The full digitisation of the rare ‘London Missionary Society’ (LMS) collection of Chinese language works was completed in October 2010. This is exciting news for researchers with related interests.  The collection is now accessible on the web through the Library’s catalogue. There are also links to digitised materials from within the catalogue record for each item.
The digitised LMS collection consists of over 670 full text works collected by the London Missionary Society missionaries in China in the late Qing period 1644-1912. The National Library of Australia acquired this important Chinese collection from the London Missionary Society in 1961. The majority of these works are on the history of Christianity and religion in China, mission publications on scientific topics and some manuscript items. The most valuable items in the collection are the pamphlets and proclamations relating to the Taiping rebellion. As a preservation strategy, from 2006, the National Library began the full digitisation of the rare collection. Now the Chinese materials, in digital form, are available to researchers all over the world!
For more information about our LMS collection, please visit our website: www.nla.gov.au/asian/form/lms.html