Only through this strategy, which will employ both new and old means of publication, does the Library believe that it will be able to do full justice to the Donald Friend diaries in terms of both research and accessibility. Commercial partners may join the Library in parts of this enterprise, but the Library will ensure that it maintains appropriate control of the main publishing projects. In large part, this is the memory of Australia's developing and dynamic culture, and of the activities of individuals within that culture. It is the memory of our society, of our politics, and of our attitudes towards ourselves and others. In a profound sense, our histories are our future, because it is through the records of our pasts, and the metaphors that we make from them, that we can glimpse futures for ourselves and imagine new possibilities and new pathways.
Access is critical.
Publishing the Donald Friend diaries is one way of embodying the Library's mission to provide knowledge of its collections to as wide an audience as possible, and to contribute actively to the nation's cultural life. What is most important is the material itself and its availability. Donald Friend's vision in his diaries, compelling and inventive as it is, both private and public as it must be - will soon touch all of us.