Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute
THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013
The members of Friends of the Launceston Mechanics'
Institute Inc. (FOLMI) welcome the decision of Launceston City Council to
transfer the former Launceston Mechanics' Institute collection to their
custodianship and future management.
FOLMI was formed as a response to the threat of dispersal
and possible disposal of a major portion of the LMI Collection. The
organisation brings together individuals with the enthusiasm, interest and most
importantly the expertise to organise, research and maintain this highly significant
collection for the benefit of the Launceston community, local historians and
the wider circle of researchers into Australian cultural history.
The aim of FOLMI is to ensure the LMI continues to be
acknowledged as an important cultural institution in the history of Launceston;
to preserve what remains of its holdings for their local and national
significance; and to facilitate research into the collection in all its
aspects.
This is a remarkable and important collection, not only for
the heritage of Launceston, but in a national context.
It is exceptionally rare to have such a large collection
surviving from the Mechanics' Institute era.
These organisations were the precursors of the modern public
library, of the technical and adult education movements, and in Launceston's
case of the QV Museum and Art Gallery.
By the 1890s there were over 2000 Mechanics Institutes and
Schools of Arts in Australia. Most Institute collections have been dispersed,
sold off, discarded, or destroyed by fire and flood many years ago. Of the
small number that have survived Launceston is the earliest and the largest –
comparable only with Adelaide and Ballarat but older and more complete.
Equally important is the fact that the Launceston Collection
has survived with its records largely intact – we still have the correspondence
files, catalogues, accession books and accounts of the institute.
This means we have a unique resource for researchers – with
an interest in library history, reading tastes, the history of ideas, nineteenth
century writing, bookselling and publishing, and the social history of the
city.
A long history of prudent management and wise decisions has
led to the survival of this collection;
- That the
Launceston Mechanics' Institute Committee took such care to build and maintain
its excellent library collection on behalf of the community between 1842 and
1929.
- That the
Launceston Public Library committee kept the collection in its safe keeping for
over 20 years, as did the Launceston City Council when it took over operation
of the Launceston Public Library.
- That the
Aldermen of the day had the foresight to retain ownership of the collection
when it was transferred to the Tasmanian Library Board's custodianship in 1971,
- And that
the Library has kept the collection in storage from that date until now.
In 2013 the FOLMI solution would seem to be the only way the
collection can be kept intact from this time forward, given that it does not
fit the collecting priorities of either QVMAG or LINC Tasmania. That is the
reason FOLMI was formed - to save the
collection from going the way of so many other similar collections.
Who are we?
FOLMI is an incorporated not-for-profit community group
which held its inaugural meeting on 18 October 2013.
Our Objects and Purposes
The aim of the Friends of the Launceston Mechanics’
Institute Inc. is to establish and maintain a working research Launceston
Mechanics’ Institute Collection by;
i) locating, selecting, organising, cataloguing and
preserving existing materials once the property of the Launceston Mechanics’
Institute between 1842 and 1929;
ii) liaising with local, state and national government
agencies and with relevant interest groups to promote the significance of the
LMI Collection;
iii) establishing a permanent home for the LMI Collection,
in particular those parts not integrated with local and state government
agencies;
iv) providing broad public access to the catalogue of the
LMI Collection and enabling direct access to researchers needing to use the
Collection;
Current Membership
Office-bearers President:
Peter Richardson
Secretary: Mike McCausland
Treasurer: Richard Pickup
Public Officer: Prue McCausland
Committee Peter
Richardson, Mike McCausland, Richard Pickup, Prue McCausland, Sue McClarron
(Vice-President), John Dent.
Members The
organisation currently has 34 members.
Our Project
The proposed transfer of Launceston Mechanics' Institute
books to FOLMI involves between 20,000 and 25,000 books and other publications,
of which 12,000 are non-fiction, 8,000 are fiction, and the remainder are
periodicals.
There are other surviving books in the Collection which are
still in use at Launceston LINC. It is proposed that these be retained in that
location until they are no longer required, and then transferred to FOLMI.
The books and periodicals transferred to FOLMI will
initially be held at the Newnham Campus of the University of Tasmania which has
made a suitable space available for storage, assessment and evaluation of the
collection.
FOLMI intends in the long term to establish the Collection
as a research base, and for this purpose external sources of funding will
eventually be required. It is envisaged that funds will be supplied through
private donations, joint ventures with partners, and through cultural sector
grants.
Peter Richardson
President, Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute
Inc.
