This is the second known printed catalogue of the library of the parliament of New South Wales, and the first since the colony achieved responsible government in 1856. It was printed by the government printer, William Hanson.
Like the earlier catalogue of the New South Wales parliamentary library, the catalogue is arranged alphabetically by author, title, or subject, with the same work often appearing multiple times under each keyword. Bibliographical format is given for each entry in this catalogue, as is number of volumes. Date ranges are given for certain works, such as collections of Acts of Parliament or other state papers. Works on jurisprudence and parliamentary history once again feature prominently here, as do works in education, general history, and geography and travels. The library also seems to have sought to function as a broadly useful reference and scholarly resource, and once again, the emphasis on ‘standard works’ is best exemplified by the number of substantial publishers’ series acquired by the library. 36 volumes of Murray’s Home and Colonial Library have been acquired by 1857, and a number of different series from the publishing house of H. G. Bohn are now represented, including, among others, Bohn’s Antiquarian Library (34 vols), Bohn’s Classical Library (71 vols), Bohn’s Scientific Library (24 vols), and Bohn’s Standard Library (54 vols). It is also notable that, while the library contained little in the way of imaginative literature, it had a 14-volume set of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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