page_title: State Library of Victoria
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: State Library of Victoria / History
context_page_description: The State Library of Victoria is the main library of the state of Victoria, Australia. The library is in the capital city of Victoria, Melbourne. It is on Swanston Street, in the northern centre of the central business district. The library holds over 1.5 million books and 16,000 serials. Special books in the library include the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and Captain James Cook.
context_section_description: In 1853 the decision to build a state library was the idea of the Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe and Sir Redmond Barry. A competition was held to choose a person to design the new building; local architect Joseph Reed, who later designed the Melbourne Town Hall and the Royal Exhibition Building, won the competition.
  On 3 July 1854, the new Governor, Sir Charles Hotham, laid the foundation stone of both the new library and the University of Melbourne. The library opened in 1856, with a collection of 3,800 books chosen by Sir Redmond, the President of Trustees. Augustus H. Tulk, the first librarian, was started work three months after the opening.
  The first reading room was the Queen's Reading Room, now called Queen's Hall, which opened in 1859. Temporary buildings built in 1866 for the Intercolonial Exhibition were used until 1909, when work began on a new building to mark the library's Jubilee. This new building was the famous Domed Reading Room, which opened in 1913, designed by Norman G. Peebles. 
  Plans for the rebuilding were cut back as there was not enough money for the original design. A new building for the museum was built after World War 1, in a plain classical style.
  The reading dome's original high windows were changed and covered in copper sheets in 1959 because water was getting into the building. 
  The library was also home to the State's Art Gallery and Museum until the National Gallery of Victoria moved to St Kilda Road in the late 1960s. The new Melbourne Museum was built in the Carlton Gardens in the 1990s.
  The library underwent a lot of rebuilding between 1990 and 2004, designed by architects Ancher Mortlock & Woolley. The project cost about AU$200 million. The reading room closed in 1999 to allow for renovation, during which dome's windows were put back. The renamed La Trobe Reading Room reopened in 2003.
  The rebuilt library includes a number of exhibition spaces which are used for the permanent exhibitions; The Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas  and The Changing Face of Victoria. there is also a display from the Pictures Collection in the Cowen Gallery. The State Library of Victoria is one of the largest exhibiting libraries in the world.
caption: A view of the library, forecourt and lawns from Swanston Street
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