The City of Sydney Library network consists of nine 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 ...

and two 'library links', located in Australia within the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

Council administrational area.

History

A free public lending library service has existed in Sydney since 1877 when the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

state government opened a lending branch of the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

on Macquarie Street. By the end of the same year there were over one thousand registered borrowers. In 1899 the lending library moved to the second floor of the

Queen Victoria Building The Queen Victoria Building (abbreviated as the QVB) is a heritage-listed late-nineteenth-century building designed by the architect George McRae located at 429–481 George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the Australian st ...

and in 1909 control passed from State to the City of Sydney Council. In 1918 the library moved again, this time to the old concert hall of the Queen Victoria Building. This provided space for a separate children's library to open in the same year. The first branch libraries opened in 1949 which also provided book deposit stations at a number of local schools. In 1970, the City library moved to yet larger premises within the Queen Victoria Building before taking up residence at 321

Pitt Street Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...

in 1984. High rent fees prompted it to move again in 1994 to Town Hall House. In 2005 the Town Hall branch moved to its current location at

Customs House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

Circular Quay Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping port, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the northern edge of the Syd ...

Locations

City of Sydney, Green Square Library entrance

- 31 Alfred St, Sydney NSW 2000 *

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

- 186 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe NSW 2037 * Green Square - 355 Botany Rd, Zetland NSW 2017 *

Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...

- The Exchange, levels 1 and 2, 1 Little Pier St, Haymarket NSW 2000 * Kings Cross - 1/50-52 Darlinghurst Rd, Potts Point NSW 2011 * Newtown - 8-10 Brown St, Newtown NSW 2042 *

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surroun ...

- 405 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010 * Ultimo - Level 1, Ultimo Community Centre, 40 William Henry St, Ultimo NSW 2007 * Waterloo - 770 Elizabeth St, Waterloo NSW 2017 Library Link * Town Hall House * Pyrmont

Collections and services

In addition to the network's collection of over 400,000 books the libraries provide for the loan of CDs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, toys and non-English books. The libraries also provide internet, copying and printing services. In the Sydney Subject Specialisation Scheme, a Sydney-wide collection development policy which facilitated

interlibrary loan Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, interlending, document delivery, document supply, or interlibrary services, abbreviated ILS) is a service where patrons of one library can borrow materials and receive photocopies ...

s prior to computerised

union catalogue A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pr ...

s, the City of Sydney Library maintained a focus on

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

and

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

. The City of Sydney library had a total stock of 461,253 items as of June 2015.

Library Link

A Library Link has existed in Town Hall House, close to the location of the library's previous premises, since its relocation to Customs House in 2005. The Library Link makes available a number of current newspapers and magazines, a fiction collection, a self-operated check-in and check-out machine and a telephone to contact library staff. Members can pick up books and other material held at other branches at the Library Link by contacting staff. In 2006 a link opened at Pyrmont offering a limited services. People are able to drop off books and pick up items they have asked for during the time that the volunteers are there.

Membership

The library network has around 40,000 active members and processes 1,350,000 loans per year.City of Sydney Library Statistics (2004–06)
retrieved 2009-10-07 Membership of the library network is free to residents of the City of Sydney local government area and residents of

References

External links

City of Sydney Library
{{Authority control Libraries in Sydney Public libraries in Australia Government of Sydney