Australia/New Zealand
Scope
This overview covers materials relating to Australia and New Zealand. Materials on Australia and New Zealand can be found throughout the Library, both in the general collections and among non-book format collections.
Size
The main computer catalog file for books and monographs contains approximately 37,000 records describing items from and about Australia and New Zealand, with additional holdings listed in the main card catalog. This rough count does not include works of fiction, which are usually not cataloged by subject. The computer catalog also contains approximately 7000 records describing serials from and about Australia and New Zealand, with additional titles listed in the main card catalog. There are approximately ninety shelves of current government documents from Australia and New Zealand in the stacks of the Serial and Government Publications Division, with strong holdings of bibliographies, technical journals, and parliamentary papers.
The Library has extensive backruns of government documents integrated into the general collections and searchable through the card and computer catalogs. The Geography and Map Division has approximately 300 drawers of maps and charts relating to Australia, New Zealand, and the surrounding waters, as well as a substantial collection of 19th-century exploration atlases, including atlases by Flinders and Freycinet. Large quantities of other non-book materials-- manuscripts, films, sound recordings, photographs, etc.--are uncataloged or partially cataloged and found in the appropriate custodial divisions.
General Research Strengths
The Library of Congress collects materials from and about Australasia at a level adequate to support the needs of Congress and scholarly research. There are strong collections in all areas and relating to all periods of Australasian history and culture, including extensive holdings of mid-to-late 19th-century works by early explorers in Australia (e.g. Grey, Eyre, Angas, Spencer, Gillen), and early government reports on aboriginal settlements and cattle stations Due to copyright deposits, the general books collection is especially strong in books by and about Australia and New Zealand published or distributed in the United States.
Major non-book collections include recent Australian theatrical feature films deposited with the library for copyright purposes; Australian films from the 1910s to the 1930s sent to the Library as part of a cooperative preservation agreement with the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra; recordings of aboriginal music from the Institute for Aboriginal Studies; symphonic music from Australian orchestras and composers; and Australian radio broadcasts from World War II.
Areas of Distinction
Library of Congress collects comprehensively in the fields of Australian and New Zealand law and Australian national bibliography. The Library also attempts to maintain a complete collection of Australasian statistical annuals. In addition, there are a number of unique non-book collections relating to Australia and New Zealand. Materials available in the Manuscript Division include the chronicle of the passenger ship Wellfleet (1858; 1 volume), the journals of Jared Leigh Elliott (1838-1842; 2 volumes), the logbook of the whaler Lewis (1849-1853; 1 volume), the George Chalmers collection (1640-1825; 1383 items in 8 microfilm reels), the Moreton Frewen papers (1871-1932; 40,000 items), the Nelson Trusler Johnson papers (1916-1950; 22,400 items), the World Power Conference records (1930; 300 items), and the James Clarke journal (1843-1845; 1 volume).
There is a collection of over 500 field recordings of Australian folksongs and aboriginal music in the collections of the American Folklife Center as well as old recordings transcribed by the anthropologists Waterman and Elkin, and a 1910 wax cylinder recording of aboriginal music from the Beagle Bay Mission. The Prints and Photographs Reading Room has in its collections over 700 images with an emphasis on World War II-era military photos, and over 2300 black and white photographs in the U.S. News and World Report Collection.
Weaknesses/Exclusions
There are occasional gaps in holdings of serials, monographic series, and working papers from Australia and New Zealand. In the past, exchange agreements with government agencies and state libraries have ensured that the Library received complete sets of Australasian government documents. With the recent cancellation of some of these agreements and a trend toward privatization of government document printing in these areas, maintaining the quality of the Library's collection of Australasian government documents will become more difficult.
