The South Australian Institute (SAI) had its origins in the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association (1834) and the Adelaide Mechanics Institute (1838). After various institutional amalgamations, a government bill was passed to establish the South Australian Institute in 1856. The Institute building opened in 1861. The Institute library was a public library in the sense that there was a reference section and reading room open to the general public, but borrowing rights were conferred by subscription. Reference books, state papers, and bound newspapers did not circulate except on special application.
Printed by the South Australian government printer William Caddy Cox, this 1863 catalogue is a supplement to a printed catalogue of 1861 and its reissue of 1863. The titles listed in the smaller supplementary catalogue attached to the 1863 re-issue have been incorporated in this catalogue, which suggests that the library gained at least 1,134 new titles (excluding periodicals) in 2 years. Primarily arranged alphabetically by author, this catalogue, like its predecessors, is divided into 20 classes with the following number of titles: moral philosophy (35); jurisprudence and political economy (29); history (106); biography (76); geography and travels (162); geology (9); chemistry (9); zoology (32); botany (14); anatomy and medicine (14); mathematics and natural philosophy (27); arts and manufactures (27); novels and prose works of fiction (229); poetry and drama (53); general literature (such as essays, criticism, and correspondence) (173); Latin and Greek literature (2); German literature (10); French and other modern literature (17); bound periodicals (65); and encyclopedias and works of reference (divided into groups according to subject) (112).
Unlike the 1861 catalogue and its 1863 re-issue, this catalogue does not list duplicate titles. The list of bound periodicals in the catalogue is complete rather than supplementary. The catalogue includes cross-references between classes and sub-classes, but assigns a number pertaining to the library shelves only once.
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