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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]

John Metcalfe of the Public Library of New South Wales played a leading role in founding the Australian Institute of Librarians (AlL) in 1937 and twelve years later in transforming it into a more sustainable and influential body, the Library Association of Australia (LAA). This paper describes some of the work which lay ahead for the new association, including library promotion, expanding membership, professional publications, national and international recognition and a university school of librarianship, in all of which Metcalfe figured significantly. His career after 1949 is outlined and some of his personal preoccupations, fertile ground for further research, are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on recent experience and observation in New South Wales, this paper describes issues facing authorities, planners and librarians who are working on public library building projects. The author emphasises the need for all involved to focus not just on traditional good design principles, but also on user needs, consulting the community, assessing space and siting requirements and costs. This paper is based on part of a presentation by the author and Kathleen Bresnahan, assistant state librarian, Public Library Services, State Library of New South Wales, to the International Federation of Library Associations Metropolitan Libraries Section Conference, Library as a fusion space — possibilities and opportunities Singapore, 26 September-1 October 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the administration of archives in New South Wales from 1788 to 1960, showing how little attention was paid to non-current public records until the opening of the Mitchell Library in 1910. Political inertia and conflicting ideas on how archives should be managed are examined as well as the influence of historians and the role of James Bonwick, Frank Murcott Bladen and Historical records of New South Wales. Traces the tensions in the library profession over the establishment of a separate public record office and the underlying unwillingness to support a body which was not part of the Public Library of NSW, right up to the passing of the NSW Archives Act in 1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the contribution of university librarian Allan Horton to archival development in New South Wales. Horton's appointment as archives officer with the creation of a separate Archives Department of the Public Library of New South Wales in 1953 was a watershed in the evolution of archival services in New South Wales. The significance of his appointment in the context of the history of archival development in New South Wales cannot be exaggerated, because it represented a crucial stage in the evolution of the modern archival system. Horton's appointment marked the culmination of a long campaign to urge upon the Colonial and State governments the necessity of making proper provision for the keeping and use of their archives. Following the formation of the Archives Section of the Library Association of Australia in July 1950, and its formal constitution in 1951, this being the first occasion in Australia when practicing archivists sought to organize themselves as a representative professional body, Horton became an active member and office bearer, regularly attending conferences and contributing to the gathering pace of archival progress in New South Wales.