At a Glance

This page offers a quick glimpse of some interesting facts and figures about the Library and its collection as at June 2007.

Facts about the Library

Total number of employees	295
Visitors to the Library	1,147,488
Online visits (unique)	7,193,250
No. of reference enquiries	207,226
Visitors to events & exhibitions	367,033
Students attending education program sessions	28,904

Facts about the collection

Size of collection	If every item was laid end-to-end, it would stretch for 90kms
Largest	Description de l'Egypte measures 107cm x71cm
Oldest book	Boethius' De Musica, a late 10th-century manuscript
Oldest item	Cuneiform Tablet, c2050BC
Most valuable	Birds of America by John James Audubon is worth $8million.

Collection summary 2006-07

Newspapers (volumes)	99,218
Monographs & serials (volumes)	1,954,467
Maps	109,824
Sound recordings	28,513
Video recordings	3705
Exhibition catalogues	101,734
Pictures	710,058
Theatre programmes (linear metres)	82.32
Ephemera (linear metres)	65.16
Manuscripts (linear metres)	7095
Digital titles added to collection	64,267
Australian & international print and heritage items added to collection	19,371
Heritage items digitised for online access	49,741
Unique Victorian material digitised and available for online access	233,098
Items preserved and conserved	49,540