Friends of Battye Library Inc.

The new Friends of Battye Library website is now online and well worth a visit.

See http://www.friendsofbattyelibrary.org.au

Police Gazettes 1876-1900 now online

With thanks to the Friends of Battye Library and the Sholl Bequest, the PoliceGazettes 1876-1900 have been digitised and are fully text searchable.  See     http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/find/western_australian/police_gazettes

at the State Library of WA’s website.

Australian History Quiz

Bored?  Want something to take your mind off that work you know you have to complete?  Why not while away a few minutes by taking the Australian History quiz http://www.australianhistory.org/history-quiz.php

The library that never closes (from The Guardian UK)

The ‘Open Library’ hopes to unite the net and the printed word by creating a web page for every book. The scheme is to create a single page on the web for every book that has ever been published; an enormous, searchable catalogue of information about millions of books. It is still in beta, but already more than 23 million books are in its system, drawing information from 19 major libraries and linking to the text of more than 1 million out-of-copyright titles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/01/internet-open-library

New online resource from Britain’s National Archives and website ancestry.com

Members may have noticed an article in the West Australian on Thursday 13 August 2009 at page 15 featuring West Australian Genealogical Society President, Liana Fitzpatrick, with news that thanks to Britain’s National Archives, historians can now search the England and Wales Criminal Registers 1791-1892. I am sure that WAGS would be happy to assist anybody who would like to know more about this service.

Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc. (WAGS)

6/48 May Street, Bayswater, Western Australia 6053

(P.O. Box 265, Bayswater, Western Australia 6933)

Phone: (08) 9271 4311 Fax: (08) 9379 1572

http://wags.org.au

Museums Australia news

Those history professionals who are interested in the efficiency dividend and its impact on collecting, maintaining and exhibiting Australian and international art and cultural artefacts might be interested in an article by Dr Kristin van Barneveld, ‘Australia’s Cultural Institutions and the Efficiency Dividend: Not a Pretty Picture’, published in The Journal of Law and Social Justice (2009), Vol 3, Art 5, pp.1-

28. See http://www.cpsu.org.au/multiversions/14266/FileName/publicspace.pdf

ALA’s list of banned books

The last week of September marks banned book week in the United States.  This year’s American Library Association list of books which were challenged, restricted, removed, or banned in the US in 2008 and 2009 includes “Twilight”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “The Kite Runner” and “The Golden Compass”.  And while classics such as “The Book of Bunny Suicides: Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don’t Want to Live Anymore” add a somewhat ridiculous note to the list, it will make you think about

freedom of speech, the press, censorship and the library’s role in the free flow of information. You can download it now at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads

- and see how many you’ve read!