A brief statement concerning the
future of the LMI Legacy Collection
1. In terms of significance of
the LMI holdings in comparison with other remaining Mechanics' Institute
collections in Australia, it appears that the LMI holdings are one of only two
such highly valued large collections, the other being the Adelaide Circulating
Library Collection housed in the South Australian State Library. But the
largely intact Launceston MI Library Collection is dated from the 1840's when
the other significant Mechanics' Institute Library Collections remaining in
Australia date, at least from the 1850's. Surely this renders the Launceston
Collection as highly significant?
This typical Mechanics' Institute
Library Collection is very special indeed in a national context as the earliest
entire and complex literary remnant of the influential Mechanics'
Institute Libraries Movement , which flourished all over Australia. Collections
such as these form the basis upon which our present public library and technical education systems were based and are an essential narrative to the understanding of our cultural, educational, literary
and early European settlement in
Australia.
2. I feel strongly that parts of
this collection not be sold, that the collection be catalogued and assessed and
that ultimately the collection be retained in total as a discrete collection.
It is of utmost importance that it remains and is cared for as an invaluable
unique and important Tasmanian as well as Australian cultural heritage.
Pam Baragwanath.
Author: If the Walls Could Speak:
a social history of the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria, 2000. (Currently
being revised for publication in 2014.)
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