state library victoria: discover the secrets of a 160-year-old melbourne institution

State Library of Victoria
There are 8 million visitors a year, more than the Library of Congress, but most people don\'t see this huge complex.
A huge network of corridors, many of which are underground and intertwined through the various parts of the library, is not allowed for the public.
They\'ll find some names that sound like they\'re pulled out of the novel shelf.
Elephant elevator, Bell staircase, chimney.
Kate Torney, chief executive, said the State Library, which opened today before 160, is a beautiful place to work.
\"The building is actually a 23 sep building and is available throughout the city,\" she told Claire baochi of 774 ABC Melbourne.
The library is not just about storing books;
The collection includes posters, photos, letters, diaries, historical paintings, and even Ned Kelly\'s armor.
MS Tony, a former news director at ABC, said the Melbourne leader\'s decision in the 1850 s to open public libraries was innovative.
\"The previous Library was often a private collection and was very exclusive,\" she said . \".
\"This is one of the earliest public libraries in the world.
\"If you are over 14 years old, you can go in if you can prove that you have clean hands.
\"For many Melburnians, the State Library is defined by the Dome Room --
The magnificent silent reading room built in 1913.
Torney MS described it as \"probably the most photographed room in Melbourne \".
However, the Queen\'s pavilion in the original public reading room currently only provides private functions.
\"At the moment it is not open to the public because it does require a lot of work,\" MS Torney said . \".
The high ceiling of the hall is hung with chandeliers, and the high pillars are extended from the upper balcony of the room.
MS Torney said a $10 million grant from the Ian Potter Foundation would restore the room to its former grandeur, which is expected to reopen as a public reading room in 2020.
The Queen\'s Hall is not the only historical feature of the library hidden in public view.
Deep in the building, once an area where Melbourne Museum is located, a small wooden sliding door sits in a beautifully carved frame.
The door opened into a big wood.
The paneled elevator, built in 1928, features larger sliding doors and lead light windows.
It is called the elephant elevator because it is used to transport plush elephants when the building is home to the Melbourne Museum.
Archivist and art historian Mike Jones once described the lift as \"notoriously unreliable \".
The Melbourne Museum also retains the pendulum staircase, which is named after Fu Ke\'s pendulum was suspended in the stairwell.
Named after French physicist Foucault, Foucault\'s Pendulum is made up of heavy objects on a long wire, and its swing indicates the rotation of the Earth.
The pendulum itself has been removed and its whereabouts are unknown.
Melbourne Museum moved to Carlton Garden in 2000.
Since becoming chief executive in November, Tony MS says one of her favorite things to do is to visit the library\'s conservation lab.
\"On any day you go there, they will look and care for those items that are absolutely unusual,\" she said . \".
On this special day, nurses Jessica mclini and Jane Hinwood are taking care of the foam during World War I and the battlefield map of the surrounding area, which was produced by the Allies.
\"The conservation team at the library here is the nameless hero,\" MS Torney said . \". They are the world.
Class with their specific craft, and so does the Save team.
\"The skills and craftsmanship that this team has are unknown to the public, but really important.
\"The protection team spends most of its time caring for the library\'s collection of rare books, which is the responsibility of the rare print collection manager, Des Cowley.
\"My work is very important. . .
\"From the 11 th century to the present, there are about 200,000 rare books that showcase two music projects to show the breadth of collections,\" Mr Cowley said . \".
The first one is the elaborate 14 th-
A musical manuscript of the century, created for French dominican nuns, decorated with hours of religious hymns.
Another is a bunch of performance posters donated by the mainland cafe owner \"Marios\" in Melbourne in 1990 --
Mario macaron and Mario de Pascalle
\"From 1993 to 2001, there were 982 posters at the end of each show on the mainland,\" Mr Cowley said . \".
However, the rare collection of books does not claim to have all the extraordinary items of the State Library.
Juliet O\'Connor, a children\'s literature librarian, said Australia\'s first indigenous children\'s book, The Legend of Mooney jar, was one of the library\'s 100,000 children\'s books.
The oldest children\'s book in the library was written by Queen Elizabeth I\'s former principal, 445 years old this year.
Mr. Cowley said that compared with the total holdings of the library, the personal collection was \"a drop in the ocean \".
\"There are more than 2 libraries.
\"There are a total of 5 million books, along with millions of photos and 9-kilometer manuscripts,\" he said . \".
With such a large collection, so many of them are rare or fragile, and the library simply cannot put all of them on public bookshelves.
\"The logistics of our collection means that at any time we can only show a fraction of what we have,\" MS Torney said . \".
Most of the books that are not shown are kept in the \"library --
There are 11 kilometers of shelves underground in the Dome Room, gallery and other public areas.
The underground passage also leads to the painting shop. the paintings of the frame are surrounded by rows of vertical paintings.
One of the two cold stores in the library, named Mawson and Scott after the Antarctic explorer, kept thousands of negatives.
Now, however, the Internet provides unlimited virtual shelf space for the library\'s small libraryseen items.
The key to this process is the library\'s photography studio where professional photographers carefully record books and images.
\"We are increasingly looking to make sure that Victoria and anyone can access these items online,\" MS Torney said . \".
774 ABC Melbourne will be broadcast at the residence of Victoria State Library at the end of February. Topics:library-museum-and-gallery,human-interest,books-
Melbourne-Literature