SUNDAY BEST #440 - STATE LIBRARY VICTORIA

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image and post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity.

Please do not use this meme to advertise our goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately.

State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It is also Australia's busiest public library and, as of 2023, the third busiest library globally. The magnificent Dome Reading room is shown here.

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Last week, Veredit in Germany posted some beautiful photos of a heritage forest. Please visit her blog for more great shots!

LIBRARY

The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district. The library holds over 2 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and the folios of Captain James Cook, R.N.. It also houses the original armour of Ned Kelly.

In 1853, the decision to build a state library was made at the instigation of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe and Mr Justice Redmond Barry, Q.C. (Sir Redmond from 1860). A competition was held to decide who would design the new building; local architect Joseph Reed, who later designed the Melbourne Town Hall, Ormond College and the Royal Exhibition Building, won the commission. On 3 July 1854, the recently inaugurated Governor Sir Charles Hotham laid the foundation stone of both the new library and the University of Melbourne. The library opened in 1856, with a collection of 3,800 books chosen by Mr Justice Barry, the President of Trustees. Augustus H. Tulk, the first librarian, was appointed three months after the opening.

The library underwent major refurbishments between 1990 and 2004, designed by architects Ancher Mortlock & Woolley. The project cost approximately A$200 million. The reading room closed in 1999 to allow for renovation, during which natural light was returned. The renamed La Trobe Reading Room reopened in 2003. The Library’s vast collection dates back to 1854 and includes material on almost every subject you can think of, with a special focus on material from Victoria. From art, children’s books, war and family history to film, business and industry, and Australian history, there is plenty for curious browsers and serious researchers alike.

While most people know about the Library's extensive book collections, there's plenty to surprise in other historical collections, which date back to 1854. They include more than 350,000 photographs, personal manuscripts & diaries, maps, old magazines & journals, newspapers, comics, and even old advertising and theatre programs. There is also an eclectic array of textiles and personal items.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

MY SUNDAY BEST MEME #66 - LIBRARY

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image nd post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity!

Please do not use this meme to advertise your goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately!

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” ― E.B. White

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

SUBIACO LIBRARY MURAL

Subiaco Library (Evelyn H. Parker Library) is located on the corner of Bagot and Rokeby Rd, Subiaco, Perth. It is a beautiful library and has a great selection of books. A striking mural can be seen high up on the wall above the service area. It is by artist, author, film director and designer, Shaun Tan.

Shaun Tan grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the 'good drawer' which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works as an artist and author in Melbourne. The artist says this about his 2004 mural, "The Hundred Year Picnic", in the library:

"...I visited the nearby local museum, which houses a vast collection of old photographs, mostly drawn from private family albums donated to the museum. I thumbed through some two thousand images of streets, houses and people before finding a small photograph that seemed to capture the mood I was looking for; a family having a picnic somewhere, probably around 1920 or 1930, when Subiaco was a relatively undeveloped suburb.

...Rather than simply scale up and reproduce this image I wanted to abstract it in some way, particularly using colour to evoke a certain meditative mood. I imagined that each character was showing a different reaction to their environment, as if they were each living in different personal universes that happened to intersect - some are green, some pink, some white, and seem to be fading in and out of the background like fragments of memory."

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Monday Murals meme.

GLASS REFLECTIONS

The public library at Mill Park, an outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,

and also part of the Weekend in Black and White meme.

SALT LAKE CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY, USA

The Salt Lake City Public Library system's main branch building is an architecturally unique structure in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is located at 210 East, 400 South, across from the Salt Lake City and County Building and Washington Square. This present modern library, was built after celebrating the library's 100th anniversary in early 1998. An $84 million library bond was approved to move the library north half a block to its current location. The firm Moshe Safdie and Associates and local architects in VCBO Architecture designed the building, which opened to the public on February 8, 2003. The former library building is now The Leonardo museum.

The Salt Lake City main library has an area of 22,000 square metres and is a five-story tall, wedge-shaped building. The library has a collection of over 500,000 books as well as subscriptions to over 60 newspapers and magazines and 163 internet capable computers. The structure includes 34,370 cubic metres of concrete as well as 16,385 square metres of glass. One of its features is the five-story curved glass wall.

Outside the library is Library Square, a landscaped and paved plaza. There are several shops on the square as well as the studios of radio station KCPW-FM. Library Square is paved with limestone from Israel. Upon entering the five story building, one enters the "Urban Room", which has the same limestone paving as the square. The room extends for all five floors and ends with a skylight of 1,900 square metres. More shops line one side of the Urban Room. A rooftop garden completes the structure. It is planted with trees, grasses, flowering bulbs and various perennial plants. The whole library depends on natural lighting, reducing the need of lights in the library. A huge five story glass wall is where most of the light comes from. It is a magnificent building and I would gladly visit Salt Lake City again just to make a return visit to this library!

This post is part of the Mellow Yellow Monday meme.

From architect's sketch...

To architect's model...

To the actual building