St Marks Library Visit

The ALIAACTive and AGLIN organised an end of year tour of St Marks’ Theological Library. We only got a few participants which as a real pity as the library is an unexpected delight and worth a look. Susan Phillips gave the those of us who attended an in-depth tour of this treasure of a library down on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin in Barton.

Susan and her staff have done a lot to organize and update the library and its collections for the students and staff that heavily rely on it. Most librarians would empathise with the struggle Susan has had in organizing a growing collection and a tight space in an old building. As St Marks’ is affiliated with the Charles Stuart University (CSU), they have help and technological assistance with all upgrading of their IT infrastructure and the array of electronic full test services that CSU provides access to for the theological students.

However as Susan was showing her library to fellow librarians it was interesting to view the unique collections that are now housed in the St Marks’ library. The missionary society papers are a treasure for anthropologists and other researchers interested in island cultures and the indigenous cultures of Australia. Indigenous Australians have also begun to plum the depths of such resources in an effort to discover their heritage and genealogical roots as well as to uncover the grammars and linguist structures of their languages recorded by the missionaries. For many aboriginal languages, the only formal written version is provided in the missionary papers. Another gem of a collection that interested me in particular was the Bible Society collection of rare and unique bibles that have come to St Mark Library. These include Hebrew, Greek and Latin Vulgate bibles to one of the first translated into English. By viewing these rare resources made me very aware of how important the Bible is to Western culture and informing our literary heritage for a long period of time.

Anyway for the dedicated few who came on the library tour, it was a delight to have St Marks’ Library and its treasures revealed.