4 Collection Development and Management

• Table 1. Library Collections 1998
• Table 2. Number of Current Serials Titles 1998
• 4.1 Donations

In 1998 there was an increase in the number of volumes added to the collection of 76,848, and an additional 11,721 serial volumes.

The Library collection figures do not include electronic resources accessible by library patrons. The expenditure on electronic resources, increased from $692,059 in 1997 to $887,073 in 1998.

For the first time in many years the Library enforced a 20% cut to current serial subscriptions across all sites and the number of current serial titles for 1998 decreased by 3.0%. The table does not reflect the true extent of the cuts, which will be reflected in more detail in the 1999 statistics.

4.1 Donations

Major acquisitions for 1998 included a collection of two hundred and fifty nineteenth century English travel books, written by visitors to the continent. Dr. Travers donated another instalment of his medical collection, which included material on venereal diseases, surgery and infectious diseases. Lindsay Shaw has now donated over 10,000 items, making him by far the Library's most significant benefactor. Another major donation of over 1500 books and pamphlets, many of which were obtained in Asia during the events they describe is from Denis and Peggy Warner two prominent writers on Asia since the early 1940s. The Playbox Theatre has deposited in the Rare Book Collection 24 playscripts from their 1995-1996 productions. This is part of an on-going arrangement, which will see all their scripts being lodged in the Rare Books Library. The collection will also include a number of the scripts submitted but not produced. Recent acquisitions have also included runs of the Australian Women's Weekly, Women's Day and Pix from 1940s to the 1960s, and several more instalments of early Australian comics. This makes the Library's comics collection the best in an Australian institution.