Outpost libraries: the National Library of Australia's services to the outlying Commonwealth Territories, 1938-68.

This paper describes the National Library of Australia's extension library service to the Territories of Papua, New Guinea, Norfolk Island and the Northern Territory over three decades from 1938. Known as the Carnegie Library Service because it had been assisted by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and later renamed the Territories Library Service, it was the brainchild of the National Library chief Kenneth Binns. The author describes the philosophy of the service, the sourcing of its books and the many practical difficulties it experienced in remote and tropical areas. The impact of World War II, with some libraries bombed and others pillaged, and subsequent efforts to revitalise the service are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]