The
State Library of Victoria is the central
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
of the
stateThe Commonwealth of Australia is made up of six states and two major mainland territories. There are also lesser territories that are under the administration of the federal government.- States and Territories:+ Formerly part of ACT...
of
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across the Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, with over 70% of...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, located in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
. It is on the block bounded by Swanston,
La TrobeLa Trobe Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly from east to west and forms the northern boundary of the CBD ....
,
RussellRussell Street is a north-south street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. At its southern end it intersects with Flinders Street and Federation Square, while at its northern end it becomes Lygon Street.There are three things for...
, and
Little LonsdaleLittle Lonsdale Street is located in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. A part of the Hoddle Grid, it runs roughly east-west. North of Lonsdale Street and south of La Trobe Street, Little Lonsdale Street's eastern end intersects with Spring Street while its western end intersects with...
Streets, in the northern centre of the central business district. The library holds over 1.5 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders,
John BatmanJohn Batman was an Australian farmer and businessman who was one of the first settlers of the Melbourne area and known for founding Victoria.-Life:...
and
John Pascoe FawknerJohn Pascoe Fawkner was an early pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land , to sail to the mainland in his ship, Enterprize...
, and the folios of
Captain James CookCaptain James Cook, FRS RN , was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy...
.
In 1853 the decision to build a state library was made at the instigation of
Lieutenant-GovernorThe Governor of Victoria is the representative in the Australian state of Victoria of Australia's monarch, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level...
Charles La TrobeCharles Joseph La Trobe was the first lieutenant-governor of the colony of Victoria .-Early life:...
and
Sir Redmond BarrySir Redmond Barry KCMG was a British colonial judge in Victoria, Australia.-Early life:Barry was the son of Major-General Henry Green Barry, of Ballyclough, County Cork and his wife Phoebe...
.
The
State Library of Victoria is the central
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
of the
stateThe Commonwealth of Australia is made up of six states and two major mainland territories. There are also lesser territories that are under the administration of the federal government.- States and Territories:+ Formerly part of ACT...
of
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across the Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, with over 70% of...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, located in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
. It is on the block bounded by Swanston,
La TrobeLa Trobe Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly from east to west and forms the northern boundary of the CBD ....
,
RussellRussell Street is a north-south street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. At its southern end it intersects with Flinders Street and Federation Square, while at its northern end it becomes Lygon Street.There are three things for...
, and
Little LonsdaleLittle Lonsdale Street is located in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. A part of the Hoddle Grid, it runs roughly east-west. North of Lonsdale Street and south of La Trobe Street, Little Lonsdale Street's eastern end intersects with Spring Street while its western end intersects with...
Streets, in the northern centre of the central business district. The library holds over 1.5 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders,
John BatmanJohn Batman was an Australian farmer and businessman who was one of the first settlers of the Melbourne area and known for founding Victoria.-Life:...
and
John Pascoe FawknerJohn Pascoe Fawkner was an early pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land , to sail to the mainland in his ship, Enterprize...
, and the folios of
Captain James CookCaptain James Cook, FRS RN , was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy...
.
History
In 1853 the decision to build a state library was made at the instigation of
Lieutenant-GovernorThe Governor of Victoria is the representative in the Australian state of Victoria of Australia's monarch, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level...
Charles La TrobeCharles Joseph La Trobe was the first lieutenant-governor of the colony of Victoria .-Early life:...
and
Sir Redmond BarrySir Redmond Barry KCMG was a British colonial judge in Victoria, Australia.-Early life:Barry was the son of Major-General Henry Green Barry, of Ballyclough, County Cork and his wife Phoebe...
. A competition was held to decide who would design the new building; local
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
Joseph ReedJoseph Reed , a Cornishman by birth, was probably the most influential Victorian era architect in Melbourne, Australia. He established a practice, Reed and Barnes in Melbourne in 1852. The practice now known as Bates Smart is one of the oldest continually operating in the world.Reed's buildings...
, who later designed the
Melbourne Town HallMelbourne Town Hall is the central municipal building of the City of Melbourne, Australia, in the State of Victoria. It is located on the northeast corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, in the central business district...
and the
Royal Exhibition BuildingThe Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage Site-listed building in Melbourne, Australia, completed in 1880. It is located in the Carlton Gardens, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880 and later hosted...
, won the commission.
On 3 July 1854, the recently inaugurated Governor
Sir Charles HothamSir Charles Hotham, KCB, RN was Lieutenant-governor and, later, Governor of Victoria, Australia from 22 June 1854 to 10 November 1855.-Early life:...
laid the foundation stone of both the new library and the
University of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria...
. The library opened in 1856, with a collection of 3,800 books chosen by Sir Redmond, the President of
TrusteeTrustee is a legal term for a holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary. A trust can be set up either to benefit particular persons, or for any charitable purposes : typical examples are a will trust for the testator's children and family, a pension trust , and a charitable trust...
s.
Augustus H. TulkAugustus Henry Tulk was the first librarian of the State Library of Victoria, Australia. He also campaigned for the establishment of an art gallery in Victoria....
, the first librarian, was appointed three months after the opening.
