John Oxley Library 75th Anniversary Celebration
5 April 2009
State Librarian, Ms Lea Giles-Peters,
Chairman of the Library Board of Queensland, Ms Jane Bertelsen,
Historian-in-Residence, John Oxley Library, Professor Anna Haebich,
Members of the Library Board and Queensland Library Foundation,
Other distinguished guests, lovers and supporters of our libraries and of this library in particular,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the spirit of reconciliation that we wish to promote throughout Queensland, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we have gathered for this celebration, the Jagera and Turrbal peoples and their descendants.
In offering this formal acknowledgement, I am very conscious of the significant effort that the John Oxley Library is making to preserve and keep alive the distinctive history and culture of our indigenous peoples - through its imaginative "Keeping Culture Strong" program, the Queensland Indigenous languages project and other similarly creative initiatives.
As we celebrate the Library's 75th birthday - and reflect today on the Library's own distinctive history and cultural journey since its conception in 1924 and the opening of its doors 10 years later, on 5th April, 1934 - imagination, initiative and creativity stand out as probably the strongest and most consistent features of its story. From its establishment, as it has grown over three quarters of a century, they are the elements which have defined its development and shaped it into the enduring institution it has become.
The proposal to establish a centre for research and study relating to Queensland and to call it after John Oxley was the first point of inspiration. As the good citizens of Brisbane in 1924 looked for an appropriate way to mark the centenary of the establishment of the settlement of Moreton Bay on the Brisbane river and to commemorate the role played by John Oxley in exploring and naming that grand river, the idea to do more than simply erect a statue in his honour and to create The Oxley Memorial Library was wonderfully appropriate.
Although Oxley is most usually described as a naval officer, surveyor and explorer - and most remembered for the three major expeditions he led in NSW and Queensland - he was also a man of culture and social conscience, keenly interested in the public and cultural life of the early colony of Brisbane and very active in developing its institutions: he was one of the first officers of the Bible Society when it was founded in 1817; he served on the Committees of the Female Orphan Institution, the Male Orphan institution and the Public School institution; he was a foundation member of the Philosophical Society; one of the five members of the original Legislative Council in 1824; and he was instrumental in the formation of a circulating library. How clever of those good citizens to bring all those strands of his civic activity and involvement with public institutions together and to decide to create a permanent memorial to his historic contribution to Queensland, by establishing a new institution, focused on the State, one which would live and grow as the State itself grew.
The second clever decision came ten years later, when the Oxley Memorial Library of Queensland Act of 1946 was passed, transferring the Memorial Library's assets to the Library Board of Queensland which undertook henceforth to manage the collection, by that time known as the John Oxley Library. I am no expert on the development of libraries, but I am aware of the challenges that institutions - particularly specialised cultural institutions - can face in sustaining their operations, having to compete for resources and to adapt to political, economic or bureaucratic change - so this move seems to me an astute one, preserving the special status and purpose of the John Oxley Library - namely, to document Queensland's history, culture and development, but to do so within the broader framework of the Public, later the State Library. This surely, shrewdly, both secured the collection and enhanced its scope for growth.
Augustine Birell, in his "Obiter Dicta-Book Buying", observed:
"Libraries are not made, they grow".
And the growth of the John Oxley Library has been little short of phenomenal, both physically and in imagination and ambition. From the 6,000 books purchased in 1924, the Library now holds more than 250,000 books and journals, one million photographs, a comprehensive collection of Queensland newspapers, over six thousand manuscripts, and a rich, remarkable volume of letters, diaries, maps and posters. In addition - as I happily discovered when I visited the Library last year, to gain a better and first-hand appreciation of its holdings - there are works of art relating to Queensland, a growing collection of home movies and oral histories, a unique music collection and some simply extraordinary ‘treasures', pieces of memorabilia and physical items, all of them highly evocative of our history and heritage. And the material keeps flooding in - with the State Library staff processing over 600 books, newspapers and magazines every day.
This growth, while greatly pleasing, of course presents a challenge - in fact, many challenges: of storage, of restoration and preservation, of classification, of how to ensure the long term safety and security of our Queensland heritage; and of how to make this wealth of material accessible to researchers, writers and to the public; of how to bring this stored history alive.
