...work Museum staff and external enquirers since the late 1840s. This paper discusses the library's collection up to 1883, the date of its first published catalogue. The author urges library history researchers to make those who are responsible for Australia's book heritage in similar institutions aware of the significance of their collections.

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Early in September 2007 there was press coverage of the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of the space probes Voyager 1 and 2. There had been an ambition for these two spacecraft to conduct a grand tour of all the outer planets of our solar system, but budget cuts at the time peeled this back to the study of Jupiter and Saturn alone. Thanks to some cleverly designed and well-constructed technology, good planning, and no doubt some artful politics, a mission expected to finish in 1982 has just reached its thirtieth year. The probes have not only visited almost all the outer planets but will continue to report back from the very edge of our solar system, and beyond, up until around 2020.

One article marking the anniversary in the Sydney morning herald particularly caught my eye. (1) It discussed the challenges of communicating with these spacecraft in the face of ever-changing technology and related the tale of ageing Australian engineers at Tidbinbilla, near Canberra, struggling to maintain 'heritage equipment' so we can continue talk to the Voyagers now more than fifteen billion miles away. In short, computers built around 1970 are our only way of keeping in touch with the most distant human-made objects in space, listening for electronic whispers that are at least twenty billion times weaker than a watch battery. (2)

'So what does this story have to do with library history? you ask. For a little over a year I have been exploring the early history of the Australian Museum Research Library in Sydney. I quickly discovered that constructing such a history raises questions about my motivations for telling this library's story. A big motivation for me has been prompted by the way in which some people talk about libraries, particularly smaller special libraries with long-standing book collections. Many of these libraries constitute an important and increasingly fragile part of Australia's heritage. Examples of such libraries in New South Wales might include those at the New South Wales Parliament, the Australian Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Art Gallery, the Powerhouse Museum, Moore Theological College and the Bathurst Old School of Arts--all extant libraries which have been serving the Australian community for at least 125 years, and in many cases considerably longer. While our host here at the State Library of New South Wales has roots dating back to 1826 and is arguably the longest serving of all libraries in Australia, I believe its visibility and mission to provide access to its historical collections separates it from some of these smaller libraries.

What I find so interesting about the Voyager article is the familiar way in which technology perceived as outdated is discussed in terms of being quirky and cute. How can we not delight in the description of these fossil computers as looking like the 'stuff out of the old sci-fi movies, with blinking lights and big colourful buttons'. (3) Increasingly, libraries with ageing book collections are struggling against a very similar attitude in our online world and one that makes them vulnerable. While the ageing technology at Tidbinbilla may be considered quaint, it continues to have value because it is our only link to these whispers from space. But how fine, indistinct and flexible the line can be between what is considered quaint and redundant and, ultimately, what is considered expendable. I have never found the early book collections of the Australian Museum Research Library quaint, though I'm sure some people do. As you will see, I, like many others, find the Museum's early book collections far too useful to be quaint.

Of course, expressing apprehension about the safety of public book collections is not new, though wider community concern tends to be limited to the odd newspaper picture of university library textbooks abandoned in a skip....

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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