THE MOVE TO CANBERRA

Southland Times, Issue 20014, 30 October 1926, Page 7

THE MOVE TO CANBERRA

SOME HUGE TASKS. SHIFTING A LIBRARY OF 80,000 BOOKS. Some huge tasks await those officials rn charge of the operations of moving the Federal Departments and all their paraphernalia from the temporary quartere in Melbourne, where they have been for over a quarter of a century, to their new and permanent home at Canberra, the new Federal capital. Not the least arduous of these is the moving of the great Commonwealth library, containing 80,000 books, housed at the Federal Parliament House, and including priceless historical documents, to its new home at Canberra. The work entails a tremendous amount of work on the part of the library staff. It is considered the largest operation of its kind ever known in the world. The books are being packed at the rate of 80 cases a week. This will be maintained for thp next three months, when a breathing-space will be given to the staff. After this, it is hoped to speed up the work so that within 15 weeks the whole collection will have been transferred. Standing on their shelves, the books would stretch over a mile and a half. It is no light task to move a mile and a half of literature. Special care has to be taken m packing valuable books. Many of the books have become disarranged, and are out of classified order, owing tq the scattered nature of their home in the Parliament House at Melbourne, and part of the work of packing includes re-classification. The New South Wales railways have devised a special scheme of insurance applicable to the major portion of the collection, during transit, though some of the books money would not buy. The most valuable thing in the library is at present housed in the Mitehell Library, Sydney, until its proper home at Canberra is ready to receive it. This is Captain Cook’s fogbook. Another wonderful asset is the diary of Wills, one of the leaders of the ill-fated Bourke and Wills exploration expedition. The diary was found on WWs body. Other Australian documents make the collection now in process of removal second only to the Mitchell Library’s magnificent collection in importance from a historical aspect. Naturally, there will be much anxiety on the part of the Ehrary staff untfl isu«ain settled at Cntea.