National Library of Australia’s ephemera captures nation’s values

The Canberra times has run a story about ephemera collecting at the National Library – speaking to Catherine Aldersey who many will remember from the 2014 symposium.

The journalist, John Thisleton, reports on the Library’s collecting processes for gathering advertising material:

“I get calls when people are doing cleanouts, moving house, downsizing or moving into a nursing home, or a relative has passed away,” Ms Aldersey said.

“We walk a fine line, we know people could be making money from what they have on eBay, but feel it is better if publicly available. People entrust [ephemera] to us to look after and make it available to the public.”

Here is the link.

The illustrations are not from the National Library of Australia – you will find those on the link. These come from the family collection of a woman who grew up on a sugarcane farm in Bundaberg.