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Newsflash:

Opening hours will change over the Easter and Anzac Day period. We're open every day except Good Friday, 19 April. Normal hours and services will resume on Friday 26 April. Find our Easter opening hours here ›

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What’s got us talking

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Tell us what terms make sense to you when searching our collection.

Looking for something else to read?

Enhanced catalogue records with Syndetics Unbound.

Rows of book covers

Digitising the Book of Hours

Have you ever wanted to learn about the process behind how we capture all the vivid colours of our Book of Hours collection?

A colourful book in the process of being digitised.

HSC Help!

Get free, hands-on HSC help from our experienced librarians! 

Collection buzz

Across the curator’s desk: House construction notebook, 1913

Anna Corkhill, curator in the Library's Research and Discovery team, shares a house construction notebook from 1913.

Sketch for the design of a cottage

The Treaty of Waitangi 1840

On 6 February some 45 chiefs signed a ‘Treaty of Cession’, now known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

Elaborate running writing covers this aged document. Marks of broken dark red wax seals mark the bottom and left side edges of the document.

Across the curator's desk: Peter Hall's 1968 travel sketchbook

Anna Corkhill, curator in the Library's Research and Discovery team, shares a sketchbook from a crucial stage in the development of the Sydney Opera House. 

Sketchbook with pencil drawing of Sydney Opera House

Book of Hours

View our newly digitised Book of Hours, featuring 14 large miniatures, framed by pink marble columns or brown bands, and enter the world of an illuminated manuscript.

Places of Industry - works by Jeff Rigby

The Library has recently acquired a series of 25 works by Blue Mountains-based artist Jeff Rigby.

Delprats Mine

Sydney Female Refuge Society papers, 1863–1911

The Library has just completed digitising minute books of the Sydney Female Refuge Society which provide a remarkable insight into prostitution in nineteenth-century Sydney.

Covers of Sydney Female Refuge Annual Reports

Featured events

Workshop

Kids at the Library
Thursday
Thursday 18 April 2019 - 1pm to 3pm
Workshop

Design and decorate a miniature cardboard house interior with all the trimmings.

The Ledger Awards

Awards
Friday
Friday 26 April 2019 - 7pm to 9:30pm
Special event

The Ledger Awards are Australia’s only comics-specific awards, created to celebrate, acknowledge and promote excellence in Australian comic books, graphic novels, web comics and comix.

State Library of NSW Fellowships: An Information Evening

Monday
Monday 20 May 2019 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Special event

Join former and current Fellows Dr Mark Dunn (Currey, 2016), Dr Ian Hoskins (Currey, 2019), Dr Elizabeth Humphrys (Hertzberg, 2019) and Dr Alecia Simmonds (Merewether, 2012) in conversation with Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian. Hear about the application process and research outcomes, with an opportunity to ask questions about the Fellowships Program at the State Library of NSW.

Promotional image for Fellowships

Family Sunday

Kids at the Library
Sunday
Sunday 26 May 2019 - 10:30am to 3pm
Workshop

Join us for a full day of family fun at the State Library for the second Family Sunday on 26 May!

preschool children running down a wood lined tunnel