The Melbourne Athenaeum Library will be closed on Monday June 9 for the King's Birthday public holiday.

The Melbourne Athenaeum Library will be closed on Monday June 9 for the King's Birthday public holiday.

News and Events

Friday 4 July 2025
Music: Gryphon Baryton Trio
This concert is a rare chance to hear live some of the fascinating chamber works by Joseph Haydn for baryton. The magnificent baryton, an instrument similar to a bass viol, was...read more
Monday 28 July 2025
Sixty Years a Bookseller
When a teenaged girl started a retail business with her parents in Essendon in 1965, she could not have imagined the life-long adventure that she had just begun. Today that...read more
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Library

A range of cultural activities are held in the beautiful surrounds of the subscription library.
The library holds a 30,000 strong collection and hosts regular music performances, talks, book and screen clubs, and artist and writer-in-residence programs. Members enjoy the historic atmosphere and quiet haven in a bustling city.

Browse the collection

New Acquisitions

General Fiction
Translations / Jumaana Abdu
General Fiction
Somebody down there likes me / Robert Lukins
General Fiction
The secret year of Zara Holt / Kimberley Freeman
General Fiction
I want everything / Dominic Amerena
General Fiction
The physics of sorrow / Georgi Gospodinov
Crime Fiction
Murder at Lord's Station / Jim Eldridge
Crime Fiction
Miss Caroline Bingley, private detective / Kelly Gardiner & Sharmini Kumar
Crime Fiction
The ladies road guide to utter ruin / Alison Goodman
Crime Fiction
Nightshade / Michael Connelly
Crime Fiction
The name of the sister / Gail Jones
Non Fiction
Black convicts / Santilla Chingaipe
Non Fiction
Hear me roar / Erna Walraven
Non Fiction
Brainstorm / Richard Scolyer
Non Fiction
How to kill a witch / Claire Mitchell & Zoe Venditozzi
Non Fiction
Always home, always homesick / Hannah Kent
Other Genres
Lean your loneliness slowly against mine / Klara Hveberg
Other Genres
He would never / Holly Wainwright
Other Genres
The woman in the well / Dmetri Kakmi
Other Genres
Penelope unbound / Mary Morrissy
Other Genres
The 113th assistant librarian / Stuart Wilson
Ebooks
Fyneshade / Kate Griffin
Ebooks
The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir / Lesley Allen
Ebooks
Fix Her Up / Tessa Bailey
Ebooks
The Bingo Hall Detectives / Jonathan Whitelaw
Ebooks
Buried in a Good Book / Tamara Berry

About us

The Melbourne Athenaeum enriches Melbourne’s cultural and educational life by fostering public engagement with the arts and culture, and supporting creativity.
A Management Committee of volunteers is responsible for the organisation’s governance. Every member joining the Melbourne Athenaeum becomes a custodian of a rich part of the city’s living history.
history image
State Library Victoria, www.slv.vic.gov.au, Alfred Martin Ebsworth, June 29, 1885.

History

The story that unfolds here is about a unique organisation that continues to contribute to the city’s culture in a building first completed in 1842.
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