AustLit

'This paper documents the literary origins of the notion of Irishness; why it mattered, and why it persists as a significant discourse running through Australian writing. Existing from the beginnings of creative output in Australia, the multi-faceted Irish condition is present as a literary trope from the start of white settlement and has never permanently left Australian writing. The reasons for this are many and complex. This paper presents a broad survey of the key texts in this process, examining how the nineteenth-century Irish community with both its ethnic and denominationally diasporic cultural outlook, positioned itself within Australia’s rapidly evolving literary consumer culture, and how the notion of Irishness was creatively sustained into the present century. Conclusions reached suggest that while important social and economic factors constrained the development of a sustained, locally produced Irish-Australian writing, persistent cultural and ethnic conditions fostered its on-going presence and later more overt emergence in the twentieth century as a persistent strain in Australian literary production, one that is likely to remain into the future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

' In considering what constitutes the ideal born-digital literary archive and what interventions are possible, or even necessary, from a collecting institution in determining the make-up and future accessibility of these archives, this article examines, through a set of case studies, the collections and creative methodologies of four Australian writers – Peter Carey, Sonya Hartnett, Alex Miller and Ouyang Yu. The article considers how these writers have negotiated with, and managed, their creative output in the digital space, and how, as a collecting institution, State Library Victoria has responded to their respective requirements of the medium and expectations for how a major institution will deal with their digital collections. Finally, the article examines what practical technologies are necessary to provide a secure digital repository while facilitating access and the delivery of born-digital literary content to the user, both now and into the future.'  (Publication abstract)

'On his extended trip to Britain and Ireland in 1908, Edmund La Touche Armstrong was given a number of requests by the Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library Board. Armstrong was to travel – partly on extended leave and partly for health reasons– firstly to London to arrange a meeting with Sir Edward Maunde-Thompson, head of the British Library (then part of the British Museum), with a view to discussing some of the finer features of the plans for the Domed Reading Room for the new Melbourne Library building and to get some feedback from the head of one of the world’s great heritage institutions. The Domed Reading Room project, for which Armstrong will chiefly be remembered, was initiated by him and strongly supported by the Trustees. By the time of his trip in 1908, building was well under way. Armstrong’s second major task was to report on the current state of library practice in Britain, Ireland and America, and the trip enabled him to visit some of the great libraries in these countries as well as make an extended visit to European institutions. But the journey was also recreational leave; a large part of the time was spent visiting aunts and cousins in Ireland and Britain and working on the La Touche Armstrong family history, much to the amusement of his mother, then residing at the Public Library, and who had scant curiosity about such things.' (Kevin Molloy, Introduction)