The ACT Heritage Library is the state

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

of the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

(ACT). It is the heritage section of the ACT Library and Information Services. Antoinette Buchanan has been the Manager of the ACT Heritage Library since 2004. The ACT Heritage Library collects, manages and provides access to material relevant to the ACT's documentary heritage. It offers assistance in researching matters relating to the ACT, its history and its development.

Collections

The collection of books and journals in the ACT Heritage Library focuses on the works published in the ACT, by ACT residents, or about the ACT. Special collections include the collection and a small magazine collection. The ACT Heritage Library has a collection of local and regional newspapers in

microfilm A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

and print, including newspapers from culturally and linguistically diverse communities and a complete run of Canberra Times from the 1920s. The ACT Heritage Library holds 4,000 maps and plans of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

and the ACT and plans of some public and private buildings. The collection of approximately 200 archives and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s collections in the ACT Heritage Library focuses on local groups and individuals who have made notable contributions to the ACT community. Strengths include

early childhood education Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of Education sciences, education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is ...

and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

. The ACT Heritage Library has an extensive

ephemera Ephemera are items which were not originally designed to be retained or preserved, but have been collected or retained. The word is etymologically derived from the Greek ephēmeros 'lasting only a day'. The word is both plural and singular. On ...

collection of around 300 archive boxes and 2,000 posters, with a particular strength in the performing arts.

Photographs

The ACT Heritage Library has three significant collections of images: *Photographs from the Canberra Times and the Canberra Chronicle from the 1970s to the 1990s; *Photographs from the Commonwealth Department of Capital Territory from the 1950s through to the early 1980s; and *The David Coward Photography Collection, a collection of over 300,000 negatives, the work of commercial photographer, David Coward who operated in Canberra, 1958–2003. Materials from the collections are being digitised and catalogued in the online database, Images ACT, which currently includes over 8,000 digitised photographs of the ACT and region from the ACT Heritage Library. Additional ACT photographs held in national and state institutions, as well those from Images ACT, can be found in the National Library of Australia's digitised collection,

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

Exhibitions

The ACT Heritage Library regularly presents small exhibitions and display in their reading room, with additional exhibitions held in the Civic Library building. Some items from the ACT Heritage Library were featured in the touring exhibition National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries, which toured every Australian state capital from 3 December 2005 to late 2007. Reflections of Canberra is an

online exhibition An online exhibition, also referred to as a virtual exhibition, online gallery, cyber-exhibition, is an exhibition whose venue is cyberspace. Museums and other organizations create online exhibitions for many reasons. For example, an online exhibi ...

, sampling the collection of the ACT Heritage Library and reflecting the changing landscape lifestyles of the Canberra region and its community.

Collaborative services and projects

The

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

and the ACT Heritage Library work cooperatively to ensure the preservation of newspaper titles published in the ACT under the Australian Newspaper Plan.Australian Newspaper Plan
/ref> The ACT Heritage Library contributes its digitised images from Images ACT to

External links

ACT Heritage LibraryACT Library and Information ServicesACT Public Library BlogImages ACT

Images, Maps & Artefacts, National Library of Australiaindex of archives

References

{{coord, -35.331630, 149.165449, display=title Government of the Australian Capital Territory State libraries of Australia Archives in Australia Libraries in Canberra