Series 160 - ANU Library Publications

Identity area

Reference code

AU ANUA 160

Title

ANU Library Publications

Date(s)

  • 1963 - 2006 (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

0.2 m (1 type 1 box)

Context area

Name of creator

(1948 -)

Biographical history

The University Library was established on 1 May 1948 with the appointment of A. L. G. McDonald as University Librarian. By arrangement with Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, the library collection was housed at Wyselaskie Hall temporarily, and at nearby Trinity College, before being moved to the former Canberra Community Hospital buildings on the ANU site in December 1950 - January 1951. C. P. FitzGerald, Reader in Oriental Studies, was instrumental in collecting valuable Asian collections including the private library of Professor Hsu Ti Shan of Hong Kong University in this early period. When the Canberra University College amalgamated with the Australian National University, it brought with it the Oriental Studies collection that it had formed to support the teaching of the School of Oriental Languages. Another focus of the amalgamation was the cataloguing system as the ANU Library had adopted the Bliss system but the CUC the Dewey system. The first purpose-built library building, the R. G. Menzies Building, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1963 as the research library, while an undergraduate library was completed later that year and was later named the J. B Chifley Building. Meanwhile a number of branch libraries in research schools had developed under the umbrella of the University Library. By the 1990s the main collections were organised into Asia-Pacific collections (Menzies), Social Sciences and Humanities (Chifley), Science (Hancock) and Law. The amalgamation of the Canberra Institute of the Arts (formerly the Canberra School of Music and the Canberra School of Art) into the ANU in 1992 brought two more branch libraries. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the collections within branch libraries in research schools were relocated to the main libraries, with off-site storage being used to house older material and to make way for the 'information commons', workstations and group study rooms incorporated into building renovations. The Music library was relocated to merge with the Art library in 2012.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

There are publications relating to the former School of General Studies library (Chifley) and the Menzies Library, including articles relating to its construction, as well as a history for 1946–1996 by PA Vidot.

Accruals

System of arrangement

Chronological

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Researchers must sign an access agreement

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related correspondence file ANUA 53-95-51

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

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Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Dates of creation revision deletion

Prepared by Maggie Shapley on 15 November 2007. Updated by Kathryn Dan 7 March 2023 and 3 November 2023.

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