Baillieu Library

The Baillieu Library is the University of Melbourne's largest discipline library, housing impressive collections relating to teaching and research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It is located on the west side of the University’s inner city Parkville Campus, near the corner of Grattan Street and Royal Parade. The building was designed by John Scarborough, and opened in 1959. It was refurbished in 2011–12. It is named after the Baillieu family who funded the library through the William Baillieu Trust.

John Francis Deighton Scarborough’s first involvement with The University of Melbourne was during the mid-1940s as a lecturer in architecture. In 1948 he designed the extension to the Old Quadrangle Library before being appointed the architect for the Baillieu Library in 1952. John Scarborough had a practice under the name of The Office of John F. D. Scarborough Architects and had two associates who were undergraduate students studying at The University of Melbourne - Ken Hunt and Ian Watkins. Ian Watkins along with Barry Axtens (whom Ian met in London) prepared the drawings for the library and Ken Atkins worked with Axel Lodewycks (who was the librarian at the time) on developing and expanding the library.

The Baillieu Library consists of four levels. Each level houses a separate collection.

This level is a designated as a silent study area which contains a vast amount of primary and secondary source microform materials. Photocopiers and library computers are also available for collecting data.

The High Use Collection contains recommended reading materials assigned by lecturers and staff. Due to their high demand, most items have shorter loan periods, either overnight or hourly. The High Use Collection is where students and staff collect their borrowing requests. The IT Help Desk is also located on this floor.

The General Collection was created for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. This collection uses the Dewey Classification System. Folio (large size) books are located at the end of each main Dewey sequence.

A number of different collections fall into this category: The East Asian Collection, The Louise Hanson-Dyer Music library, Special Collections, The University of Melbourne Archives and Government Documents.

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