In this track hear from the third speaker at the Don Smith symposium Dr Shef Rogers from the University of Otago. He spoke about “The Messy but Revealing Immediacy of Miscellanies” using Don’s set of the eleven volumes that comprise the set of miscellaneous prose and verse from Jonathan Swift and friends.

In 2024 Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections gained an important collection with the gift of 183 titles collected by the late Professor Emeritus Donald Ian Brice Smith (Don). The collection of early modern books published before 1801 comprises several hundred volumes.

The collection is now housed in archival boxes, each with a label which features Don’s signature, to show the provenance from the library of Professor Smith.

To honour this significant collection Auckland Libraries invited academics from across the country to talk about books in this collection. The event took place on 8 November 2025.

You can read more in these Heritage et AL blogs:

https://heritageetal.blogspot.com/2025/10/discovering-dora-carrington-in-dons.html

https://heritageetal.blogspot.com/2025/12/five-hundred-years-of-books-collector.html

And additionally in this blog by Dr Jack Ross

https://mairangibay.blogspot.com/2025/10/auckland-central-library-seminar-81125.html