CHRISTMAS ISLAND NEAR JAVA, 1830, UNKNOWN ARTIST IN THE AUSTRALASIAN COLONIES AT REDFERN, created on a silvered copper plate.