Media Release
Library Board to Preview New Storage Facility in Ballarat
4 October 2005
The next meeting of the Library Board of Victoria will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 5 October, in Ballarat. Before the meeting, Board members will preview the $11.5 million State Library storage facility currently nearing completion on the Mt Helen Campus of the University of Ballarat.
Funding for the state-of-the-art facility was announced a year ago by Premier Steve Bracks MP. Local firm, Troons, was contracted to build the store that will house half of the Library’s collection, currently stored in four inadequate locations across Melbourne.
‘The new facility will meet industry standards for storage and security, providing the best possible storage conditions for the Library’s invaluable collection,’ said Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, CEO and State Librarian. ‘It will contain 45 shelf kilometres of storage space, allowing for the current offsite collections and providing space for future growth. It will be climate-controlled, with specialist cold and cool stores for photographs, negatives, and recordings.’
Dr Vicki Williamson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat, is Deputy President of the Library Board of Victoria.
‘I am delighted that this new building heralds a mutually beneficial partnership between the State Library and the University of Ballarat,’ said Dr Williamson. ‘The Library and University are working towards providing a reading room service within the University Library for the local community. This will follow planned renovations of the University Library.’
Following the building handover in November, the Library will begin the largest collection move in its history: 100,000 newspapers; 25,000 boxes of manuscripts; 750,000 serial volumes. Almost one million items will be cleaned, packaged and sorted. This important preparatory work has already begun and the move will be completed by March 2006, with the store fully operational by Easter.
A daily delivery service will operate to the State Library in Swanston Street, Melbourne.
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