Returning to those qualities of initiative and imagination that I consider have been the hallmarks of the Library, successive generations of Queenslanders steering its development have more than matched the foresight and creativity of the Library's founders in dealing with current challenges and planning for the future, devising an impressive range of programs and systems to collect, present and safeguard the materials. In this, they have been assisted by the leaps in technology that have enabled digitalisation and online access. These technological advances have transformed our concept, our idea of libraries and have enabled a new and exciting connectivity with users, with the public. The State Library's website pages were visited over 13 million times last year from people around the world; published materials are accessible through the State Library's "One Search" program; and the "Manuscripts Queensland" and "Picture Queensland" programs both provide online access to some of the Library's pictorial and archival material.
I say ‘some' because the task is enormous - and very costly, in both human resource and financial terms. Which is why we need our benefactors, donors and corporate sponsors - and our Library Foundation, of which I am privileged to be Patron - to help us sustain this necessary effort; and why we need to work tirelessly - and with imagination and enthusiasm - to promote the Library and its role, so that Queenslanders appreciate fully what a wonderful resource it is and just how this institution conceived to store and document our Queensland history, has itself become a precious part of our heritage, to be cherished and protected as a vital community asset, a unique, irreplaceable "State Treasure".
In this year of Queensland's Sesqui-centenary celebrations, this promotional task is made significantly easier. Interest in our past, in the State's history, in the way that Queenslanders lived, developed the land and its physical and human resources, built their cities and institutions, worked and entertained themselves over the last - or perhaps I should say, the first - 150 years of our existence as a separate, self-confident entity is at an all-time high. From one end of our vast state to the other, communities are busy exploring and celebrating our history, organising scores of exhibitions, re-enactments, the restorations of buildings and places, performances and special commemorative publications.
And for all of these, the John Oxley library is a rich resource, a treasure trove of material to assist individuals and communities in their investigative efforts, their journeys of discovery. My understanding is that the volume of requests for advice and information has soared.
This is wonderful and we should capitalise on it, using the opportunity to raise awareness and appreciation of the Library, of the staff, the experts, the professionals who maintain its many activities to such a high, indeed world-class standard.
And of course, that is exactly what you are doing. Today's Open Day and birthday celebration is the perfect expression of this - filled with enticing educative activities to showcase the Library's work, to present highlights of its collections and to enable the public to go behind-the-scenes, to meet so many of the dedicated people whose skills and creativity keep this special place ticking: the specialist librarians, subject experts, researchers, conservators, curators, historians and collection managers. For those of us who haven't been able to spend all day here, the talk we are about to hear from Historian-in-Residence Professor Haebich will give us a glimpse of what visitors to the John Oxley Library have been able to enjoy today - and what is in store for the future.
Because although today, the 5th April, is THE birthday - the celebrations, like the celebration of our State's Sesqui-centenary, will continue through the year, with some great events and exhibitions yet to take place.
I find that, too, very pleasing - because as I said earlier, I believe this Library was not founded to be a static shrine to the past, but rather as an institution that would live and grow as the State itself grew. If this sense of its purpose was not explicitly voiced by its founders at its opening on 5th April, 1934, it has certainly been understood since and given clear expression by our current State Librarian - Lea Giles-Peters (who, incidentally, herself made history in 2001, as the first woman State Librarian to be appointed in the then 99 year history of the State Library of Queensland).
In the latest, autumn issue of the Memory magazine of the State Library, Lea writes: "a knowledge and understanding of our past provides the defining foundation of our identity and our culture. This knowledge, in turn, allows us to see where we are headed - to visualise and plan for our future and that of subsequent generations".
This contemporary vision gives me - should give us all - great confidence in the future of the John Oxley Library, held in the embrace of the State Library, linked to so many of our other great cultural and educational institutions, being woven into - and helping itself to weave and keep strong - the fabric of the life of our State, of our communities and of our people.
To everyone here today who contributes to and supports this exceptional institution, I thank you for your commitment and I wish you - and all associated with the John Oxley Library - a happy 75th birthday and a most enjoyable celebration.