The Melbourne Athenaeum Library is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our online catalogue and access has been temporarily interrupted. We thank our members for their patience as we work to resolve the issue.

Our Ebook collection can still be accessed at https://melbourneathenaeum.overdrive.com/

The Melbourne Athenaeum Library is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our online catalogue and access has been temporarily interrupted. We thank our members for their patience as we work to resolve the issue.

Our Ebook collection can still be accessed at https://melbourneathenaeum.overdrive.com/

News and Events

Friday 9 May 2025
Ultrafox

BOOKING INFORMATION HERE

Ultrafox returns to the library for a concert of French-style jazz on May 9, featuring the guitars and vocals of Peter Baylor, Sam O’Halloran on guitar, Esther Henderson on violin,...read more
Monday 19 May 2025
Athenaeum Art Gallery Lecture

BOOKING INFORMATION HERE

Due to popular demand the Athenaeum is offering an encore session for our Heritage Festival talk. Discover the story behind the opening of the Melbourne Athenaeum Art Gallery and its...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