Archive for September, 2011

Look out! She’s behind you!

As an intern in the National Library this year, I expected to find myself doing ‘something’ with books, knowing little about the vast holdings of realia and ephemera the Library also holds. For the past few weeks however, I’ve been going through our PROMPT (Australian Performing Arts) collection and updating a finding aid for the [...]

Stab, Fan, Cords! Paperbacks: what to do with them.

“A couple of pages have fallen out, it won’t take long to fix” I love it when people say that to me when they bring a book for repair. I give a little chuckle; sometimes I even laugh out loud. And then I show them what I need to do to fix”only two pages”. More often [...]

My virtual acquistions trip to Micronesia

Acquiring material from the Pacific Region is an important priority for the Library, but it is often hard to find out what is being published there. Late last year, I was given time to travel virtually to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as a special  acquisitions project.  I was allowed one day a week [...]

Materials that pass though Preservation

How many tomato sauce recipes can you have? I discover the Sydney County Council’s Tomato recipes typed on a single sheet of loose paper, tucked away in the CWA’s Coronation Cookery Book.  Did you know  they (the Council?) had 4 recipes for tomato sauce? Amazing! So many recipes. Discoveries like these are what I really enjoy [...]