Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation
Previous Presentations:
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |Presentations: 2007
- Tuesday 27 March 2007
|
From Palm Leaves to SmartCards: a tour of Indian University Libraries
Jennifer Peasley, Deputy University Librarian, Macquarie University Library
In February 2007, Jennifer Peasley, Deputy University Librarian, travelled to India with a group of senior Australian university librarians to visit selected Indian universities and their libraries. The objective was to participate in an interchange of knowledge between Indian university librarians and their Australian counterparts.
The aims of the tour were to provide an awareness of the diversity of Indian higher education and the implications for students studying in Australia, and to gain an understanding of the research activities undertaken at these universities and the potential for linkages in Australia.The group discovered that, very much like the country itself, Indian university libraries were a study in contrasts – from very traditional, print-based services with limited access to collections, through to smart cards, electronic resources and the Digital Library of India. The challenges for Indian university libraries in providing access to information for large numbers of students with budget constraints and limited internet coverage are great, but the resourcefulness of the people, and their commitment, both individually and through centralised initiatives, to overcoming hurdles and continually improving the library services to their students, made a strong impression.
Jennifer Peasley will present her impressions of Indian universities in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Mysore, and Bangalore, as well as her assessment of the educational contexts and challenges facing their libraries.
Re-Writing the Archive
Robin Walsh, Macquarie University Library
On January 31, 2007 a significant milestone was reached in the development of Macquarie University Library's digital project: The Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive (LEMA).
www.library.mq.edu.au/digital/lema/
Since 2001 the Library has been creating this digital research gateway to the writings of the Macquaries, as well as documenting people, places, personal objects and commemorative associations with their lives and times. Now, after six years of preparation and negotiation full-text transcripts of all of Lachlan Macquarie's journals have been completed and are now being made available through the Library's website. These transcripts include Lachlan Macquarie's journals in India and Sri Lanka (1787-1802 and 1805-1807); Britain (1803-1805) and (1824); and Australia (1809-1822); as well as Elizabeth Macquarie's 1809 journal describing her voyage from England to Australia. Most of these writings have never been publicly available before, in either print or digital format. The date January 31, 2007 was selected as the most appropriate date for marking this stage in the development of the LEMA Project as it coincided with the 246th anniversary of Lachlan Macquarie's birth.
LEMA is a joint initiative of Macquarie University Library with key Australian and UK institutions with holdings of original Macquarie manuscripts and memorabilia. LEMA partners currently include: State Library of NSW; State Records, NSW; National Library of Scotland; and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.
Robin Walsh will discuss briefly the LEMA Project and the recent addition and contribution of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (HHT) to the list of LEMA partner institutions.
- Tuesday 15 May 2007
|
Rare and Curious: the Macquarie and Dixson Collector's Chests.
Elizabeth Ellis, Mitchell Librarian, State Library of New South Wales
In late 2004, a remarkable survivor from the early days of European colonisation of Australia was acquired by the Mitchell Library. This extraordinary item, which retains most of its original contents, was thus able to be reunited for the first time in almost 200 years with its twin, the Dixson Galleries collector's chest (now far less complete) which has been in the State Library of NSW since 1937.
The full story of why the two chests were made remains elusive. Like many beautiful objects, this mystery is part of their charm. Even their description as 'collectors' chests' is somewhat misleading, as they were not made to house scientific specimens in any strict hierarchical arrangements. Rather, they were created as cabinets of curiosities to display painted views and examples of preserved birds, insects, butterflies and shells for pleasure and delight to celebrate a particular place and time.
The story of the chests also encompasses personal ambition, friendship and patronage. Professional careers — like that of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, dependent on influential support on the other side of the world, or on others who were too close for comfort — are also intertwined in the story. Other protagonists were military officers and civil servants, and the convicts who found themselves transported to places beyond their wildest imaginings and who, despite their often brutal personal histories, created in the collectors' chests two unique objects of beauty, celebration and hope.
