The Vaccari collection contains over 4000 unique titles and was formed in 1990 from donations to Victoria University (VU) Library by the Vaccari Foundation and later the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs Library.

What's in the collection

The Vaccari Collection is a significant resource for researchers interested in the history and culture of the many peoples who have immigrated to Australia, since the first European settlement in 1788.

The collection's strengths are information about the smaller ethnic communities in Australia, the elderly/ageing population in Australia, and government agency information.

Other features are materials relating to:

  • migrant women's concerns
  • the ethnic aged
  • community care programs
  • cultural policies and heritage
  • ethnic identity
  • community relations
  • migrant education issues
  • folklore.

The collection also includes 3,570 articles donated to the Vaccari collection from researchers in the Faculty of Arts at VU and from the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs Library.

Thirty-six rare Italian articles have been translated and digitised. The three-year digitisation project (2000-2003) was funded by the Gualtiero Vaccari Foundation.

Access to the collection

The printed book material is available to browse and borrow from the Victoria University Werribee campus library. In the library catalogue items have the prefix WER V.COLL. before the shelf number.

The 3,570 articles are located at the Victoria University Footscray Park campus library in a collection called Vaccari Collection Vertical File, this is a closed collection that can be viewed on appointment.

To find the articles you are interested in accessing, you can browse the article title information .

To access material email Special Collections librarians on special.collections@vu.edu.au. You will receive an emailed response within 24 hours (Mon-Fri) and a suitable time will be arranged for you to view the items in the Special Collections reading room on L4 of the Footscray Park campus library.

Thirty-six rare Italian language articles from the Vaccari Collection Vertical File have been translated and are available to researchers via the web. Both the original article and the English translation are available through the Vaccari Online collection .

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