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The 'great emporium' Goes Pop!
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From State Library of Victoria News No. 20, June 2002 - September 2002
Since its earliest days, high culture has had a significant place in the State Library's collections. Sir Redmond Barry, one of the Library's founders, envisaged an insitution capable of uplifting and improving the minds of Victoria's population, and when it opened in 1956, the Library stocked 'a representative and worthy collection' of 3846 volumes in which art, history and the classics figured prominently. It's doubtful, however, that Sir Redmond, with his aversion to the 'frivolous and ephemeral', would have imagined a time when postcards, comics, popular music, how-to-vote cards, magazines, playbills, pulp fiction and posters appeared in the catalogue of his 'great emporium'. |
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In the past, librarians and bibliographers have maintained a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards popular culture. While the merit of collecting classical music or literature has rarely been questioned, there has been a tendency to regard popular culture as too lowbrow to warrant serious attention. The strength of the State Library's popular culture collections, however, lies in the fact that literary and cultural merit haven't been used as criteria for inclusion. Far from being 'worthy', these collections reflect popular tastes, past and present, and provide a snapshot of the diverse hobbies, habits, pastimes and preoccupations of 'ordinary' Australians. Importantly, they cater for the broadest possible range of library users - from Vogue readers hoping to discover whether white is the new black, to researchers interested in documenting the changing history, society and culture of Victoria. |
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A wealth of popular culture material exists in collections across the State Library.
- The Australiana Collection includes political leaflets and posters, theatre programmes, tourist leaflets, popular magazines such as Women's Weekly, popular fiction, samples of advertising material and samples of newsstand stock.
- The Arts Collection houses Australian art exhibition ephemera, comics, popular films, fanzines, popular magazines, popular music, including records and CDs, as well as the Alma collection of magic miscellanea.
- The Pictures Collection includes photographs, nightclub ephemera, posters, greeting cards, postcards, commercial wrappings, book plates, book labels, badges, menus and food and drink labels.
- The Rare Books Collection includes popular fiction (the J.K. Moir Collection), popular children's reading (the Pound Collection) and 'pulp' crime fiction of the 1950s and 60s.
- The Australian Manuscripts Collection includes radio and television scripts and theatre records, as well as papers of community and special interest groups such as the Friends of the ABC.
Whether you're an enthusiast or a serious researcher, you'll find something to interest you.
Illustrations
Examples of popular culture items in the Library's collections. |
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