The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Established in 1869 its collections date back to the Australian Subscription Library established in the colony of New South Wales (now a state of Australia) in 1826.[4] The library is located on the corner of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place, in the Sydney central business district adjacent to the Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the City of Sydney. The library is a member of the National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) consortium.
The library expanded its operations, opening a lending branch in 1877. This lending branch was handed to the Sydney Municipal Council in 1909 and later became the City of Sydney Library. Another of Walker's initiatives was to establish services across the state, with loans to organisations including the Wollongong School of Arts and the Mechanics' Institute at Plattsburg (modern-day Wallsend)[8] and services for regional libraries from 1883.[10] The library's collection continued to grow, causing continual storage and overcrowding problems;[11] new additions included a First Folio in 1885 and the papers of William Bligh in 1902.
State Library Of New South Wales Archives
Dorothea Mackellar's papers were acquired in 1970, and Jørn Utzon's Sydney Opera House archive in 1972. The collection expanded in a new area with an oral history project, run in 1976, interviewing past staff members.[11] By 1978, all government archives had been moved to the State Records Authority of New South Wales (then called the Archives Authority of New South Wales),[11] which had been established in 1960[30] and was housed at the library until 1978.[11]
20 years after the completion of the Mitchell Wing, more building took place on the site of the state library. The Dixson Wing, designed by architect Richard Macdonald Seymour Wells and completed in 1929,[8] was added to the south side of the Mitchell Wing to provide storage and gallery space for the extensive collection of historical paintings presented to the library by Sir William Dixson.[4][46] The galleries were refurbished in 1987 in preparation for the bicentennial exhibition held at the library in 1988.[11] 2ff7e9595c
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