A Library Planet post by Fiona Kells

I visited the State Library of Queensland on a Thursday afternoon in May, 2023, and it was pumping: it just happened to be the opening day of the Brisbane Writers Festival. A happy and relaxed crowd of Festival attendees, participants and organisers, tourists, students, parents with young kids, and other makers, doers and thinkers of various kinds mingled inside and outside the Library.

It was fantastic. I roved through the five levels, getting a sense of the place. I visited the Meet the artists: From the James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews exhibition. I people/celebrity watched. I bought some books in the pop-up Festival shop. I had coffee and chocolate cake at the cafe. I sat in on an author session where he discussed his most recent book. The atmosphere, the architecture, the facilities. I found myself seriously contemplating pulling up stakes and heading north, making this my local.

The State Library of Queensland celebrated its 120th birthday in 2022. The Library was founded in 1896, in William Street in Brisbane’s CBD, and moved across the river to South Bank in 1988 to a building designed by Robin Gibson and Partners. A redevelopment in the mid-2000s by Donovan Hill + Peddle Thorp Architects more than doubled the Library’s size and provided it with an amazing new home. It is now an open, bright, brutalist-lite building full of unexpected vistas and surprisingly intimate spaces. Naturally, the building was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture in 2007.

The redevelopment has allowed the Library to expand its facilities to include kuril dhagun, a knowledge sharing space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; improved archival storage; auditoriums; exhibition and informal galleries; cafés; meeting and training rooms; performance and other spaces (some available for hire). There is also an amazing makerspace (The Edge), a creative space for children (The Corner), a Business Studio Online Hub and a Library shop.

At the Library’s heart is a phenomenal five-storey atrium; the ground-level of which – the Knowledge Walk – is accessible seven days a week and has free wi-fi available 7am to 8pm daily. There are also balconies and lots of other spots for reading, working or relaxing. (FYI from a fifth-floor balcony I photographed a T-Rex bursting out of the roof of the nearby Museum!) The Library is also surrounded by some great public open space with shade and seating which is great for observing the antics of the resident bin chickens (Australian white ibis).

The State Library of Queensland is the leading reference and research library in Queensland, and one of the best State libraries I have seen. I hadn’t visited in quite a while (too long; I think the last time was in the late 1990s) and I was agog at the transformation. Here was everything you could desire in a State library and a lot more besides. Accessible technology: check. Easy access: check. Informative and friendly staff: check. Impressive holdings: check. Stone fire-pit: check.

The State Library of Queensland is part of a larger South Bank cultural precinct that includes the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), the Queensland Museum and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The State Library of Queensland is on Stanley Place, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Check the Library website for opening hours and more information: https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/