Spiral staircase, ground floor, Baillieu Library, August 1967. Photograph: Department of Audio-Visual Aids, University of Melbourne.
Giovanni Batista Cipriani, 'A view of the inside of a house in the Island of Ulitea (Raiatea), with the representation of a dance to the music of the country', plate 7, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty ..., vol. 2, by John Hawkesworth (ed.), London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell ..., 1773. Gift of Russell and Mab Grimwade. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.
'A Storehouse of Wisdom': Celebrating 50 years of the Baillieu Library
A Baillieu Library Exhibition
Leigh Scott Gallery (1st floor) and throughout the Baillieu Library
20 March to 17 May 2009
Curators: Morfia Grondas, Andrea Hurt, Stephanie Jaehrling, Jacqui Barnett, Kerrianne Stone, Pam Pryde
A celebration of the Baillieu Library's history and collections and its impact on its community of past and present students and staff, this exhibition brings together photographs, plans, documents, newspaper articles, prints, paintings, books and film drawn from various University of Melbourne collections including Rare Books, Special Collections, East Asian and the University of Melbourne Archives.
A first-class library is the very corner stone of the life of any university. It is at once a store-house of wisdom, a shrine of memory, a seed-bed for the germination, the nourishing of thought and research and a constant spur to action.
Lord Baillieu
In its first 50 years, the Baillieu Library has fulfilled this expectation, truly becoming a storehouse of wisdom that contains one of the richest collections in the country. Accommodating works that are rare and beautiful as well as works of scholarship, Lord Baillieu could scarcely have imagined the scale that this storehouse would attain. When the Library opened in 1959, the collection comprised 150,000 volumes. Now this building alone houses around a million volumes, predominantly from the University’s Arts and Humanities collections.
As Lord Baillieu well understood, libraries are not only storehouses of wisdom, for they also enable sharing of scholarship, allowing knowledge to be discovered, worked upon and rediscovered by successive generations of scholars. To fulfil this aim, libraries are dynamic, readily adapting to the changing environment of scholarship and teaching. The Baillieu Library is no exception and access to technology now exists side by side with collections of cultural significance. While the activities undertaken within this library building may have changed over the past 50 years, the underlying purpose has not wavered. The Library continues to support teaching and research within the University and engages with the intellectual and cultural life of the city of Melbourne, for example, through its comprehensive exhibition program.
Since its inception, and notwithstanding financial and other challenges, a community has grown up around the Baillieu Library united by these common aims — a community of scholars and researchers, aided by expert and committed library staff whose familiarity with the collections is beyond dispute. This community has been joined by Friends of the Baillieu Library and donors who share the passion for building a collection of significance. The University Library remains immensely grateful for the generous support of our Friends and donors.
Of course not all of the University community would share such lofty sentiments — some would remember the Baillieu Library as a crowded house of toil and enforced quiet study, of idiosyncratic air-conditioning and baffling catalogues and indexes. But I suspect that many more students have fond memories of the Library as a social and intellectual hub where intellectual possibilities became manifest and social engagement was rampant despite the stern admonition of librarians and attendants.
And so we celebrate 50 years of the Baillieu Library and the richness and diversity of its community, as reflected in the essays, illustrations and photographs that are included in the catalogue. Students, researchers, academic staff, benefactors and Friends of the Baillieu Library are all represented. These groups have all played a significant role in the life of this building and in developing its wonderful collections. Treasures from the collections are also exhibited, made possible by the generosity of donors and Friends. The building itself is a treasure in its own right and a celebrated example of modernist architecture.
I would like to thank contributors to the catalogue for sharing their recollections and expertise, and to the staff of the Baillieu Library who have compiled the catalogue. It will remain an apt tribute to the great building that we know as the Baillieu Library and to the great community that has enlivened these walls.
Jenny Ellis
Deputy University Librarian, February 2009