The Theatre programme collection, bequeathed to the Library in 1976 by Miss F.A.N. Symon and regularly added to by subsequent donations, currently comprises over 20,000 items dating from 1858 to the present.
As originally received from Miss Symon the collection included many programmes of theatre, ballet and (to a lesser extent) music performances attended by her or friends in Britain, Europe and Australia between the 1920s and 1970s, and some purchased programmes of earlier performances, particularly of Shakespeare plays and early Australian theatre productions. This collection has been augmented substantially by donations from many members of the University and wider community and currently is richest in Adelaide and London theatre performances and ballet performances.  It is supplemented by other personal collections (including from the estates of Professor Cornell, Dr. Marie-Louise Thiersch and Dr. Enid Robertson), which are maintained separately.

The programmes are arranged by performance type (theatre, opera, dance, music, exhibitions, film etc) and then (in chronological order) according to country/city and by venue or name of company/individual performer. Programmes will be progessively added to the AusStage database from October 2004..