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LIBRARIES IN MEMORIAL BIBLE HOUSE, CANBERRA

A Greek Bible originally given by the British and Foreign Bible Society to Lancelot Threlkeld, a missionary in the Hunter region from the 1820s until the early 1840s, to help him translate the gospel of Luke into the Awabakal language now forms part of a permanent exhibition opened in March 2001 in the Newcastle Regional Museum, on the interactions between Aboriginal people and settlers in the area.  This Bible is part of a significant collection of Bibles and related materials held in Memorial Bible House, Canberra (a building dedicated to the memory of missionaries, chaplains and translators who lost their lives in the 1939-45 war), which houses part of the National Office of the Bible Society in Australia.

There are actually two very different libraries located in the BSA National Office building in central Canberra.  The smaller of the two, attached to the Translation and Text Division, is a collection of about 1000 volumes (plus some, mostly pre-1990, periodicals) intended to be of assistance to translators.  The second, and larger, collection currently housed in Memorial Bible House is the Arrowsmith Library, which aims to reflect the breadth of Bible translation, especially that undertaken since the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London in 1804.  It consists of volumes from a number of different sources: private donors, the British and Foreign Bible Society, state Bible Societies, and also materials sent by other national Bible Societies.  An article in The Sower of April 1960, marking the official opening and dedication of the building, refers to this library as one of the two rooms at Memorial Bible House (the other being the translations room) which “help the staff to make clear to the many visitors from all over Australia what is the real work of the Bible Society”.

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