Major building activities
These improvements are designed to ensure we use our available space as efficiently as possible and safeguard the collection for future generations.
Some of this work includes:
- Restoring the brass framed heritage windows
- Improving how we store the collections kept onsite
- Upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
Visitor experience redefined: what's available during building works and what awaits
Our iconic building remains open to the public and you can still enjoy the following activities:
- Access our reading rooms for study, research or a well-deserved break
- Catch up with your friends and family at Bookplate cafe in the foyer
- Enjoy a coffee or light meal at Paperplate Cafe which is located on the Lower Ground Floor
- Purchase a book for yourself or a loved one at our bookstore
- Enjoy a free guided tour of the building, departing 11am daily from the foyer.
Temporary disruptions to the onsite experience are part of our progress. As you move around the Library building you may hear some construction noise. These improvements will take place on a rolling basis and different collection storage areas will be impacted at different times. This means that access to parts of our collection will be temporarily impacted between now and June 2025.
You will see scaffolding on the King Edward Terrace side of the building, but you can still access the building via the ramp and stairs as usual.
Our Special Collections Reading Room and Petherick Reading Room has been moved to a new temporary location on Lower Ground 1.
We appreciate your support and understanding as we make improvements to our much-loved heritage building.
Funding
These projects have been funded by the Australian Government, including from the Library's annual appropriation or special projects funding.
Progress updates
Improvements to digitisation and photography areas
One way the Library provides access to its collections is by creating and making digital copies of its physical collection material (digitisation) accessible on Trove. The workspaces devoted to this work have been modernised and increased in size to meet the growing demand for digitised content. This work was completed in 2022.
Roof
The new gleaming copper sheeting has been installed and roof works have been fully completed.
Windows
The Windows Restoration Project will rejuvenate the Library's appearance and improve its thermal performance.
You will see scaffolding and hoarding while the windows are replaced.
The replacement of windows overlooking the Patrick White Lawns and Commonwealth Avenue Bridge is complete. The windows to the exhibition galleries on the ground floor were restored to coincide with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) upgrades in the galleries. The work was completed in June 2024.
The replacement of windows on the King Edward Terrace side of the building began in July 2024. This work will take approximately 12 months.
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
The Library stores part of the collection on site in areas that are not open to the public. When you visit the Library you can request collection material to be delivered to the Reading Rooms.
As part of our ongoing stewardship and care for these collections, the Library is upgrading about a third of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system - focusing on the areas where these collections are stored.
Temporary changes to collection access
Some collection storage areas will be temporarily closed, limiting access to some collection material. Different collection storage areas will be impacted at different times, but Library visitors can continue to request collection deliveries to the Reading Rooms as usual.
To find out what collections are impacted and when, and to help you plan your requests, please see: Temporary changes to collection access.
Building works, December 2023 update
Doug Walsh, Director of Capital Works at the National Library, takes us through key building activities for the period from December 2023 to February 2024.
National Library of Australia building works update, December 2023
Doug Walsh: Welcome to the building works update. I'm Doug Walsh, Director of Capital Works here at the National Library and I'm going to take you through the main building works activities from December 2023 through to February 2024.
Thank you for your patience during our recent planned outage. It's a vital step to support our digital services into the future. We will have another planned outage on the 13th and 14th of January 2024, so make sure you mark those dates in your calendar. This will affect all our online services, the catalogue, collection enquiries, the NLA website and Trove.
In December, we're putting up more scaffolding outside the Main Reading Room on the lake side of the building, but we will also be putting up window coverings so people studying in the Main Reading Room won't be distracted.
At the end of January, Bookplate, our galleries and the public toilets on the ground floor will close. We are upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in those areas.
We're also doing some work in the back of the bookstore. It will stay open.
We'll continue to update our website and social channels about when these services will reopen.
Building works, November 2023 update
Doug Walsh, Director of Capital Works at the National Library, takes us through key building activities for the period from November 2023 to January 2024.
National Library of Australia building works update, December 2023
Doug Walsh: Hi, I'm Doug Walsh, Director of Capital Works here at National Library. This is an update on how the building works are going to impact the public from November 23 to January 24.
This includes a closure of a stack and a disruption to digital services. However, on those days you can still enjoy browsing our exhibitions, shopping in our National Library bookshop or having a coffee in the cafe before the reading rooms open.
I'm here in the Asian Collection stack, and you can see how complex it's going to be to replace the HVAC. Which is why we want to give you as much notice as possible. This stack is going to close from 1st July 2024 for a full 12 months.
The Ephemera stack is also going to close and that will be from February 24 through to the end of April 24, as will the Rare Books and Fragile Collections up on level two, which will close from 1 June 2024 to 1 September 2024.
Keep checking our website for details and make sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And I'll see you next month for your next building works update.
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