National Library of Australia

Summary subject collecting information (definitions of the ALG collecting levels are available for reference):

Language and literature [Study - Basic]

- Language and literature (general) [Basic]

- Linguistics [Basic]

    Comments: Basic general collection with some significant strengths for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Coverage of PNG & Pacific Island languages also good. The Professor Walter Simon (1893-1981) formed collection, reflects his research interests in the Chinese, Tibetan, Manchu and Mongolian languages. The collection of Professor P.O.L. Tobing also covers the field of Indonesian linguistics.

- English language [Basic]

    Comments: The Library of Professor David Nichol Smith includes a range of first and early editions of all prominent and minor writers of the Restoration period and the eighteenth century. Two other outstanding collections devoted principally to English philology are the collections of C.T. Onions and Dr R.C. Alston. Items listed in the Short Title Catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland up to 1700 are held in microform.

- Literature in English and Old English (general) [Study - Basic]

- Australian literature in English [Research]

- Poetry in English [Study - Basic]

- Drama in English [Study - Basic]

- Fiction in English [Study - Basic]

- Other literature in English [Study - Basic]

- Classics (Latin and Greek) [Minimal]

    Comments: The classics of Greek and Latin antiquity are represented through series such as the Loeb editions. The Rene Durand, Speros Vryonis and F.L. Cross collections provide some now largely historical depth to the collection.

- Germanic languages and literatures [Basic]

    Comments: Beginning with the microfilm series German Books before 1601 special efforts were made in the 1970s to develop a representative body of the collected works of German literary authors. It includes microfilm copies of 3,087 volumes of the Yale University collection of items published in the Baroque era (1575-1740) and 23 periodical titles in which writers of the Romantic Movement (1796-1830) found expression; another series was devoted to the influence of that movement upon English writers.

- Romance languages and literatures [Basic]

    Comments: The French literature collection developed intensively from the 1950s to the early 1980s provides some strengths from the 18th to early 20th centuries. Formed collections (Clifford, Giuseppe Pelli, Rene Durand, French drama 1701-1840) and the microfilm series French Books before 1601 add some depth. Spanish, Italian and Portuguese collections are less extensive but include such notable material as the Valente library in Portuguese and a collection of Spanish drama in its golden age, 1492-1600.

- Other languages and literatures [Minimal]

Highlights of the collection: The National Library of Australia holds a comprehensive collection of material relating to Australia and the Australian people. The Library's collections of Australiana have developed into the nation's single most important resource of materials recording Australian cultural heritage. The Library collects Australian materials of all kinds - not just works in print form - books, serials, maps, music and ephemera - but also online publications and unpublished material such as manuscripts, pictures and oral histories. The Library also has considerable collections of general overseas and rare book materials, as well as world-class Asian and Pacific collections which augment the Australiana collections.

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