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Visitors can request access to read the books in special rooms, where staff guide them on handling the objects using small cushions and weights.
Gloves are not required. Welch explained that clean, dry hands are best for dexterity, as gloves can make handling clumsier.
Women Writers Fund Impact
Since its establishment in 2021, the Women Writers Fund has raised $750,000 and secured 250 books for the library.
The fund aims to acquire works by capable, competent, and trailblazing women to fix historical collection imbalances.
Welch noted that while Austen is highly collectible today, her works were not a priority for library founder Sir Redmond Barry, who focused on classic English male authors like Chaucer and Shakespeare.
The rare first edition of Emma will be featured in the World of the Book exhibition, reopening on 4 July, alongside 126 books secured by the fund.
This includes a first edition of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, acquired for about £8,000 five years ago.
The exhibition also features a "Peacock edition" of Pride and Prejudice with black-and-white illustrations, and the first full-colour illustrations of Austen's works in an 1897 travelling library set.
The fund now targets first editions of Brontë novels, as Australian female writers are already well represented in the collection.
Other Australian institutions, including the State Library of South Australia and the State Library of New South Wales, also hold first editions of Emma.
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Welch emphasized the importance of first editions, noting that they represent the first expression of a work and often contain textual and binding changes between editions.
