The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library, founded in 1910) provides

library 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 ...

access to students of the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. It developed from a small provincial

university library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

into a major

research library A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of to ...

.East, John W.: ''A Brief History of the University of Queensland Library'', 2006. It was first housed in the

Old Government House Old Government House may refer to: * Old Government House, Parramatta, Australia * Old Government House, Queensland, Australia * Old Government House, South Australia, Australia * Old Government House, Hobart, Australia * Old Government House, ...

building of George Street from 1911 to 1923. From 1923 to 1948, it was housed in the Art Block of the Central Technical College in George Street, next to the university. In late 1948, the library moved to the new

St Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindi ...

campus, residing in the Duhig Building. By 1954, it had already exceeded its capacity. For decades the library suffered from neglect. Some of this was due to the lack of a formal

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

, and other problems were due to the lack of

funds Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm uses ...

during the early decades of the university's history. The early building in George Street was riddled with

white ants Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattod ...

and borers, and later lack of space. After the move to St Lucia, the Duhig building was expanded in 1964, and smaller libraries sprang up to support Department needs. In 1974, the Duhig building had exceeded its capacity and hence the Central Library was built, under the direction of then University Librarian,

Derek Fielding Fred Derek Osmond Fielding AM (14 August 1929 – 25 June 2014) was an Australian librarian and author. In 1951 Derek graduated from the Trinity College, Dublin. He was University Librarian at the University of Queensland from 1965 to 1994. In ...

. A four- storey

Biological Sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

Library building, to accommodate the growing science collections, was built in 1976. The same year, the

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

libraries were

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

into one place, the Zelman Cowen building, named for the

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

and soon-to-be Governor-General of Australia, Sir

Zelman Cowen Sir Zelman Cowen, (7 October 1919 – 8 December 2011) was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator who served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1977 to 1982. Cowen was born in Melbourne, and attended ...

. The Herston

Medical Library A health or medical library is designed to assist physicians, health professionals, students, patients, consumers, medical researchers, and information specialists in finding health and scientific information to improve, update, assess, or evalu ...

was opened in 1984 at the

Royal Brisbane Hospital The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) is a tertiary public hospital located in Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is operated by Metro North Health, part of the Queensland Health network. The hospital has 929 be ...

, an amalgamation of many smaller medical libraries. The

Physical Sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...

and

Engineering Engineering is the use of 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 range of more speciali ...

Library was opened in 1990, and the

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Library gained another floor that same year. After the closure of the Thatcher Memorial Library and Ringrose Libraries in 1993, which specialised in

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

resources, the university acquired the library of the

Queensland Agricultural College University of Queensland Gatton Campus is a heritage-listed university campus of the University of Queensland at Warrego Highway, Lawes, Gatton, Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1897 to 1960s. It is also known a ...

at Gatton, as part of its amalgamation with the university in 1989. Today the UQ Library is the

's network of libraries, encompassing thirteen distinct branches.

Branches

Architecture and Music Library

Biological Sciences Library
*

Dorothy Hill Dorothy Hill, (10 September 1907 – 23 April 1997) was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science. Education Doroth ...

Engineering and Sciences Library (including the C.S. Davis Mathematics Library,

Geology Library and

Thomas Parnell Thomas Parnell (11 September 1679 – 24 October 1718) was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Parnell (died 1685) of Maryborough, Queen' ...

Memorial Physics Library) * Fryer Library * Gatton Library * Graduate Economics and Business Library
Herston Health Sciences Library

UQ/Mater McAuley Library

Rural Clinical School Libraries (RCS)

Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence Library (PACE)Rural
* Social Sciences and Humanities Library (SSAH) * Walter Harrison Law Library

University Librarians

Professor Francis William Sutton Cumbrae-Stewart

Past heads of the library include- * 1910-1925 Honorary Librarian - F.W.S. Cumbrae Stewart. Assistant Librarian R.J. Cholmeley. 1918-1958 Assistant- Ellen "Nellie" McIver * 1934-1939 Part time librarian - A.C.V. Melbourne * 1939-1946 James Forsyth Librarian - Richard Pennington * 1946-1948 James Forsyth Librarian - Norman Gould * 1950-1962 University Librarian - Harrison Bryan. 1956-1965 First Deputy University Librarian-Barry Scott. 1959-1997-first Reference Librarian appointed-Spencer Routh. * 1963-1964 Acting University Librarian - Barry Scott * 1965-1992 University Librarian -

. 1966-1972 Deputy University Librarian Sid Page; 1973-1977 John Cummings; 1978-1981 Eric Wainwright; 1982-1985 Earle Gow; 1986-1998 Deputy University Librarian George Eichinski * 1992-1993 Acting University Librarian - George Eichinski * 1993-2005 University Librarian
Janine Schmidt
* 2005-2006 Acting University Librarian - Mary Lyons * 2006-2011 University Librarian - Keith Webster * 2011-2012 Acting University Librarian - Mary Lyons * 2012–2018 University Librarian - Robert Gerrity *2018-2019 Acting University Librarian - Annette McNicol *2019–Present University Librarian - Caroline Williams

References

External links

The University of Queensland Library

Fryer Library
{{Authority control University of Queensland Libraries in Brisbane Academic libraries in Australia

Branches

University Librarians

References

Further reading

External links