Imagine if you woke up one day and your past had vanished? No way to look back or learn from what once was. No history or ancestry to shape yourself, no foundation of past experiences.

What if it was not just your, but your community’s history that was erased? What if it expanded to the entire State of Victoria? Who would we Victorians be without the context of our journeys? Who are we without the history of our shared experience—without the influences of Dame Nellie Melba, Ned Kelly, or Sir Douglas Nicholls?

These are uncomfortable questions that we will not have to answer if the State Library of Victoria (SLV) continues to play its critical role in the information sector. The SLV’s mission is to archive and make accessible a collection of the State’s significant cultural records and enrich Victorian’s lives through their services (SLV, 2023c).

The SLV has been distinctive from its inception, being one of the first free public libraries in the world. It was envisioned by its creator, Sir Redmond Barry, as “the people’s university” where anyone over the age of 14 with clean hands could come to learn (SLV, 2023b). That was 1854. Let that sink in. ANYONE over the age of 14. Any ethnicity. Any gender. Anyone could come and have the world’s knowledge opened to them. This attitude of welcome continues today. The library strives to represent and connect with diverse and marginalised communities so anyone can come and see, learn, research, debate and engage in a safe space (SLV, 2023c). Over two million visitors annually do come, (with more than twice that visiting online) making it the third most visited library in the world (Duldig, 2023)!

The SLV is also unique in that it is not a lending library, and many items need several days advance notice before they can be viewed. Any item published in Victoria is sent to the SLV as ‘legal deposit.’ Nothing is ‘weeded’ from the collection. Perhaps suppressed from being discoverable, but never removed. Staff have remarked that books that are acquired seek to fill the gap between what the universities and public libraries offer. They do not actively pursue the depth of academic materials universities have, nor do they stock the same level of popular fiction that public libraries hold. Formally, the collection strategy aims to embody more faithfully First Nations people, recognising the colonial focus is a vestige of the past that no longer fully represents today’s Victorians (SLV, 2023a). There is also a shift to attain electronic resources accessible to more patrons so all Victorians can appreciate the past, be educated in the present, and galvanise their future (SLV, 2023b).

The SLV plays a unique and key role in our society. It is a library, but it is also a tourist destination, world-class architecture, a community and culture centre. Where else can a person sing and make a craft with a child, investigate their family history, peek into a rare book, walk through an art gallery, take a lift that once housed an elephant, attend a speech, access databases, play chess, buy books, and have a coffee all in one place? Who would we be without the SLV? It holds our milestones and records our achievements. It connects Victorians and unites our identity.

References

Duldig, P. (15 November 2023). Quarterly report (4). State Library of Victoria.

State Library Victoria. (2023a). Collection strategy 2020–24 | State Library Victoria. https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about-us/governance/collection-strategy-2020%E2%80%9324

State Library Victoria. (2023b). History and Vision. https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about-us/history-and-vision

State Library Victoria. (2023c). Strategic plan. https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about-us/governance/strategic-plan