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What’s got us talking

Free holiday fun!

Join our workshops and develop the skills to spend your holidays being creative.

Children's authors Libby and Lisa Hathorn

Information in your language

Find multilingual books, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries, websites, and more.

Woman on phone

Help transcribe Miles Franklin's final words

Take up the challenge and help transcribe the diaries of Miles Franklin: one of Australia's greatest writers.

Miles Franklin diaries photographed by Sophie Blackall

Your Library at home

Find a new book to read, a binge-worthy podcast, inspiring stories, or a fun activity to do at home.

Hand holding up book titled 'Fun at Home' with book shelves in the background

Collection buzz

Marcia AM Clark – Sydney socialite and photographer

With an ardent passion for photography and a love of fast sports cars, the Sydney socialite Marcia AM Clark, born in 1913, was heir to a family fortune.

Marcia Clark in her Riley Imp, Point Piper Sydney, 1936, photographer unknown, vintage gelatin silver print

June Marsden: celebrity astrologer and ufologist

While June has long since slipped from public memory, astrology and psychic pursuits hold an interesting place in Australian media history.

June Marsden, famous astrologer of Sydney, Australia

What's old is new again

The Library has recently acquired a highly detailed world map, published in London in 1798. 

Evocative scenes of everyday life

The Library has recently acquired a unique oil painting by Australian artist Herbert Badham.

'The Town Band' by Herbert Badham

Limited edition photographic artists’ books

Three artists’ books — Signs & wonders by Stephen Dupont and Jacques Menasche, Farewell Angelina by Anna D’Addario and Duende by Peter Lyssiotis — were recently added to the Library’s collection.

An open book.

Featured events

Curator's Choice: Holding up Her Majesty’s Mail

Curator Talks
Friday
Friday 25 September 2020 - 1pm to 1:30pm
Free
Talk

The discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851 brought hopeful crowds rushing to the goldfields to seek their fortune.

Online

Friends Event: Evocative scenes of everyday life

Friends events
Tuesday
Tuesday 29 September 2020 - 12pm to 12:45pm
Free
Talk

Join Louise Anemaat as she introduces us to a recent Library acquisition, The Town Band, 1951 by Australian artist, Herbert Badham. 

Online
Friends

World Press Photo

Tuesday
Tuesday 29 September 2020 - 7pm to 7:30pm
Free
Talk

The Library is currently exhibiting the prestigious World Press Photo contest 2019 and as we contemplate the power of photojournalism, we have invited Sydney Morning Herald photographer, Rhett Wyman and Herald and Age journalist Ella Archibald-Binge to discuss their latest joint venture, the Dalarinji Project, supported by the Judith Nielson Institute. 

Online

Scholar Talk: Reimagining the Pacific, 1870 to 1970

Scholar Talks
Tuesday
Tuesday 6 October 2020 - 11am to 12pm
Free
Talk

This talk takes inspiration from Australian art historian Bernard Smith’s Imagining the Pacific published in 1992 as well as his authoritative earlier work, European Vision and the South Pacific published in 1960. Smith saw the Pacific as an ideological construction of the European imagination during the intense period of exploration in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  

Online