The question of the provenance of the Macquarie chest provides a fascinating epilogue. Its history is linked to Governor Macquarie's last sad years, his spoilt, dissolute only son's death at the age of 31, and its long residence virtually ignored in a Scottish castle until the late 1980s when it emerged onto the auction market in Australia.
Elizabeth Ellis is the Mitchell Librarian & Assistant State Librarian, Collection Management Services at the State Library of New South Wales. She has worked at the Library since 1985 and was appointed to her present position in late 2001.
Her previous positions at the State Library include Manager, Original Materials and Curator of Pictures. Elizabeth began her career at the National Library of Australia, Canberra where she held the position of Curator of Maps. Between 1978 and 1984 she worked as a commercial researcher in the field of Australiana and antiquarian books.
Elizabeth is a well known interpreter of the State Library's historical collections through exhibitions, lectures and publications and has written and lectured extensively over the past two decades.
Further details on the Macquarie collector's chest are available at the Mitchell Library website: www.atmitchell.com/journeys/history/macquarie/macq_chest.cfm
By the Banks of the Neva: Lachlan Macquarie in Russia in 1807.
Robin Walsh, Librarian, Macquarie University Library.
In September 1807 Lachlan Macquarie reached St. Petersburg in Russia after a difficult and arduous overland journey from Bombay via the Persian Gulf. He was travelling to London, accompanied by four travelling companions and his Indian-born manservant, 'George'. After meeting with Ottoman officials in Baghdad and representatives of the Shah of Persia in Qasvin, Iran, Macquarie sailed across the Caspian Sea to Astrakan, near the mouth of the Volga River. By boat and carriage he travelled to Moscow and eventually reached St. Petersburg on the Neva River on 1 September 1807. Here, at the heart of the Russian Empire, Macquarie discovered a metropolis without parallel in all his travels in Asia, Africa, North America, and Britain. For one week he explored the city of St Petersburg and its environs Ð before eventually sailing down the Baltic and on to London via Copenhagen, after a journey of six (6) months and two days, and 6400 miles by sea and land.
Robin Walsh will discuss some of Macquarie's experiences in Russia. This presentation will complement the public exhibition curated by him and on display in Macquarie University Library between 26 Sept - 5 November 2007 entitled: Imperial Eyes 1807: Lachlan Macquarie's travels in the Ottoman, Persian, & Russian Empires.
Presentations: 2006
- Tuesday 21 March 2006
Coins for Kings: the family of Alexander the Great and their coin images.
Dr. Kenneth Sheedy. Director, Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies, Macquarie University .
The Macedonian royal family, the Argead dynasty, expanded their kingdom from a small backwater in the Balkans to a Mediterranean Empire within two centuries. This lecture looks at the rise of Macedonian power from Alexander I (498-451 BC) to Alexander III (336-323 BC) and his invalid brother, Philip III, the last member of this dynasty. It employs coin portraits as the illustrations of a rather radical "family album". The coins also highlight the collection of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies here at Macquarie University.
Kenneth Sheedy is the Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies at Macquarie University. He was a Deputy Director of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens before becoming a curator in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. His main area of research is the archaeology and numismatics of the Cycladic Islands, and his book on the archaic and early classical mints of the Cyclades will be published by the Royal Numismatic Society in 2006.
- Tuesday 13 June 2006
The Tomb of the Dancers and Musicians: Recovering a Theban Tomb of the 18th Dynasty
Dr. Boyo Ockinga. Senior Lecturer, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University.
Dr. Boyo Ockinga will discuss his recent archaeological work in Upper Egypt. Undertaken as part of the Macquarie University Theban Tombs Project at Dra Abu El-Naga in Thebes.
The tomb dates to the reign of Amenhotep III and its paintings were obscured by tar and soot and now it has been possible to clean them and bring back to light the brilliant paintings with which they were originally decorated, including an exquisite banquet scene with dancers and musicians.
