See more

What’s got us talking

The Bridge: a new Library podcast

This five-part series retraces the fascinating and tumultuous history of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. Listen now on iTunes, Google Podcasts or Soundcloud.

 

The Bridge: The Arch That Cut the Sky. A five-part series starring Australia's favourite icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Familiar faces

Read about the research our Young Creative Technologist Award winner is doing with facial recognition and the Library’s collection.

Ethnographic Video Online: Indigenous Voices

500 hours of documentaries, feature and short films by indigenous filmmakers and communities - Ethnographic Video Online: Indigenous Voices.

Collage of images from Ethnographic Video Online: Indigenous Voices

Statue of Governor Bourke

What's new with Australia's oldest public statue? Find out what we're doing to the Sir Richard Bourke statue, which stands outside the Mitchell Building.

Collection buzz

Growing community gardens

The Library recently acquired a collection of 60 digital photographs documenting the growing trend of community-run gardens across Sydney.

Camperdown community garden

A plan for the Espresso Rialto Coffee Lounge

The Library has acquired the architectural plan for one of Sydney's first Italian style coffee bars. 

Espresso Rialto Coffee Lounge

Capturing counter-culture

These recently digitised photographs by Roger Marchant from the 1970s and 80s are a time capsule of the early alternative lifestyle movement in Australia.

Rainbow Archives - Roger Marchant

Coins from the Sir William Dixson collection

A spotlight on Australia’s early sovereigns.

Sovereign, 1855, Sydney Mint, Sir William Dixson Collection

Historic ceremony at Mungo National Park

New oral history collection about the historic Mungo Man repatriation process.   

Mungo Man: Interview subjects Maureen Reyland, Mary Pappin and Dawn Smith

A celestial pocket globe to complete the pair

The Library has recently acquired a celestial pocket globe from c1791 by London globemakers John and William Cary. 

Cary's New Celestial Pocket Globe 1791

Recent acquisitions on printing and papermaking

The Library actively collects material relating to the publishing industry, including the history of printing, paper making, book binding, intaglio, lithography and other production techniques.

Coloured pattern containing red, blue and yellow shapes

How we remember

One hundred years after troops landed at Gallipoli, the Library commissioned five professional photographers to document what the people of New South Wales did on 25 April 2015.

Featured events

Author Talk: Shirleene Robinson & Noah Riseman

Saturday 22 September 2018 - 2pm to 3pm

Most people have heard of the United States’ infamous ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, yet few know about Australia’s own history of LGBT military service. In Serving in Silence? lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender servicemen and women share their personal stories for the first time.

 

Serving in Silence book cover

Reader in Residence: Caroline Baum

Saturday 6 October 2018 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

An informal and intimate chance to meet author and journalist Caroline Baum, the State Library’s Inaugural Reader in Residence,  and hear about her first six months in the role. This Author Talk is part of Open Day.

 

Author Talk: John Purcell

Saturday 6 October 2018 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm

He’s one of the country’s most top booksellers but John Purcell has also led a double life, surprising the publishing world when he was unmasked as the author of erotic fiction he’d written under a female pseudonym.

 

Girl on the Page Cover

Author Talk: Melissa Lucashenko

Saturday 6 October 2018 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Follwing the success of her debut novel Mullumbimby, award-winning Indigenous writer Melissa Lucashenko pulls no punches in A Bit of Lip, a fearless, gritty but darkly comic story of family, property and identity.

 

Too Much Lip book cover