During May, the Library ran an online survey about its website. We received an overwhelming response and would like to thank all who participated.

The information we received will help us improve our website and services to meet the users' needs.

All participants who completed the survey were eligible to enter the prize draw for a $200 gift voucher. We are pleased to announce that the winner is Monika Z, who has chosen a voucher from Amazon.com.

Those people who volunteered to help the Library test its new website (currently in development) may be contacted over the next few months with an invitation to participate in a testing activity.

The Library's public appeal for donations to purchase an extraordinary diary written by a gold-digger in 1855 has raised more than $50,000.

The diary charts six eventful months in the miner's life, telling of the murder of a local butcher, the arrival of new prostitutes, a fire that killed 11 people, and, incredibly, the escape of a Bengal tiger in Ballarat's Main Street.

The author is thought to have hailed from Dunbartonshire in Scotland, and the mystery of his identity has drawn much interest both locally and internationally. In Scotland, West Dunbartonshire's mayor is offering a reward to anyone who can identify the author or find another of his sought-after diaries.

The director of the State Library of Victoria Foundation, Michael van Leeuwen, believes the diary gives a unique insight into the details of daily life on the Victorian goldfields.

'The author of this diary took time out every day to record his experiences,' he says. 'Sometimes they were mundane and sometimes extraordinary. But here, more than 150 years after the events were recorded, we have a detailed and very personal account of what it was like to live and work in this time of feverish goldrush activity.'

'We are very grateful for all the support we have received to make this purchase possible. We would like to especially acknowledge donations from our Foundation members and those from companies working in goldmining today, who clearly feel a connection and affinity with the diary’s author - Lihir Gold Limited; Newcrest Mining Corporation; and Rio Tinto Australia.'

The diary is now available to all Victorians. Its pages have been scanned and will soon be available in full with accompanying transcripts via the State Library website. The diary itself is on loan to the Sovereign Hill Gold Museum, where it will be on public display from 29 June until August 2009.

The appeal raised $54,000 in total. The remaining funds have been used to acquire another rare account of life on the goldfields, The province of Victoria and the gold-yielding regions, published in Calcutta in 1858. This book has not appeared in any Australian library catalogues until now.

Read more about the Goldfields Diary >

The State Library of Victoria today awarded a total of $190,000 to Australian writers, academics and artists through a number of prestigious Fellowships and script development awards.

The Library's program of five Fellowships encourages the literary and creative use of its rich collections.

Funded three-month Creative Fellowships were awarded to six recipients, and a further three were granted honorary Creative Fellowships. This year's projects include a history of Victoria's female taxi drivers from 1918 till 2008, a contemporary world jazz suite inspired by children's wartime songs, an exploration of early Parisian maps and a detailed study of the Melbourne Sydney rivalry.

The second Dr Joseph Brown AO Fellowship was awarded to Benjamin Thomas, who will examine Melbourne's commercial art market from the emergence of Sedon Galleries in the mid 1920s through until the beginning of the Second World War.

Dr Helen McDonald received the $25,000 La Trobe Society Fellowship. Dr McDonald will produce a book manuscript on the curious life of Melbourne's first mayor Henry Condell.

The Redmond Barry Fellowship was awarded to Andrew Dodd to compose a biography of the Victorian colonial architect John James Clark.

Phillip Brophy was granted the Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship. Mr Brophy's project will explore how artists have been depicted in cinema and popular culture as psychopathic through a set of animations for a video installation.

A total of $30,000 was awarded to four Victorian playwrights through the 2009 R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards. These annual awards, administered by the State Library of Victoria, support the development of plays as works-in-progress by local playwrights.

The 2009 award winners are:

• Bridgette Burton for Rhonda Is In Therapy
• Angus Cerini for Save For Crying
• Declan Greene for Pompeii, LA
• Thomas Henning for Raging In The Name Of The Dead

Declan Greene has also been invited to develop Pompeii, LA at PlayWriting Australia's National Script Workshop 2010.

