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AIATSIS books national award supplied by AIATSIS 26 May 2014
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he Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) has been named Australia’s Favourite Government Library by the Australian public. The Australia’s Favourite Library campaign, run by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), kicked off in early February, with winners announced as part of theLibrary and Information Week 2014 celebrations, Principal of AIATSIS, Russell Taylor said the award was “both thrilling and fitting” as AIATSIS celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. “I am pleased to see the innovative work of our library staff acknowledged in this way in what is a special year for us,” Mr Taylor said. “Over the last 50 years our library has collected an extensive range of material, a good deal of which is held nowhere else in the world,” he said. “We hold information on almost every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group and language in Australia, with more than 130,000 print research collection items, over 3,000 rare books and 12,000 manuscript titles all pertaining to Australia’s first peoples.’’ Mr Taylor said Indigenous Australians formed the overwhelming majority of people accessing photographs, film and audio material for purposes as diverse as language maintenance, native title claims and family history research.
“We are a world-renowned premier research, collecting and publishing organisation,” he said. “This award is a clear indication
that the Australian public places great value on our library and its services.”
AIATSIS Principal Russell Taylor with legendary Aboriginal jockey Richard ‘Darby’ McCarthy and former Australian Jockey Club chairman Bob Charley at the launch of Professor John Maynard’s book Aborigines and the ‘Sport of Kings’
Respected International Human Rights lawyer Hannah McGlade’s book Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights won the 2011 Stanner Award.
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