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
The buried life / Andrea Goldsmith
General Fiction
Sipsworth / Simon Van Booy
General Fiction
The burrow / Melanie Cheng
General Fiction
Wild dark shore / Charlotte McConaghy
General Fiction
We do not part / Han Kang
Crime Fiction
The bones / Katrina Watson
Crime Fiction
Isolation island / Louise Minchin
Crime Fiction
Nine lives / Peter Swanson
Crime Fiction
Perspectives / Laurent Binet
Crime Fiction
Opal / Patricia Wolf
Non Fiction
Black witness / Amy McQuire
Non Fiction
Mr & Mrs Gould / Grantlee Kieza
Non Fiction
Chameleon / Robert Dessaix
Non Fiction
Everything Is tuberculosis / John Green
Non Fiction
Dressed in black / Lisa MacKinney
Other Genres
Upon a starlit tide / Kell Woods
Other Genres
Red side story / Jasper Fforde
Other Genres
By her hand / Marion Taffe
Other Genres
Strangers in time / David Baldacci
Other Genres
The Midwatch / Judith Rossell
Ebooks
The Trial / Rob Rinder
Ebooks
Assault and Batting / Tess Rothery
Ebooks
Virginia Lane is Not a Hero / Rosalind Stopps
Ebooks
Seeds of Murder / Rosie Sandler
Ebooks
The Engine House / Rhys Dylan

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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