This photo was one of seven recently donated to Fryer Library, each depicting railway related history from Queensland. The elephants belonged to Wirths' Circus, which travelled Australia by train from the earliest days of the railways in the 1880s up until the circus' demise in 1963.

The Fryer Library's collections of Queensland political organisations and student activists groups are supported by a growing collection of 'ephemera', which is library-speak for written or printed material that is usually created for a short-term purpose.

Political ephemera collected by Fryer ranges from how to vote cards, posters, buttons, bumper stickers, and t-shirts, to a newly acquired Kevin Rudd tote bag. These collections are still referred to as the 'Fryer Vertical Files' (FVFs), a reference to the filing cabinets they were once stored in.

For those lucky enough to be in Melbourne for rare book week, (18 - 28 July, 2013) there are a host of free exhibitions, talks, and the ANZAAB rare book fair.

During September 1967, Archdeacon Edward Leo Hayes made the arrangements which saw his vast collection of books, manuscripts, documents, anthropological and geological specimens and assorted realia sent to the University of Queensland. The collection left an invaluable legacy to UQ's Fryer Library and anthropology museum.

In which the Fryer library unearths five versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and transcribes a holograph of a note about a piano.

Brisbane City Hall is now open again, after three years of restoration work. The Museum of Brisbane has opened several new exhibitions on Level 3 of the building, and guided tours and rides to the top of the clock tower are once again possible.

The theme for this year's Harmony Day is Many Stories - One Australia.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship, who organises the celebrations of Harmony day each year on the 21st of March, describes the importance of sharing stories in celebrating Australia's diversity:

Let's go beyond the cover of the book and wander through the pages of each other's story. It's a way we can learn and understand.

Friday, the 8th of March is International Women's Day. Celebrated internationally on this date since 1913, Women's Day recognises women for their achievements, reflects on past struggles and accomplishments, and looks forward "to the opportunities that await future generations of women".

As the 2013 academic year commences and UQ campuses welcome new students this week, here is the 'undergraduate look' from ninety-one years ago, courtesy of the Fryer Library University of Queensland photograph collection.

8 November marks 165 years since author Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland. Fryer Library holds two letters written by Stoker. The first dates from December 1884 and was sent to Edmund Hodgson Yates; the other dates from July 1903 and was sent to Edmund's son, Edmund Smedley Yates.