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Preserving and providing access to local archives is one of the roles performed by public libraries in New South Wales. This role is not mandated, nor is it a stated priority for public libraries. Local government records are regulated by legislation, but what of the other records documenting the lives of rural and city communities? In many cases the library’s local studies collection becomes the default home of the archives of local community organisations and of individuals whose personal papers are acquired by libraries. In some cases, the library shares the role of maintaining local archives with historical societies, museums and universities. The result is a functioning example of distributed custody, where public libraries and other local institutions take responsibility for local archives. This paper is a case study that draws on two major surveys of local studies collections undertaken by the State Library of NSW, the first in 1984 and the second in 2013–2014. It concludes that public libraries have been critical for over 50 years in ensuring that local archives have been acquired and managed, despite there being no explicit regulatory or policy frameworks for doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three men were the driving force behind the passing of the New South Wales Library Act by the New South Wales Parliament in the early hours of 3 November 1939: John Metcalfe, Geoffrey Cochrane Remington and William Herbert Ifould. This paper explores the ways in which their differences and their similarities melded to make this happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State Library of New South Wales holds the world’s most extensive collection on the European exploration and colonisation of Australia and its region and the subsequent development of Australia. Much is held about the Indigenous peoples, some created by Indigenous artists and chroniclers, but the majority by others including explorers, government officers, missionaries and settlers as well as the more recent ethnographers, historians and writers. Many of the records are fragmentary and hidden within documents dealing with other matters. The State Library is working to make these records available in consultation with Indigenous communities. It also seeks to include more and stronger Indigenous voices to reflect on Indigenous experience and provide commentary on the material in the Library’s collections. The Library’s partnership with the New South Wales public library network offers a means for engagement with communities as well as an opportunity to provide better services to Indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of the article "From the Record, For the Record" by John Metcalfe which originally appeared in the July 1951 volume one, number one issue of "The Australian Library Journal." The article discusses the history and development of a national library association in Australia, first formed in 1901 and originally entitled the Library Association of Australasia. According to the article, it received little support and was disbanded the following year until it was revived in 1928 as the Australian Library Association.