In the first year of the SA Institute (1856) there was a request for the Institute libraries to supply books in the German language. When three years later the Institutes could subscribe to circulating boxes of books, German books were also offered – initially in parcels.
Institutes at Macclesfield, Mount Torrens, Burra and Hahndorf were the first to request them and by 1875 thirteen boxes of German books were in circulation. At the time 85 English boxes were sent out.
Heidi Ing has researched the provision of German books to Institute libraries in SA. Her article ‘German books in SA’s Institute libraries‘ was first published in Treasures and Traditions of the German Community, the proceedings of a workshop held at the University of Adelaide in May 2012, edited by Dr Herbert Stock for the German Heritage Research Group. You can now read her article on this site. The table shows the number of boxes sent out between 1876 and 1909.