Dr. Ockinga undertook his Egyptological training at the University of Tubingen, Germany and joined Macquarie in 1984. Since coming to Macquarie he has undertaken fieldwork in Egypt each year. His first projects were in the Sohag region, where he excavated, recorded and published three tombs of the New Kingdom (Anhurmose and Imiseba at Nag El-Mashayikh; and Sennedjem at Awlad Azzaz). Since 1991 he has been working in the New Kingdom necropolis at Dra Abu El-Naga, Thebes, where he has excavated and recorded the tombs of Amenemope and Saroy, as well as the tomb that will be the subject of his talk. He also worked at Saqqara and has published the tomb of the Chief Royal Goldsmith, Amenemone, who was a contemporary of Tutankhamun and would have been responsible for the production of some, at least, of the golden treasures found in the king's tomb.
- Wednesday 4 October 2006
What's in a Name?
The City of Constantine Project
Dr. Ken Parry. Senior Research Fellow, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University.
Byzantium – Constantinople – Istanbul — are all names which have been given to a city on the Western shores of the Bosphoros in present day Turkey. The area has been settled continually for more than two and a half thousand years. In the ancient world the city was known as Byzantium, while in 330 the Roman emperor Constantine the Great renamed it Constantinople. From 330 to 1453 Constantinople was the metropolis of the Greek Christian Byzantine Empire, and then from 1453 to the end of WWI it was the capital of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, known as Istanbul. It is a city with a long and fascinating history, and the current research project based in the Department of Ancient History will research and publish sources on the city, as well as introducing a new postgraduate course.
Unlike Rome, where the material culture of Christianity has continued through to the present, Constantinople lost its continuity with its Christian past with the capture of the city by the Ottomans in 1453. Today the modern metropolis of Istanbul is a predominantly Islamic city which shows few outward signs of its Byzantine past and which means that most of its Byzantine monuments are still only known to specialists. The rediscovery of Byzantine culture and civilization in the twentieth century, and the growth of Byzantine Studies since WWII, have reinvigorated interest in the city of Constantinople, an interest that is at once spiritual and archaeological.
As a specialist in Byzantine history, Dr. Parry will concentrate his talk on the Byzantine monuments to be seen in and around Istanbul today. His talk will be followed by a tour of the exhibition he has curated in the Library called Constantinople –Istanbul Through The Ages.
- Tuesday 14 November 2006
5.30 pm for 6 pm
Mollie Thomson Room
Macquarie University Library Level 5
Rose Quong Becomes Chinese: An Australian in London & New York (1920s-70s)
Professor Angela Woollacott, Department of Modern History, Macquarie University.
The story of Rose Quong (1879-1972) reveals how an Australian learned to use the pervasive Orientalism of the early twentieth century to her own ends. Quong claimed an essential ability to interpret Chinese culture, forging a career out of lecturing and writing on Chinese literature and traditions, and performing her own Chineseness. She juggled her mixed Australian, British and Chinese heritage in both London and New York, showing the plasticity and transportability of ethnic identities. Quong's story points to the role of London as imperial metropolis in the staging of an Australian's transnational career, even for an Australian whose imaginary homeland was China. The fact that Quong was embraced by the Australian community in London adds a new perspective on White Australia, even though that community was instrumental in steering her towards Chineseness and Orientalism.
Angela Woollacott is Professor of Modern History at Macquarie University. Born in Adelaide, she did her postgraduate work in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, receiving the MA in 1984 and the PhD in 1988. Prior to moving to Macquarie in 2004, she was a Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Woollacott is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, serves on the editorial boards of several international journals and is on the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association. Her books include On Her Their Lives Depend: Munitions Workers in the Great War (University of California Press, 1994); To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity (Oxford University Press, 2001); and Gender and Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Her current research projects include a study of celebrity, femininity, race and Australianness on the international stage in the 1910s-40s.
Presentations: 2005
- Tuesday 28 September 2005
Chinese Calligraphy & Painting: the artistic reflection of the past casts light on our present day's dream
Dr. Anita Chang, Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Macquarie University
- Tuesday 14 June 2005
Reflections on the Library Past and Future
Emeritus Professor Edwin Judge
- Tuesday 12 April 2005
Something Of Value: Assessing the Library's Special Collections
Simon Taaffe was employed by Macquarie University in 2004 to carry out a valuation of the Library's various special collections. Simon is an accredited Valuer with extensive experience in the valuation of books and manuscript materials held in numerous Australian public institutions and private collections, as well as an assessor of items donated to institutions under the Cultural Gifts Scheme.
