Mitchell

The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public.

The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public. It is the oldest library in Australia, being the first established in the colony of New South Wales (now a state of Australia) in 1826. The library is located on the corner of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place, in the Sydney central business district adjacent to the Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The library is a member of the National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) consortium.

The State Library of New South Wales building was designed by Walter Liberty Vernon, assisted by H. C. L. Anderson and was built from 1905 to 1910, with further additions by Howie Bros in 1939; by FWC Powell & Sons in 1959; and by Mellocco Bros in 1964. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

The first library collections were part of the Australian Subscription Library which was started by a group of wealthy Sydney citizens in 1826. It was then purchased for £5,100 by the New South Wales Government in 1869 and became the Sydney Free Public Library. In 1895 it was renamed the Public Library of New South Wales until its most recent name change in 1975, when it became the State Library of New South Wales.

The Australian Subscription Library was established in 1826 at a meeting at the Sydney Hotel chaired by barrister John Mackaness. Library membership was subject to committee approval. Dr James Mitchell, father of David Scott Mitchell (who would later bequeath his collection to the library), was a committee member from 1832 to 1853 and Vice President from 1856 to 1869.In December 1827 operations began in rented premises in Pitt Street and in the two years following, the library led a peripatetic existence having been located a few years in George Street, Bridge Street, Macquarie Street and Macquarie Place. The library had financial problems and required more space to house its growing collections but negotiations in 1838 to construct a new library building broke down over member unwillingness to broaden access to the library. Fortunately for the members later negotiations with the government were more successful and construction of a new library building began in 1843. The foundation stone for this new building, on the corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets, was laid by Alexander Macleay and the library was opened in 1845.Financial difficulties continued, and by 1869 the subscription library was in serious debt. The New South Wales Government was persuaded to buy it for £5,100 (£1,500 for the books and £3,600 for the building). In September 1869, the Sydney Free Public Library opened its doors with a stock of 20,000 volumes. Over 60,000 people visited the library in its first year of operation as the Free Public Library. Robert Cooper Walker was appointed Principal Librarian. He, in collaboration with the Trustees (led by Charles Badham), worked to expand the educational role of the library both through collection expansion and the production of printed catalogues of the library's collection.The library expanded its operations, opening a lending branch in 1877. This lending branch was handed to the Sydney Municipal Council in 1909 and later became the City of Sydney Library. Another of Walker's initiatives was to establish services across the state, with loans to organisations including the Wollongong School of Arts and the Mechanics' Institute at Plattsburg (modern-day Wallsend) and services for regional libraries from 1883. The library's collection continued to grow, causing continual storage and overcrowding problems; new additions included a First Folio in 1885 and the papers of William Bligh in 1902.

Australiana was a collecting focus for the library and David Scott Mitchell's collecting activities came to the attention of Henry Charles Lennox Anderson, Principal Librarian from 1893–1906. Anderson's stated aim of making the library a "National, and not a Municipal, Library" led him to collect Australiana material. However, Mitchell's efforts to collect as many books and manuscripts relating to Australia, the Pacific, the East Indies and Antarctica, particularly from 1886 onwards, created competition for these materials. Anderson realised that the library did not have the budget or contacts to compete with Mitchell (from the 1880s onward, George Robertson gave Mitchell first right of refusal on Australiana material purchased by Angus & Robertson), and attempted to build a working relationship with Mitchell. In 1898, Mitchell announced his intention to leave his collection to the people of New South Wales, subject to conditions including that the collection would be known as the "Mitchell Library". Although his offer was quickly accepted, construction of a new building to house the collection was delayed for several years.Construction commenced in 1906, one year before Mitchell's death. Following Anderson's resignation in 1907, Frank Murcott Bladen (former head of the library's lending branch) was appointed Principal Librarian. In 1909, Hugh Wright was appointed to the newly created position of Mitchell Librarian; the creation of this role was another condition of Mitchell's bequest. Nita Kibble was another early member of the library staff. The Mitchell Library officially opened on 8 March 1910; Mungo MacCallum, then President of the Library Board of Trustees, spoke at the opening. The public library remained in the Bent Street building.

Mitchell had not kept a catalogue of his collection, and as a result, cataloguing was an early priority for librarians in the Mitchell Library. A research department was established as part of the public library in the 1920s under the direction of Nita Kibble, while Ida Leeson as Head of Acquisitions researched gaps in the library's collections. Kibble's research department was later used as a model by other State Libraries when establishing similar services. Mitchell's bequest also included funding for collection acquisition; expanding the library's collection (particularly in the area of Australiana and Pacific material) was a priority for both Wright and William Ifould, who was appointed Principal Librarian in 1912. Ifould envisioned the library as a repository of material relating to the history of Australia, not just New South Wales, and led efforts to collect material. The library acquired the papers of Lachlan Macquarie and his family in 1914, Matthew Flinders in 1922, and Abel Tasman's journal in 1926, and after World War I collected journals of soldiers from that conflict. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Library (now the National Library of Australia), established in 1901, was also collecting Australiana material. This led to conflict over the acquisition of the papers of James Cook, which were offered at auction in London in 1923. The Trustees chose not to bid for the papers as doing so would have limited the library's Australiana acquisitions budget for several years and Ifould, already in London with hopes of purchasing the papers for the Mitchell Library, was directed instead to purchase them on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library and the Public Library of New South Wales using funds provided by the Federal Government.Sir William Dixson offered in 1919 to leave his collection of pictures, manuscripts and other materials relating to Australiana and the Pacific (particularly early European exploration) to the library; his offer was accepted in 1924. After a series of delays construction began on a new wing to house the collection, which was opened on 21 October 1929. Dixson was the guest of honour at the opening of an exhibition to mark the centenary of Mitchell's birth in 1936, and also paid for the bronze doors added to the Mitchell building in 1942, when extensions were added. His entire collection passed to the library after his death in 1952.

