The Blue Mountains Library is a network of six branch

libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

located within the

City of Blue Mountains The City of Blue Mountains is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, governed by the Blue Mountains City Council. The city is located in the Blue Mountains range west of Sydney. The Mayor of Blue Mountains City Council is coun ...

Council administrative area.

History

In 1963 following community pressure, the

Blue Mountains City Council The City of Blue Mountains is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, governed by the Blue Mountains City Council. The city is located in the Blue Mountains range west of Sydney. The Mayor of Blue Mountains City Council is coun ...

commissioned a report from the Library Board of NSW on the establishment of a free public library service. This was presented to Council 28 January 1964, where it was resolved not to adopt the Library Act due to the cost of providing the service. The report recommended a central library with administration at Katoomba and a full-time branch at Springwood with part-time branches at Lawson,

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

, and

Wentworth Falls Wentworth Falls (Postcodes in Australia, postcode: 2782) is a town in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, situated approximately west of the Sydney central business district, and about east of Katoo ...

with a

bookmobile A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookm ...

service to outlying areas. Operating costs were based on a State Government subsidy of 3/- per capita and a Council contribution of 9/- per capita dropping to 7/- per capita in the third year of operation. Average library operating costs in NSW at the time were £0/10/4 per capita (In today's terms this equates to an approximate value of 10/- = $30.00, £1/0/0 = $60.00). So the status quo continued in the Blue Mountains, the public demand for library services was supplied by the various township literary institute libraries and by a number of small commercial subscription libraries. The

paid an annual subsidy to a number of the Schools of Arts libraries to cover running costs and wages. Until finally, in 1967, after protracted debate and lobbying, Council adopted the Library Act and quickly came to an agreement with the remaining management committees to take over full operational responsibility for all public library services across the city. By the end of 1975, branches were operating in Springwood, Katoomba, Blaxland, Lawson,

and Mount Victoria and the library had registered 16,033 borrowers from a population of just over 47,000. Only one central card catalogue existed until simplified author, title and subject print-outs were introduced to all branches in 1976, a Microfiche catalogue became available in 1978. The Book Plus Library Management System was adopted in 1982 and an

online public access catalogue The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''library catalog'', is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously u ...

was introduced in 1985. Public access PCs with dial-up Internet were introduced in 1998, this was later expanded to a broadband connection. The Horizon Library Management System was introduced in 2003. SirsiDynix Symphony was introduced in 2012.

Locations

* * * * * *

Collections and services

In addition to the network's collection of books the libraries provide for the loan of CDs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, and non-English books. The libraries also provide internet,

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

, photocopying and printing services.

Membership

The library serves a population of 79,812. The library has around 41,000 members and processes over 500,000 loans per year. Membership of the library network is free to residents of the City of Blue Mountains local government area.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Public libraries in Australia Libraries in New South Wales Blue Mountains (New South Wales) Libraries established in 1974 1974 establishments in Australia