Our Library's History

St Mark’s National Memorial Library was established in 1957 by Bishop Ernest Burgmann. It had long been Burgmann’s great passion to build a collegiate library in Canberra (similar to that of Westminster Abbey in London) to stimulate advanced theological research by postgraduates and to provide a setting wherein a distinctive Australian theology might develop.

The mission of St Mark’s Library is to provide and manage information resources to support St Mark’s National Theological Centre in its work of theological education, professional ministry training, and public theological discourse. The Library is also a specialised resource of theological materials for the church and the nation.

Today, St Mark’s library holds the most significant collection of biblical, theological and missiological works in Australia’s National Capital and is one of the largest theological libraries in Australia. The Library collects at research level, catering for students from certificate to doctorate level.

The collection has over 100,000 items and provides comprehensive reference material and a significant journal collection. The collection contains

• monographs
• serials (including a number from the nineteenth century)
• a pamphlet collection
• a rare book collection.

The collection has strong links to the spiritual and religious history of the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) and the immediate surrounding areas of southern New South Wales. It also includes the libraries of former bishops of the Diocese of Goulburn, including the first bishop, Mesac Thomas.

While it continues to reflect the classical, philosophical and religious interests of the nineteenth and twentieth-century scholars, it is now geared to face the challenges of the twenty-first century.