4 May 1997

Australian Library Week 4-10 May 1997

...is an important event, here are some facts to quote:

Public libraries are Australia's most heavily-used 'cultural' facility.

libraries 38.4%
museums 27.8%
art galleries 22.3%

ABS (1995) Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues March 1995 Catalogue No. 4114.0

Women (44.4 per cent) use libraries more than men (32.2 per cent).

There is varying use by country of birth, with the highest rates from those born in Malaysia (51.4%) and the Americas (50.1%). 38.5% of those born in Australia use libraries.
There are high rates of usage by people in part-time employment (53.8%) and unemployed people (46.2%).

ABS (1995) Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues March 1995 Catalogue No. 4114.0

7 million Australians choose to use a library regularly.

98% of Australians have access to a library service.
There are about 1500 local public library service points in Australia, about 10 000 school libraries and 1300 special libraries.
The average membership of libraries as a percentage of the population served is about 44 per cent.

adapted from Bundy, Alan ed (1995) Directory of Australian Public Libraries, Adelaide:Auslib Press

'The maintenance of the traditional print based service will continue but alongside this the 'virtual' library will develop providing increased access to resources located external to the library in its physical state'.

State of The Nation - Australia's Public Libraries Catlin, Ivan ed. (1996), supplementary information for the Australian Cultural Ministers Council's Libraries Working Group

'Public library development is a phenomenon of the latter half of the 20th century. At the end of World War II, public libraries in Australia were virtually non-existent. Today, there is almost one hundred percent coverage'.

Catlin, Ivan, op cit...and acknowledging Harrison, Bryan (1987)The Pattern of Library Services in Australia, Sydney: Library Association of Australia

Famous people who once worked as librarians or in libraries:

Chairman Mao Tse-Tung: Worked as an assistant to the chief librarian of the University of Beijing library in 1918.
Casanova: In 1785, began 13 years career as a librarian for Count von Waldstein in the chateau of Dux in Bohemia, Czech Republic.
J Edgar Hoover (FBI): Worked as a cataloguer in the Library of Congress as a young man.
Pope Pius XI: Before becoming Pope in 1922, worked for many years in the Ambrosian medical library, Milan, as chief librarian. Later helped to reorganise the Vatican library.

from INFO CONNECT List of Library Records available at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~kush/Page1.htm (© Godfrey Oswald, London).

The first library in Australia was probably the Wesleyan Library in Hobart in 1825.

State Library of NSW - 1826
State Library of Victoria - 1856
State Library of Tasmania - 1870
State Library of South Australia - 1884
State Reference Library of Western Australia - 1886
State Library of Queensland - 1896
Northern Territory Library - 1980
ACT Library (taken over on self-government) - 1989

Australian Encyclopaedia, 6th ed., Volume 5