South Australian Institute, later Institutes Association of South Australia (GRG58)

The Institutes Association may be said to have had its genesis in THE SOUTH AUSTRLAIAN LITERARY ASSOCIATION formed in London in 1834, whose library at the time of colonisation consisted of 117 reference volumes. It and other associations, institutes and societies were formed, amalgamated, dissolved and re-formed over the next twenty years. The economic troubles of the 1840's and the gold rush to Victoria in the early 1850's mitigated against a stable existence for cultural organisations. (1) In 1854 the first institute outside the city itself was established at Glen Osmond. (2) Other suburban and country institutes soon followed.

Some of the early country institutes pre-dated local government by long periods., When the Corporation of Port Augusta was established, for example, its first office was a room leased from the local institute. (3)

The city institute, however, was moribund. The Legislative Assembly established THE SOUTH AUSTRLAIAN INSTITUTE. Clause 4 of the Act (4) provided for the property of The South Australian Library and Mechanic's Institute to be taken over by the new body. It was intended that the new Institute would carry on the operation of a library and museum and sponsor lectures. It was further provided that suburban and country institutes could affiliate with the South Australian Institute and receive assistance from it. The Board of the Institute was appointed (5) on 10 July 1856 and the Institute opened on the 1st October. (6) The Institute Building on North Terrace (7) was not opened until February 1861. The Institute's budget was set at 500 Pounds Sterling per annum and in 1859 it began to receive applications for assistance. (8)

The Institute was dissolved (9) on 30 June 1884 and replaced by the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery Board. (10) The stock of books, and the staff, were divided between the Board and the newly formed Adelaide Circulating Library. The small museum developed by the Institute became, ultimately, the South Australian Museum. The new Board continued to provide assistance to country institutes, by circulating boxes of books among them nd by distributing the Government subsidy.

Individual institutes were not, however, affiliated to the Board (as they had been to the old Institute). On 23 August 1898 moves were set in train which resulted in the adoption of a constitution and rules for an Institutes Association (11) on 31 January 1899. The Association became the governing body for institutes throughout South Australia, but Government assistance continued to be provided through the Board until 1910. The Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery and Institutes Act, 1909 (No. 986 fo 1909) incorporated the Association, which assumed responsibility for the distribution of books and subsidies (12) on 30 June 1910.

In 1939, by a sequence of legislative instruments, the constituent bodies of the Board were separated. Thereafter, institutes came under the control of the Libraries and Institutes Act, 1939-1979. The new Libraries Board had limited jurisdiction over institutes. The Association, however, continued as the governing body and the channel for Government assistance.

As early as 1898 a Free Libraries Act (13) had been passed, remaining in force until superseded by the Local Government Act, 119334 (No. 2156 of 1934). The network of institutes had received Government support from an early date. They were funded by the State Government and by their members. Council, naturally enough, did not rush to dip into their own pockets, regarding libraries as self-help ventures. The Association itself had recognised the need for a system of free libraries provided by councils, particularly in rural areas where a mobile library servicing several communities could maintain a better stock of books. As early as 1948 annual conferences of the Association passed resolutions in favour of free public libraries.

In July 1975 the five employees of the Association were absorbed into the Public Service (14) and the Libraries Board began to urge councils to take over the assets of institutes and open free libraries. The Public libraries Branch (later Division) was expanded to support them. From a peak of 306 institutes with some 21,506 members in 1930, the association has now (1986) shrunk to a mere 56 institutes, many of them virtually, moribund.

The Libraries Act, 1982 (No. 70 of 1982) repealed the Libraries and Institutes Act, 1939-1979 and the Libraries (Subsidies) Act, 1955-1977. The Act ended the incorporation of the Institutes Association and vested its property in the Libraries Board. The Association continues to function, but its Board of Governors has been replaced by a Standing Committee since 17 February 1983.

Same agency as GA87 - different archival control system.

Sources:

(1) Research Note 437
(2) Profile of the Institutes Association in S.L.S.A. New Notes, Volume 3, No. 10 (September 1978), p. 2.
(3) Research Note 593.
(4) Act no. 16 of 1855-1856.
(5) S.A.G.G., 10 July 1856, p. 598
(6) GRG 2224/6]857/1300
(7) GRG 19/416
(8) News Notes, Op. Cit., p. 1.
(9) Research Note 552
(10) Act No. 22296 of 1883-1884.
(11) News Notes, Op. Cit., p. 3.
(12) Parliamentary Paper 110 of 1910, p. 6.
(13) Act No. 700 of 1898.
(14) News Notes, Op. Cit., p. 1.