Archive for August, 2025

Subverting Japanese radio propaganda during World War II: Charles Cousens and Iva Toguri

Subverting Japanese radio propaganda during World War II: Charles Cousens and Iva Toguri

August 15, 2025

Ask a librarian, Victorian history:

Charles Cousens and Iva Toguri endured an unusual fate during World War II: they were forced to broadcast propaganda for the Japanese from Radio Tokyo. With amazing energy and creativity, they produced their own program, ‘Zero Hour’, which aimed to undermine the propaganda messages and even entertain the allied troops. After the war, they were both accused of treason.

he Twins, directed by Lynne Ellis, La Mama, 1990. Photo by Maggie Diaz. This item is in copyright;  H2014.1059/99b

Cracking the narrative: pruning the misinformation from your family tree

August 11, 2025

Family matters, Research tips & tricks:

Is misinformation sinking its tendrils into your family tree? Are dates not lining up, people aren’t where they should be, or maybe there’s no record of Grandma Joan before the age of 25? Our Family History Librarians are here to help you separate fact from fiction in your lineage, and give you some tips to strengthen your research.

Online Collection Spotlight: History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century

Online Collection Spotlight: History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century

August 8, 2025

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights:

Through five collections, the ‘History of Disabilities’ database provides an insight into how society viewed disability and difference from the seventeenth century through to today. While some of the practices and terminology may no longer be acceptable, inclusion of challenging content is important to understand how the landscape has changed over time.

Finding Florrie

Finding Florrie

August 3, 2025

Ask a librarian, Family matters, Our stories, Victorian history:

When librarian Sarah Matthews stumbled across a female publican in her family tree, she couldn’t resist investigating. In this blog, Sarah explains how the library’s collection supported her research, and shares some fascinating findings from her own family’s archive.

A Library Week look at our favourite photographs

A Library Week look at our favourite photographs

August 3, 2025

Our stories, Victorian history:

It is Library week and some or our librarians have picked some favourite photographs from our collections. Our collection of images is varied, eclectic and endlessly fascinating and many have been digitised and are often available to download as high resolution TIFF files