The State Library of Tasmania is the reference, special collections, research and public lending library in the

Tasmanian Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th ...

capital of

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is part of Libraries Tasmania. Libraries Tasmania includes a state-wide network of library services, community learning, adult literacy and the State’s archives and heritage services.

History

The first "Tasmanian Public Library" opened in 1849, in a house in Hobart, funded by a government grant and yearly subscription of members. It became accessible to the public in 1860, but was forced to close in 1867 owing to debts. In 1870 a new, free public

reference 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 ...

opened in the Hobart Town Hall. American philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

funded the move to new premises in 1907, with the requirement that a free lending service should be established at the same time. The ''Libraries Act (1943)'' established the State Library of Tasmania, administered by the Tasmanian Library Board. At this time, the Library included many branches across the state, which grew in number over time until such time as some were closed in government rationalisations. From October 2006, the State Library, the Archives Office, Adult Education and online access centres were integrated as the Community Knowledge Network, renamed LINC Tasmania in 2009. The system was part of the Tasmanian Department of Education. The name changed from LINC Tasmania to Libraries Tasmania in mid-2018.

Location and description

The headquarters of Libraries Tasmania, which also houses the State Library, is located at the corner of Murray and Bathurst Street in

. The public Reading Room is located on the second floor of the building. The State Library contains over 200,000 books, periodicals, maps and directories. Reference and research services are provided to on-site and off-site clients using a range of print and online resources.

Heritage Collections

The library operates several collections and archives of historical publications and documents, particularly those related to Tasmania. In addition, the library maintains a newspaper index, an image library and a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed Book, books or Pamphlet, pamphlets ...

Tasmaniana Library

A collection of historical and modern published material related to Tasmania, in a range of formats from paper to digital. All Tasmanian-related material is collected including all works published in Tasmania, all works published about Tasmania, and all works by Tasmanian authors.

W. L. Crowther Library

The W. L. Crowther Library is a collection of historical books, documents, photographs, works of art and objects collected by Sir William Crowther, whose great-grandfather arrived in Hobart in 1825. The library contains about 15,000 books and manuscripts, as well as photographs and artworks, and

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

ephemera including a collection of

scrimshaw Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and te ...

. The collection was donated by William Edward Lodewyk Hamilton Crowther (1887-1981), son of Edward Lodewyk Crowther and grandson of W. L. Crowther, in 1964, and also includes extensive content about his own military service, including his own diaries.

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

Another collection of historical material, bequeathed to the people of Tasmania by the Allport family to the library in 1965. It includes about 6,000 books, and outstanding collection of about 2,500 colonial-era artworks (by family members and others) and collections of

Georgian era The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the House of Hanover, Hanoverian kings George I of Great Britain, George I, George II of Great Britain, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Geor ...

furniture,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, French and Chinese

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

Digital collections

In 1998, the State Library developed a service to capture and store selected Tasmanian websites, known as ''Our Digital Island''. The sites were downloaded and then reinstalled onto a State Library server, where they would operate independently of the original site, and held in perpetuity. The

legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

obligations within the Tasmanian ''Libraries Act 1984'' allowed the Library to capture the websites without having to gain permission their Tasmanian publishers. While the service did not capture all Tasmanian websites, it had captured about 600 by 2003. The publicly available store of ''Our Digital Island'' contains websites as preserved from 2001 until 2012. The 3000 website records (with over 9000 captures taken at different times) are available through the Libraries Tasmania online catalogue. Over time, ''Our Digital Island'' began to also store electronic documents as separate entities (

annual report An annual report is a comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance. ...

s, policy documents, etc.), but it became clear that the format did not allow for easy accessibility and use, so the Library set out to create a different type of online depository and archive. The Stable Tasmanian Open Repository Service (STORS) was a joint initiative of the State Library and Service Tasmania that was officially launched in late 2003. Its scope was limited to self-contained electronic resources with a defined title (i.e. excluding websites) which were able to be used by current

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

software. collected all material published in Tasmania, as per legal deposit requirement. The purpose of STORS was to act as a repository for and to provide access to contemporary

electronic document An electronic document is a document that can be sent in non-physical means, such as telex, email, and the internet. Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal—the final data output was always on paper. However, the ...

s, and to serve the function of an archive by retaining these documents forever. Publishers submitted their digital publications directly to STORS, which by the end of 2017 held about 33,000 items. STORS was terminated on 31 May 2019, when it was replaced by the

National edeposit National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

system (NED), a collaboration between Australia’s nine national, state and territory libraries. As a member library of

National and State Libraries Australia National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) Inc., is an incorporated association and the peak body that represents the national, state and territory libraries of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. NSLA coordinates collaborative projects, n ...

, the organisation collaborated on the creation of NED, which enables publishers from all over Australia to upload electronic publications as per the 2016 amendment to the ''

Copyright Act 1968 The copyright law of Australia defines the legally enforceable rights of creators of creative and artistic works under Australian law. The scope of copyright in Australia is defined in the '' Copyright Act 1968'' (as amended), which applies the ...

'' and other regional legislation relating to

, and makes these publications publicly accessible online (depending on access conditions) from anywhere via

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 ...

. The State Library of Tasmania is not a partner organisation in

PANDORA In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground '' ky ...

, the national web archive.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Hobart Tasmania, State Library of Archives in Australia Libraries in Tasmania Tasmanian Heritage Register International style architecture in Australia