The Australian Common Reader

 

Reading has shaped Australian culture. Whether of fiction or non-fiction, literary or mass market, Australian or from overseas, through reading Australians of all ages and walks of life have encountered ways of seeing the world and their place in it. The Australian Common Reader is a database of library loan records from across the country. Through it, you can explore the reading habits of Australians since the nineteenth century. Discover how global literary culture circulated in Australia: what books were being read by women and men, teachers and miners, West Australians and Queenslanders? 

The Australian Common Reader was initially funded by an Australian Research Council grant and established by Tim Dolin at Curtin University in 2008. From 2014 to 2024, it was managed by Julieanne Lamond at the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University, in collaboration with the ANU Centre for Digital Humanities Research. It is now supported in collaboration with HDRH. The project is one of a number of online resources for the history of reading. The database contains circulation records from the following libraries: 

  • Collie Mechanics' Institute was built in 1901, the year the coalmining and logging town in the south-west of WA was declared a municipality. The library records are held in the Battye Library, State Library of Victoria, in Perth (2917A/10). The database includes records from 1908-1909
  • Lambton Mechanics' and Miners' Institute in Elder St, Lambton (a suburb of Newcastle, NSW), was founded in 1864. The records, and a selection of the books, are held in the University of Newcastle Archives in Callaghan, NSW, 2308. The database includes records from 1903-1928
  • The Maitland Institute, in the wheat farming township on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, was established in 1880. The records are held in the State Records of SA Gepps Cross Repository in Adelaide. The database holds records from 1908-1911
  • Port Germein Institute was founded in 1892 in the South Australian town famous for the long jetty which serviced the wheat export trade from the region. The records are held in the State Records of SA Gepps Cross Repository in Adelaide. The database holds records from 1892-1908
  • Rosedale Mechanics' Institute is in the pastoral and agricultural town of Rosedale, on the Latrobe River in south Gippsland, Victoria. The Institute records are held in the manuscripts collection of the State Library of Victoria (MS 9860). The database holds records from 1905-1908 and 1911-1912
  • The South Australian Institute was established in Adelaide in 1856. Loan records in ACR date from 1861-2. The records are held in the State Records of SA Gepps Cross Repository in Adelaide. The database holds records from 1861-1862