Hackers, developers, designers and other creative types will be given free reign to mashup and re-purpose amazing cultural content, including First Fleet journals and letters, at a free hack event at the State Library of NSW on Saturday 7 May.

The State Library's Mashup at the Mitchell event is one of the major events being staged around Australia as part of Libraryhack, a national mashup and apps competition.

National and state libraries of Australia and New Zealand are releasing thousands of items from their vast collections of books, newspapers, music, photographs, maps and oral histories for the competition, to be held from 1 to 31 May.

There's $18,000 cash and iPad2s up for grabs!