Meet State Library Victoria’s inaugural patron
The Governor of Victoria, Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, recently accepted the role of State Library Victoria’s inaugural Patron, in recognition of the Library’s significance in Victoria as a vibrant hub for connection, creativity, and collaboration.
In celebration of this patronage, we asked the Governor about her favourite books, her views on the significance of libraries and her hopes for the future for State Library Victoria.
What is your favourite book and why?
‘There are many books I’ve read that would have been my favourite at the time, but in the context of Victoria I think it would be The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson – or as she really was – Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson.
It’s actually a trilogy, not a single book, capturing the migrant experience in the context of the gold rush in Victoria and its impact. She draws imaginatively on the tragic experience of her father and her family settling in country Victoria and then metropolitan Melbourne.
I would choose it because it’s a great trilogy in terms of its quality and also the fantastic darkness of the narrative. It’s also a really interesting reflection on late 19th century Australia.
Richardson was in her forties when she wrote the novel, while living overseas. It’s inspired by her understanding of her father’s experience – a father who died when she was nine. It is one of the great Australian novels. She is one of the early great Australian novelists – and while she wrote other novels, this trilogy is the pinnacle. I think her work is important in the context of the State Library’s Women Writers Fund. Ethel Richardson would be one of the great early exemplars.’
What role do you see libraries, particularly State library Victoria, playing in the lives of Victorians today?
‘When the State Library began, it was an amazing project because it was a time when Melbourne was new and small in its population, and access to education was very limited. The Library, established with a significant collection in what was still a small town, offered remarkable access to the great literature and great knowledge of the world. It performed a really important educative and cultural function.
It’s still one of the great State Libraries. Now it has an even more extensive collection, and as a deposit library, it has all the material published in Victoria, making it important as a record of the culture and knowledge of Victoria. Because of its rare book collection, and the depth of the collection, it’s providing access that would otherwise not be easily available.
By digitising the collection, the Library is making it even more accessible. The State Library is still there, providing opportunities for people to experience that rich knowledge base even though our education system is now extensive. Nevertheless, the depth, variety and diversity of the Library collection is in itself very important to the culture of Victoria.’
What are you hopes for the future of State Library Victoria as it continues to evolve and engage with new generations of Victorians?
‘What is really important is first its ability to conserve at high quality and display materials. Second, it does so physically and digitally. The Library is now able to give people access to a much broader range of materials. Once upon a time, access to a very rare book was the province of a very small number of very rich people. That’s no longer the case. Not only is the Library acquiring works that might otherwise be lost, but they are also acquiring them and speaking to the culture here in Victoria.
Digitisation tends to flatten out culture – that is, you get access to what’s available because it has been digitised. For example, music is dominated by music from other places and it dominates what you listen to here, as opposed to what’s created here. Because the State Library is collecting aspects of Victoria, it’s digitising material, particularly literature and documents, that is important to our culture, and it’s making it available to people across Victoria and across the world.’