Identity and nation in the Australian public library:udthe development of local and national collections 1850s – 1940s,udusing the Tasmanian Public Library as case study

摘要

The major public reference libraries in the capital cities of Australia all maintain aud‘heritage’ role that is a central aspect of their function in their communities. Alludhave acquired rich and extensive collections relating to the history and literatureudof their respective states and, in a number of cases, to the nation as a whole.udHowever, this aspect of philosophy and practice has not always been part of theudpublic library’s institutional goals. When the major public reference libraries wereudestablished in the Australian colonies in the second half of the nineteenth century,udthe acquisition of a ‘local archive’ reflecting local colonial history and culture wasuddesultory or non-existent in most cases.udThis thesis is a cultural history of the growth of the ‘will to archive’ in the publicudlibrary in Australia over the course of a century, focusing on the period from theud1850s to the 1940s. It addresses how, when, and why the Australian public libraryudcame to be a repository of the local and national past, as distinct from (but neverudreplacing) its role as a purveyor of Enlightenment culture and learning. Theudevolution of this function is situated within a broader framework of emergingudhistorical consciousness, the growth of civic nationalism related to the federationudof the Australian colonies in 1901, changing attitudes to the production of historyudand the new value accorded to accurate historical records, and efforts to establishuda ‘national’ creative literature. The thesis argues that the archiving mentality thatudemerged in the last decades of the nineteenth century, stimulated by the emergingudinterest in local history, became naturalised in the twentieth century through theudforces of nationalism and patriotism. The evolution of this function was complex,udinfluenced variously by factors such as the degree and type of culturaludphilanthropic activity, historical ‘amnesia’ toward the colonial convict past, andudresidual ‘cultural cringe’ toward Australian literary production.udWhile addressing local archiving practices across all the major ‘state’ publicudlibraries, the thesis focuses on the Tasmanian Public Library. While providing anudoverview of the development of the local archive in Tasmania over a century, theudthesis examines in detail the agency of key figures such as trustee James Backhouse Walker and philanthropist William Walker, and the effect of the localudpenal past on the formation of the local archive, exemplified by the ‘life cycle’ ofudconvict text The Hermit in Van Diemen’s Land by Henry Savery.udThis study emerges from the conviction that a close examination of the formationudand stratification of library collections that symbolise and promote nationaludidentity contributes valuable information about emerging and changingud‘worldviews’ of communities, particularly the ways in which communitiesudidentify as members of a region and nation. Utilising the lens of public libraryudphilosophy and collections, the thesis offers a new way of reflecting on the formation of local and national identities in Australia.