The first reading room was the Queen's Reading Room (now Queen's Hall), which opened in 1859. Temporary buildings built in 1866 for the Intercolonial Exhibition remained in use by the library until 1909, when work began on a new annexe building to mark the library's Jubilee. This new building was the landmark Domed Reading Room, which opened in 1913 and was designed by Norman G. Peebles.
Plans for the original annexe were scaled back due to the money running out and the annexe, to house a new museum were gradually built during the Interwar years in an austere stripped classical style.
The reading dome's original skylights were modified and covered in
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
sheets in 1959 due to water leakage.
The library complex also held the State's Gallery and Museum until the
National Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia...
moved to
St Kilda RoadSt Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004 and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city....
in the late 1960s, and the current
Melbourne MuseumMelbourne Museum is located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, adjacent the Royal Exhibition Building.It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum.The museum has seven main...
was built in the Carlton Gardens in the 1990s.
The library underwent major refurbishments between 1990 and 2004, designed by architects Ancher Mortlock & Woolley. The project cost approximately
AU$The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
200 million. The reading room closed in 1999 to allow for renovation, during which natural light was returned. The renamed
La TrobeLa Trobe may refer to:* Charles La Trobe , the first lieutenant-governor of the state of Victoria, Australia.Places named after Charles La Trobe:* La Trobe University, Victoria* Latrobe Valley, Victoria...
Reading Room reopened in 2003.
The redevelopment included the construction of a number of exhibition spaces which are used to house the permanent exhibitions The Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas and The Changing Face of Victoria as well as a display from the Pictures Collection in the Cowen Gallery. As a result of the redevelopment the State Library of Victoria could now be considered one of the largest exhibiting libraries in the world.
Front lawn, forecourt and statues
The grassy lawn in front of the library's grand entrance on Swanston Street is a popular lunch-spot for the city's workers and students at the adjacent
RMIT UniversityThe Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is an Australian public university and provider of vocational education, located in Melbourne, Victoria...
. Originally enclosed by a picket fence, then by a
wrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content, in comparison to steel, and has fibrous inclusions, known as slag. This is what gives it a "grain" resembling wood, which is visible when it is etched...
fence and gates in the 1870s, the space was opened with the removal of the fence in 1939.
A number of statues are in the entrance area. A pair of
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
lions graced the park from the 1860s until 1937. There are statues of Sir Redmond Barry, designed by James Gilbert and built by
Percival BallPercival Ball was an English sculptor active in Australia.Ball was born in Westminster, London, the son of Edward Henry Ball, carver, and his wife Louisa, née Percival. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Arts schools in England winning several gold medals and prizes. Between 1865 and 1882 he...
, installed in 1887;
Saint George and the DragonThe episode of Saint George and the Dragon appended to the hagiography of Saint George was Eastern in origin, brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance...
, by the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, installed in 1889; Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), a replica of the statue by
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
sculptor
Emmanuel FrémietEmmanuel Frémiet was a French sculptor. He is famous for his sculpture of Joan of Arc in Paris and the monument to Ferdinand de Lesseps in Suez....
, installed in 1907; and
Charles La TrobeCharles Joseph La Trobe was the first lieutenant-governor of the colony of Victoria .-Early life:...
, by Australian sculptor Peter Corlett, installed in 2006.
On Sundays between 2.30pm and 5.30pm a speakers' forum takes place on the library forecourt, where orators take turns in speaking on various subjects.
Reading Room and Dome
The landmark Domed Reading Room, which opened in 1913 and was designed by Norman G. Peebles. Its
octagonIn geometry, an octagon is a polygon that has eight sides. A regular octagon is represented by the Schläfli symbol {8}.-Regular octagons:A regular octagon is always an octagon whose sides are all the same length and whose internal angles are all the same size.The internal angle at each vertex of a...
al space was designed to hold over a million books and up to 500 readers. It is 34.75 m in both diameter and height, and its
oculusOculus is the Latin word for eye, and the word remains in use in certain contexts, as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, and in reference to other round windows and openings....
is nearly 5 m wide. The dome was the largest of its type in the world on completion.
In 1965, the La Trobe Building annex was opened to house the Library's Australiana collection, which has since moved to the La Trobe Reading Room.
Arts Library
The library maintains an extensive, world-class collection of books, periodicals, recordings and other materials pertaining to art, music and the performing arts.
Chess room
The library has a chess room that houses a wide range of materials dedicated to the history, study and practice of
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
. It contains a collection of items from the Anderson Chess Collection, one of the three largest public chess collections in the world. In addition to bookshelves containing an extensive range of books and periodicals relating to chess, the room has game tables with
chessboardA chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the game of chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
s and pieces, and a few glass cabinets containing historical chess paraphernalia. The room is a multi-purpose room intended also for reading and studying.
Databases
Many of the library's electronic databases are available from home to any Victorian registered as a State Library User. Databases include the full Encyclopaedia Britannica; Oxford Reference dictionaries and encyclopaedias; multi-subject magazine and journal article databases; newspaper archives of most major Australian and international papers from 2000 onwards; and specialist subject databases.
External links