'Book collectors in Australia, during their book hunting endeavours, will no doubt have encountered books bearing the bookplate or book stamp of a School of Arts or Mechanics' Institute. These institutions were, during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, a most important feature of Australian social and local history. Every town and almost every village community in the Australian Colonies by the end of the nineteenth century had established its own local School of Arts, Literary Institute or Mechanics' Institute. It has been estimated that over 2000 existed in Australian towns, city suburbs and rural districts during the early Federation decades. In NSW in 1912 there were 433 of these institutes, with a total of 47,749 members. The largest of the NSW institutes was the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, which in 1915 had a membership of 2133 and a Library of 33,412 books.' (p 97)
