Look inside the treasure trove of 58,000 children's books

Over seven rooms a collection of around 58,000 books have been carefully catalogued and stored as a repository of the vast range of stories that have been created by Australian authors and illustrators.

But it's not just a book collection.

There are also thousands of original artworks created for picture books and other objects - known as ephemera - related to our favourite children's books.

The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature is celebrating 50 years.

The centre started in the home of Lu Rees in 1974. The Commonwealth government gave $500 to each branch of the Children's Book Council. As president of the ACT branch, Ms Rees wanted to start a national collection of Australian children's books.

The collection eventually grew to a point where it needed a proper storage space.

The centre director, Emeritus Professor Belle Alderman AM, said the university was a natural fit as a location for the vast collection.

"It became essential to find a home. So in 1980, we came to the university and they thought what a good idea because they teach education, they have graphic design, they have literature, they have history, they have cultural heritage," Dr Alderman said.

"It's been a very amenable home because the students do work experience with us."

Dr Alderman taught at the university for 30 years before she retired. But her career started as a teacher librarian in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

She saw what quality school libraries, curated by a qualified teacher librarian, could do for children and young people.

"We have to have teacher librarians. It's been an endangered species way too long. And what do they do? One of their jobs is really to know the literature," she said.

She had a student who would come into the library every day or two to ask for "a good book."

"One day she came in and said, 'Have you got a book about a mother and father who are getting a divorce and the father is dying of cancer?'

"And I said, 'Come back in a little while.' I didn't have exactly that book, but what she wanted was a book that was going to help her."

Despite being set in Australia, she said many books in the collection had worldwide appeal and were translated into many languages.

She has noticed a boom in literature relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and the experience of migrants and refugees.

"We have about 5800 books in 79 different languages. And what that says is that children's stories are universal," she said.

The collection is growing by about 2200 books per year and is valued at $12.8 million. The long-term goal is for the centre to become one of Australia's national institutions in the National Triangle.

We asked Dr Alderman to pick out her three favourite books from the collection.