This is the fourth known printed catalogue of the Tasmanian Parliamentary Library, all of which were printed by the government printer James Barnard in the 1860s. The title page gives the date of issue here as 1 May 1867.
This catalogue is shorter, less elaborate, and less typographically elegant than the previous catalogue, issued in 1863. It also employs a different form of classification. While the previous catalogue is divided into an alphabetical list by author and a list classifying works by subject, the present catalogue has an alphabetical list by author (or title) as the first part of the catalogue, and a list classifying works ‘geographically’ as the second part. The ‘geographical’ catalogue certainly doesn’t capture as many of the works in the library’s collection as the previous subject classifications, but this section does reveal some interesting features. There are more works in the library’s collection on America, for example, than on Australia, and as many on Canada as there are on New South Wales. Bibliographical details are sparse throughout, with the number of volumes being the only information given beyond author and (short) title. Catalogue numbers are also given for each work—these numbers have changed since the 1863 catalogue, probably indicating some sort of re-ordering of the collection. As the preliminary ‘memo’ states [p. iv], books with a catalogue number above 1000 were allowed to be borrowed by the members of parliament, while those below 1000 were considered reference books not to be removed from the library ‘without the consent of the library committee.’
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