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

Thursday 19 June 2025
Books and Bubbles: Body in the Library
Meet the sisters in crime who penned the winning entries from the Body in the Library category of the 2024 Scarlet Stiletto Awards, which the Melbourne Athenaeum Library has sponsored...read more
Friday 20 June 2025
Sally Ford and the Idiomatics
The Idiomatics return to the Atheneum Library, this time joined by two very special guests. Poet, novelist and non-fiction writer Maxine Beneba Clarke will be reading excerpts of her work...read more
Play Video

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.
crosschevron-down