Library Catalogue

Information about collection items in the State Library of Victoria is accessible through the Library's online catalogue which provides users with features such as powerful searching capabilities, the ability to place requests for items either for use in the Library on the day of ordering or on a later day, and tools that allow them to keep track of their searches and their requests. (For more information about these features, see Using the Catalogue.)

Contents

The catalogue comprises the following:

• Main Catalogue: books, magazines, newspapers, video recordings, music, maps and oral history.
• Pictures Catalogue: photographs, prints, drawings and digital images
• Manuscripts Catalogue: Australian manuscript material including documents, papers and records
• Australiana Index: biographical and Victorian local history newspaper articles, and
• Victorian Government Publications Index: Victorian state and local government publications received between 1987 and 31 May 2008.

Access

The catalogue is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the Library website.

Online Catalogue

The Library's first automated library management system was introduced in 1989, preceding the development of the internet, the widespread use of email and online activities most people now take for granted. In mid 2001 the State Library introduced Voyager, its new integrated library management system which, as well as being accessible via the web, provided more advanced functionality for both users and Library staff.

Voyager

Voyager not only provides the public-access catalogue for the Library but also manages other behind-the-scenes library collection management activities such as acquisitions, cataloguing and reporting. It also enables the Library to keep track of the location and status of vast number of collection items and to efficiently manage the large number of requests for items received every day of the week.

Voyager is currently used by hundreds of academic and research libraries worldwide such as the National Library of Scotland, National Library of New Zealand, the Library of Congress (the world's largest library), and Cornell and Northwestern universities in the US. In Australia, a number of Australia's largest libraries use Voyager including Monash University, the Australian Defence Force Academy, and the CSIRO.

Technical information is available for Z39.50 implementors who wish to access our Voyager Z39.50 servers.