The Opening of the Domed Reading Room,  page 2

'Caesar's Ghost' took up the battle cry in another letter, lamenting 'where - oh where - are the books'. Most of the books were in the annulus and direct access to them had been lost.

All admit the grand architectural triumph and the splendid cost of it: but, from a library point of view, the building suggest nothing so much as a vain and vacuous white elephant.

Arthur Wills wrote another letter pointing out that there were no readers catalogue or book-lift, the latter an inexcusable omission. Meanwhile 'Common Sense' raised further arguments against closed access in a letter to the editor: 'The real question then', the writer argued, 'is how to facilitate the use of books, and not how to raise obstacles against the use of them'.

It was a goal, which, according to the writer, the architecture of the dome did nothing to achieve. His description of the dome, in the same letter, only served to encourage others, criticising it as 'that raucous rotundity, that hollow mockery, that Siamese god with its trunk towards the Working Men's College, and its tail to the hospital'.

A few days later, 'Chancery Lane' turned his attention to the architecture. 'The dome', he wrote, 'is not a real dome but a mushroom excresence which has sprung up in our midst'. The great cement covering he described as being 'like the lid of a billy can'.

The mounting criticism prompted the President of the Board to call for a report from the Chief Librarian, the substance of which was reported on in The Age. The official view was there was 'considerable misunderstanding' as to what the Library Trustees were attempting to do. Librarians understood the disadvantages arising from restricted access. However, the Library had reached a stage where it was no longer possible to have all books on open access. And no government could continue to provide space for indefinite extensions.

The move from cosy nooks in the Queen's Hall and the Barry Hall to the vast, light-flooded dome must have been daunting for both librarians and readers. Along with the introduction of a new classification system, it is no wonder those used to the less formal approach gave vent to their frustration.

The dome ultimately became a much-loved home for scholars, students and general users, so much so that the threat of losing it when a new Library was proposed for the former Queen Victoria Hospital site in the mid-1980s gave rise to so much protest. So strong were the voices wanting to preserve the dome as a reading room that the architects devised a way of linking the dome with the new structure by means of a bridge between the two city blocks. By the time of the dome's 75th anniversary in November 1988, however, the Cain Government had promised to move the Museum off-site and to allow the Library to take over the whole block. Those who loved the dome were satisfied.