The State Library of Tasmania's Heritage Collections provide access to Tasmania's documentary heritage and play a vital role in preserving the essence of Tasmania's culture.
The Heritage Collections provide reference and research services to clients in Tasmania, elsewhere in Australia and around the world. You can visit in person, phone, fax or e-mail general Tasmanian enquiries to Heritage.Collections@education.tas.gov.au.
These collections have developed, and continue to develop, in various ways – through purchase, legal deposit, bequest and donation. All of our collections can be accessed and searched through our integrated online statewide catalogue TALISPlus.
The major services are:
The Tasmanian Index provides information about articles in Tasmanian newspapers and in a wide range of other publications and materials since 1994. Earlier records are available in a card index held in the Tasmaniana Library which will soon be digitised and made available on the State Library's website.
About 11,000 images from the State Library's Heritage Collections have been digitised and made accessible through the State Library's website. Most of the images are Tasmanian, but the Library also has images of Australian and overseas subjects. The images and collections which have been digitised so far include:
For reproduction, copies of the images can be ordered directly from the State Library of Tasmania. In addition to processing costs, a reproduction fee may apply and, if so, will be required before publication is authorised. For more details, see the Copyright and Reproduction information page. Picture Australia is also a very useful source of Tasmanian images held in other national and state institutions around Australia.
In addition to the videos and sound recordings held in the Tasmaniana Library, the library also holds the Hobart Access Collection of the National Film and Sound Archive. This consists of approximately two hundred time-coded video copies of Tasmanian film and television material, mainly of Tasmanian interest as well as a few sound recordings. They can be used in the Tasmaniana Library or in city libraries around Tasmania. Members of the public can also request any other items in the National Film and Sound Archive collection in Canberra to be sent to the Tasmaniana Library free of charge. The NFSA's catalogue indicates Hobart Access Collection holdings with the prefixes "HOV" (for film and video) and "HOD" (for audio discs).
The State Library is just one of a range of government and voluntary organisations which are responsible for collecting and preserving Tasmania’s documentary heritage. In particular:
The Archives Office of Tasmania is the major repository not only of State and local government records but also of non-government archives and personal papers. Records of Australian government agencies in Tasmania are held by the National Archives of Australia. There are also substantial collections of non-government archives and personal papers at the University of Tasmania and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. Within the State Library, the most substantial collection is in the Launceston Local Studies Collection. There are smaller, but significant, collections of manuscripts in the WL Crowther Library and the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts.
The largest collections of images in public institutions in Tasmania are in the Archives Office of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. Within the State Library, there are smaller but important collections in the Allport and Crowther collections. The Tasmaniana Library has a substantial collection of Tasmanian postcards as well as other pictorial objects: posters, apple-case labels and much more. Many of these items have been digitised and are accessible on the State Library's catalogue. These images are also available through Picture Australia which provides access to images held in nearly fifty national, state and local collections.
William Walker
William Walker was one of the State Library's most important benefactors. He - and after his death, his widow Mary Anne - donated large collections of Tasmanian and Australian books in 1924 and 1932. In 2005 the library awarded Heather Gaunt a fellowship to undertake research on William Walker. Heather is continuing her Walker research as a PhD student at the University of Tasmania.
This paper was presented to the Tasmanian Historical Research Association (THRA) on 10 October 2006 and published in vol.54, no.3 (December 2007) of the Association's Papers & proceedings. It is reproduced here with the permission of THRA and the author.
Heather Gaunt - paper on William Walker
Sir William Crowther
The WL Crowther Library is one of the great treasures of the State Library of Tasmania. It was created by Dr WELH (later Sir William) Crowther (1887 - 1981) and donated to the State Library of Tasmania in stages through the 1960s. Tony Marshall, the Manager (Access) for the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, has researched, written and presented several papers about Sir William and the collection.
This paper was presented at the Forum on Australian Library History held at the State Library of New South Wales in September 2007 and was subsequently published in the Australian library journal, vol.56, nos 3-4 (November 2007).
Tony Marshall - paper on Sir William Crowther
