A librarian really has a very wide and interesting experience. There are many instances which are really romantic in their nature. Among these I may mention the Cook manuscripts which the Commonwealth acquired during the period that I had charge of the National section of the Commonwealth Library.
In order that the value of this historic record should be as wide as possible, I arranged that copies – facsimile copies – should be made of the journal, and these should be distributed to every state school and private and public school in Australia. There are many other national treasures in the Commonwealth Library at Canberra, but of course, this will always remain the greatest of them all.