See the full list of 2009 Fellowship recipients >

Learn more about the Library's Fellowships >

Learn more about the R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards >

The Chinawoman by Ken Oldis, published by Arcadia in association with the State Library of Victoria, has been named overall winner in the Victorian Community History Awards 2009, collecting $5000 in prize money.

The awards, sponsored by Information Victoria, aim to develop awareness of community history in Victoria. They recognise excellence in historical method and acknowledge that history can be told in a variety of formats, including print, multimedia, collaborative work, walking tours, exhibitions and community records.

The Chinawoman takes the form of a murder mystery, investigating the 1856 killing of prostitute Sophie Lewis, who was known as the Chinawoman because of her connections with Melbourne's Chinese community.

Visit the online shop to purchase The Chinawoman >

Read more about the Victorian Community History Awards 2009 >

The Centre for Youth Literature's 2009 Reading Matters conference, to be held 28-30 May, will play host to some of the biggest local and international names in youth literature.

The biennial conference - for professionals, students and the general public - is always a major event on the youth literacy calendar and attracts a stellar program of authors, an enthusiastic crowd and sell-out sessions.

This year celebrated American writers MT Anderson and John Green will be in attendance, as will be the popular Mal Peet and Cathy Cassidy from the UK. The 20-strong roster of youth literature writers will also feature local authors, including Tim Flannery, Isobelle Carmody and Randa Abdel-Fattah.

The program - to be held at the Library and RMIT's Storey Hall - includes readings, discussions, performances and key-note addresses.

Discover more about Reading Matters >

The Library is hosting an information session for prospective William Buckland Foundation Fellowship applicants on Thursday 30 April.

The William Buckland Foundation Teaching Fellowships are a unique opportunity for early-career educators (in their first five years of teaching) to further their curriculum planning skills and experience. Successful Fellows will work with the Library's Education Programs Unit for one school semester to develop and deliver innovative education programs. The Fellowship provides funding to the Fellow's school to backfill their position.

The current round of Fellowship applications closes on 15 May. Fellowships will be awarded for Semester 2, 2009 and Semester 1, 2010.

The information session will include a tour of the Library and its exhibitions. Application kits will be available on the night or on request (see inquiries details below).

Time: Thursday 30 April, 5-7pm
Venue: Conference Centre, La Trobe St, Entry 3, State Library of Victoria
Bookings & inquiries: 03 8664 7015
Cost: Free

Find out more about the William Buckland Foundation Teaching Fellowships >

The Library is currently redeveloping its website, slv.vic.gov.au, and we would like your input to help us create a new, more intuitive navigation and menu structure.

Your involvement will help us ensure you can find our rich collection and organisational content even more easily on our redesigned website.

What we need

We need people to take part in a short (30-minute or so) 'card sorting' activity. This simple online exercise involves you labelling and grouping categories of content together in whichever way makes most sense to you.

This sorting process will help us to re-organise our content on the updated website so you can access the information you need as quickly and easily as possible.

Incentive

All participants in our user research activity will receive a copy of The Art of the Collection, worth $59.95. This lavishly illustrated hardcover book showcases the Library's collection of artworks by some of Australia's most celebrated and talented Australian artists, including Eugène von Guérard, Frederick McCubbin, Albert Tucker, Jan Senbergs, Juan Davila and Howard Arkley.

How to register

Registration has closed. Thank you for your interest.

The Library will be closed on Good Friday, 10 April. From Saturday 11 to Monday 13 April it will be open from 10 am to 6pm, and normal operating hours will resume on Tuesday 14 April.

Over Easter the Heritage Collections, which include the Manuscripts, Pictures and Rare Printed collections, will be closed. If you would like to use materials from Heritage Collections or any items stored offsite, you will need to order them in advance by the following times:

• Offsite newspapers – by 5.30pm, Wednesday 8 April
• Onsite and offsite Heritage Collections – by 3pm, Thursday 9 April
• Offsite books and journals – by 5.30pm, Thursday 9 April (to use on Saturday and Sunday) or by 5.30pm, Sunday 12 April (to use on Monday)

Mr Tulk, the Library’s café, will be closed from Good Friday to Easter Monday and re-open on Tuesday 14 April.

Read more about Library services over Easter >