The University of Western Australia Library is the oldest and largest university library in Western Australia, with a budget of more than A$16 million and a collection of about 1.5 million volumes and 55,000 current serial titles. Its public services include seven different subject libraries and the Scholars' Centre. It also provides an extensive range of digital services and electronic resources. The University Librarian (and Director, Information Management) is Dr Mary Davies.
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When the University of Western Australia was founded in 1913, the University Library was allocated £2000. A few hundred volumes were bought, but the Library was only nominally supervised and organised until the appointment of Malvina Evalyn Wood to the position of University Librarian in 1927. The next thirty years saw steady but unspectacular growth in the collections, but the Library's accommodation remained inadequate. It was not until Leonard Jolley became the University Librarian in 1959 that the Library began to expand its collections rapidly, to experiment with new forms of information technology, to erect major new library buildings, and to bring departmental libraries under central control. Technological improvements became even more significant in the 1980s as Arthur Ellis, Jolley's successor as University Librarian, worked to expand the collections of audio-visual and electronic materials and began the process of computerizing the Library's catalogues. [1]
The Reid Library is the main library building, opened in 1964 and named after Sir Alex Reid, former Chancellor of the University. It won an architectural award and was extended in 1973. Other significant buildings include the Beasley Law Library (1967), the Wigmore Music Library (1976), and the Medical and Dental Library (2001). The Science Library, opened in 2009, incorporated the previous Biological Sciences Library (1992) and absorbed several smaller branch libraries, including Geology and Mathematics and Physical Sciences.
The Library has substantial print and electronic collections across the full range of disciplines supported by the University of Western Australia. The print collections are housed in the various subject libraries, while the electronic collections are available across the campus network and by remote access.
The Library's Special Collections are housed in the Scholars' Centre. They focus on Australian literature and the history of the Indian Ocean Region and include the following discrete collections:
The Manuscript Collection includes the archives of Australian writers like Robert Drewe, Albert Facey, John Kinsella, Tracy Ryan and Peter Cowan, as well as the archives of the literary magazine Westerly and the Western Australian publisher Access Press, and manuscript material relating to the history of the University of Western Australia.
The Library offers a range of services for students and staff, including loans, document delivery and interlibrary loans, and reference and information services. Its digital services include Course Materials Online and SuperSearch (a federated search of numerous databases). It also provides a programme of information skills training, including the IRIS (Introductory Research and Information Skills) online unit for undergraduates.
The Library has developed or contributed to the following Australian digital services: