This place is beautifully airey and quiet. Always great when a library smells good. Very relaxing…read morespace but could do with a few more work stations. Nice place to study or sit out of the wind, there are plenty of magazines and resources.

Wow things have changed in South Melbourne! The library…read morebuilding (in the former South Melbourne Post Office) was completely renovated a few years ago, it now a much bigger space, with a dedicated children's area with an outdoor play space, a reading room with fantastic views across to the Town Hall. There is a meeting room, three book clubs, and childrens' activities weekly! To top it off the renovated building has the Heritage Centre for the city of Port Phillip, has cool displays and research facilities - for searching for ancestors or history of buildings in the city. They also offer free walk guide booklets plus guided tours of various parts of the city.

It's in a very cool Victorian building but is really small, just one big room and nowhere private…read moreto quietly read.

Borrow a book and return it, or pop another in its place. That is the only rule to using this cute…read morelittle free public library, located inside Melbourne Central. It's a cute use of a space too small to fit another retailer in. Obviously you wont find the dewey decimal system in place like a real library, since it's all public donation - although it was very orderly considering. A friend suggested some poor OCD person was probably tidying them up for everyone else. If you have some books collecting dust on your shelf, it's worth popping by to swap it for something fresh if you're passing through.

One of my favourite little hide aways when I am in Melbourne Central and want to have a break from…read morethe hustle and bustle. When browsing the books you never know what you will find to read on the way home on the train from work! But don't forget to return or donate a book or two too. This is a great initiative as I always wonder about the fate of books since the introduction of tablets.

Our group recently stopped atthe State Library of Victoria where the story of Ned Kelly and Redmond…read moreBarry was brought to life in the now infamous bullet proof armor permanently on exhibit. The La Trobe reading room (a tourist attraction in its own right) was packed with students on a Public holiday nonetheless. Stunning! Opened in 1913, this magnificent octagonal reading room is six stores high and can house 32,000 books and 320 readers at its desks. When it was built, the enormous reinforced-concrete structure was the largest in the world. Known as the Domed Reading Room until it was refurbished and reopened in 2003, the building is an architectural feat.

My wife and I had heard about the State Library, and was interested in seeing what this looked like…read moreand ... there's no comparison with the libraries that we've been to. There is a big section of town where the trams are free to ride, and if you catch one of the 2 right trams, you can visit many of the attractions. We rode to the State Library - it was quite awesome to see how big it was, how many people - including many students - were using the facilities. There was also an interesting Children's Section. Interesting were also the various statues in front, including that "no-good" St. George that killed those poor innocent cute little dragons! Sob!

You'll need to reserve any popular book club type books waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy in advance…read more The people of Port Phillip are a literary lot and often you will notice that there are 20+ people on the reserve waiting list ahead of you. A quiet library with all of the usual services. I have never had to line up and staff are efficient, albeit not overly cheery. It's disappointing that the library is closed on Sundays. Two handy services are: 1. The book recycling bins - where your pre loved books can be donated to benefit others 2. Battery disposal units - dispose of your used batteries in the enviro friendly way

Everyone should make friends with their public library. Mine is one of my favourite places in my…read moreneighbourhood, and wherever you are, your public library should be one of your favourite places too. Why? 1) Free books.* Hello? And if books aren't your thing (well, what's wrong with you, for starters), there are magazines and most libraries now also have pretty good DVD and CD collections. Sure, it's not extensive, but browsing the St Kilda Library DVD section has seen me stumble along some classics that I would never have thought to pick up at a DVD store (or to, ahem, attain in other ways). Sure, you often have to place things on reserve and wait forever for them (I am currently 60 out of 69 in the waiting list for JK Rowling's Casual Vacancy), but this teaches you patience. 2) Everything you need to know about your local community, you can learn from your library. Okay, maybe not everything, but you can get a really great sense of the people in the area. You can tell this by the different languages stocked, the notices on the community board, or the kind of free seminars that are held. 3) That brings me to the next point - free events. I have been to talks about Buffy the Vampire Slayer at my library, poetry readings and book launches. I have overheard a talk on composting and seen flyers for something about worm farms (I think it was green week). Libraries also do cool things for kids, like storytime and craft things on school holidays. 4) Free wi-fi. St Kilda Library is usually packed with backpackers making the most of this. Before I got wi-fi at home, I spent even more time at the library. 5) The people watching is FANTASTIC. This relates a little to point 2. A lot of the time, people who hang out in the local library are just, you know, doing their thing. But sometimes, if you are lucky, their thing is being crazy. Or in the case of French backpackers, making out quite noisily while you are trying to concentrate on the paper you are writing. (Okay, not all French backpackers, but that one couple that time has tarred you all with the loved-up brush.) And finally, 6) Free books. What? I thought it was worth mentioning twice. So what's so special about St Kilda Library? I don't know, mainly just that it is my local, the place that I like to go to get a bit of work done yet at the same time get out of the house. Maybe if I moved away I would come to love my new local library as much as St Kilda, but for now it's just a familiar space. It had a bit of a refurbish recently so they have more computer banks and the like, but have maintain the slightly daggy decor that I think is important for any public library. I got a bit upset when they stopped counter service (the librarians and I used to have some good chats over the checkout) and installed self-service machines...but then a colleague who lives in the area told me that you can select "Pirate" as one of the language options. Arrrrrrrrgh. *Yes, I know technically the books aren't free but are actually paid for by local rates and taxes, but it's not like you're paying for them upfront. And isn't it nice that our rates go to awesome things like books?

As a mother of two, I've learned to love my local library. This place is an amazing resource right…read moreat your fingertips. They have an amazing selection of children's cooks, DVDs, games, and plenty for the adults. Bonus to it all is the story time, they even have it in Russian! They've recently re-modeled the library as well so it is a bit more modern and to check out books, you no longer need to stand in line to have a person do it, you can walk over to a super easy check out kiosk that even takes to security off DVDs and games. It's way cheaper to read a book from the library than a book store and with such a great selection, why waste the money? You can even log on the website and reserve books if you're in a hurry. They'll email or SMS you when they are ready for pick up and the reserved area is right by the check out kiosks!