Simon discussed his experiences, the various methodologies he employed in assessing the Library's special collections, as well as some of the 'treasures' that he discovered during his assessment.
Presentations: 2004
- Thursday 18 November 2004
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Display of the Library Friends most recent contribution to the Library collection. Discussion and presentation by Macquarie University contributors: Dr. Michael Roberts and Dr. Ruth Frappell. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a major new international scholarly publication (60 volumes) and online database - and it provides a significant advancement in the presentation of biographical information.
- Tuesday 7 September 2004
Australian Placenames
David Blair, Director, the Australian Placenames Survey (APNS).
David Blair discussed the establishment of this important research project at Macquarie University and how it will contribute to documenting and clarifying the history of placenames in Australia.
- Tuesday 22 June 2004
George Caley, Colonial Naturalist (1770-1829)
Are Historians Still Getting It Wrong?
Dr Joan Webb
Dr Joan Webb discussed the results of her extensive research into this neglected and misunderstood pioneer of Australia's early colonial history. She is the author of George Caley: 19th Century Naturalist [Chipping Norton, NSW: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1995]. Through her examination of manuscripts, publications and specimens held in libraries, archives and herbaria in Australia, U.K., Europe and the U.S.A. Dr. Webb has devoted many years of scholarly endeavour to revealing Caley's achievements and resolving some of the complexities of his personality.
- Tuesday 30 March 2004
Shepherds and Shepherding in colonial Australia
Dr John Pickard, Visiting Fellow, Graduate School of the Environment Macquarie University.
Before fencing was universal in the Australian colonies, sheep flocks were tended by shepherds. Flock sizes varied from about 500 to almost 2,00 depending on the landscape, and the amount of labour available. Every day the shepherd took his flock from the fold, walked them out to a pasture, watched over them, and walked them back each evening. Day after day after day. He ate mutton, damper and tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Day after day after day. The only face he saw was that of the hut keeper. Day after day after day. Once a week or so, the squatter or overseer delivered rations, counted the flocks, and docked the shepherd's wages if any sheep were missing. The huts, wretched at best, appalling at worst, were alive with fleas.
The work was very unromantic: lonely, monotonous, dangerous (until the Aborigines were 'pacified'), poorly paid, and seemingly without much reward. Initially most shepherds were assigned convicts but later the job was done by a range of free and less-free men: Aborigines, bonded immigrants from Germany, coolies from China, and kanakas from the Pacific islands. One of the few relaxations was the annual spree. Shepherds headed for the nearest grog shop and 'lambed down' their cheque in an orgy of drinking vile adulterated alcohol until broke. Barely sober, they returned to their flock for another year of the same endless grind. Some shepherds escaped by saving their wages, becoming successful pastoralists.
Some shepherds were killed by Aborigines, probably in retaliation for taking women. Others suffered and died from a range of serious diseases: sandy blight, Barcoo spew, Cumberland disease, dysentery, scurvy and the pox. Some went insane, perhaps from the boredom and monotony, perhaps from syphilis.
Dingoes were a constant threat to the sheep until the widespread use of strychnine from about the 1840s. Fencing with iron wire started in Victoria in the early 1850s at the same time that shepherd labour was critically short because of the gold rushes. Squatters quickly (re) discovered what was known in the 14th century: that fencing was cheaper than shepherds, and the flocks thrived. As brush and then wire fencing became more common, shepherding was phased out until by the end of the century, only a few remained on new stations in remote Queensland and Western Australia. They were made redundant by a combination of strychnine poisoning of dingoes, new technology in the form of Bessemer steel wire, the hard economics of labour costs, and pastoralists' experience that showed increased profits from fencing.
Dr John Pickard discussed the results of his recent research into this diverse and fascinating aspect of Australia's colonial history.