Wright retired in 1932 and Ida Leeson was appointed Mitchell Librarian. In the 1930s, many women in the workforce suffered discrimination on the basis of gender, and her appointment caused controversy due to the seniority of the position as the deputy for the Principal Librarian at the time. The Library Trustees appointed a committee to consider the applicants and make an appointment. Despite the committee's support of Leeson (and general support of the Trustees for appointing the most suitable candidate regardless of gender), the Minister for Public Instruction was unwilling to approve the appointment due to the assumption that the Mitchell Librarian would deputise for the Principal Librarian and an unwillingness to see a woman in that role. A new position of Deputy Principal Librarian was created and filled by John Wallace Metcalfe, a librarian who had worked in the public library for nine years. This role would sit above the Mitchell Librarian role in the organisation's hierarchy. The decision to create it was criticised by the National Council of Women.In 1934, Ralph Munn and E. R. Pitt led an inquiry into Australian libraries. Their report contrasted the regional library network in Australia with that in the United States of America and England, and recommended that further efforts be made to establish and support regional libraries. Their recommendations included the establishment of free public libraries in every local council area; this was enshrined in the Library Act 1939, which Ifould and Metcalfe helped to draft. Metcalfe also founded the Australian Institute of Librarians (now the Australian Library and Information Association) in 1937, the first professional body representing librarians, and was heavily involved in the Free Library Movement in 1935.New indexes were created and cataloguing efforts continued to make the library's collections more accessible, while some books were placed on open access. The collection continued to grow. The Macarthur family papers were acquired in 1940, and in 1954 much of Miles Franklin's personal and literary papers came to the library after her death. The remaining papers from her collection were sold at auction to a private collector, and acquired 30 years later by the library. In collaboration with the State Library of Victoria and the National Library of Australia, a bibliography of sources relating to Asia and the Pacific was compiled in response to public interest sparked by World War II.John Metcalfe was appointed Principal Librarian in 1942 following Ifould's retirement. Four years later Ida Leeson also retired, and Phyllis Mander-Jones was appointed as her successor, after a short time as Deputy Mitchell Librarian. During her tenure she prepared a report comparing archival practice in Australia with other countries, and arranged the acquisition of additional papers of the Macarthur family and the New South Wales Supreme Court's early records.Metcalfe was an advocate for free public libraries and supported their establishment throughout his career. After Mander-Jones took leave in 1956, Jean Arnot was appointed Acting Mitchell Librarian. Three years later, after Metcalfe's retirement, Gordon Richardson was appointed as Principal Librarian. A series of position changes saw the Deputy Principal Librarian and Mitchell Librarians absorbed into the Principal Librarian position filled by Richardson. This situation remained until Richardson's retirement in 1973; his successor, Russell Doust, re-established the Mitchell Librarian role as a separate one and appointed Suzanne Mourot.Dorothea Mackellar's papers were acquired in 1970, and Jørn Utzon's Sydney Opera House archive in 1972. The collection expanded in a new area with an oral history project, run in 1976, interviewing past staff members. By 1978, all government archives had been moved to the State Records Authority of New South Wales (then called the Archives Authority of New South Wales), which had been established in 1960 and was housed at the library until 1978.

Computer cataloguing of the library's collections began in the 1980s. The upcoming Australian Bicentenary prompted increasing public discussion about Australian society and history, and an increasing consciousness of women's history, multiculturalism in Australian society, and Indigenous Australian societies and histories. The library responded to public discussion by increasing research into Indigenous material held at the library, creating and filling identified Indigenous Services Librarians positions in 1991, and establishing an Indigenous Unit in 2013. The Rainbow Archives project was established in the 1980s, and migrants were interviewed to record oral histories for the collection.Russell Doust retired in 1987 and was succeeded by Alison Crook, who commenced in the role months before the opening of the new Macquarie Street Wing. 1988 also saw a major exhibition on the arrival of the First Fleet and the interactions of the European arrivals with the Indigenous people of the area, the Eora peoples.In 1998 the library acquired two large collections. The papers of George Bass were purchased for what was then the highest price paid at auction for manuscripts related to Australian topics. The estate of Jean Garling, author and dancer, passed to the library on her death. The library collections continue to expand, with recent acquisitions including 201 personal letters of surveyor John Septimus Roe (1797–1878) and the Edward Close sketchbook (1817–1818). In 2013 the library acquired two memorials written by Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós to King Philip appealing for funding for an expedition to the fabled Terra Australis. The library holds a copy of all thirteen known surviving memorials.In early 2014 controversy erupted over proposed changes to the Mitchell Library. A petition of over 200 well-known writers and academics was soon joined by over 9,000 other library users including historians, architects, archaeologists, academics and family historians. In reply the State Librarian, Dr Alex Byrne, issued an open letter, and other writers debated the role of libraries in the digital age. In response the Library announced a restoration programme which effectively reversed the proposed changes.

On 22 March 2020 the Library buildings were closed to the public to help protect the health of visitors and staff and to minimise the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in New South Wales. It continued providing access to its online services during the shutdown period and reopened under NSW Health guidelines on 13 July 2020. After the easing of NSW COVID-19 restrictions the Library reverted to its normal opening hours on 8 March 2021. Due to a second outbreak of COVID-19 in the Sydney CBD on 25 June 2021 the Library followed advice from NSW Health and stopped public access to the building.