Southbank Library

The Southbank Library supports and enriches the learning, teaching and research activities of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. The Library is located at the Southbank campus of the University of Melbourne.

Standard Hours

After Hours Study Zone

The Southbank Library supports the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the Southbank campus of the University of Melbourne. It is a new library that re-opened in February 2019 incorporating the collections of the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library (formerly at Parkville campus) and the Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library (formerly at Southbank campus).

The new library has been created in response to the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music moving the majority of its programs to Southbank in 2019. A new state of the multi-story building on Sturt Street was also opened in February 2019 to support this major initiative.

There are two significant collections that comprise a rich and deep cultural library of resources for our students and staff. Now considered to be one of the biggest creative arts libraries in Australia it brings together two collections with strong teaching and research credibility and historical backgrounds.

Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Collection

The Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Collection is over 100 years old, having supported the original Faculty of Music (now Fine Arts and Music) through the decades. It is considered to be one of the finest music collections in Australia. It is diverse and comprehensive including books, journals, collected editions, facsimiles and monuments of music, music scores, sound recordings and video – in paper and online – full-text and streaming. It also has an extensive range of microfilms of unique manuscripts and other material held in major music collections in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The collection (and former Music Library) honours Louise Hanson-Dyer (1884-1962). A Melbourne born patron of the arts and music publisher, Louise founded the publishing house Editions de l’Oiseu-Lyre in Paris, which became a pre-eminent publisher of early music recordings, collected editions and championed contemporary Australian composers. A bequest on her death has supported teaching and research activities in the Faculty of Music.

Her own personal library and extremely fine Rare Music Collection is now located in the Rare Music Collection as is the Archive of Editions de l’Oiseu-Lyre. These are accessible to researchers at the Baillieu Library Reading Room.

The new auditorium is also honoured with her name - located in the Ian Potter Southbank Centre, home of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Further information about Louise Hanson-Dyer can be found in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Lenton Parr Visual and Performing Arts Collection

The Lenton Parr Visual and Performing Arts Collections consist of some of the richest collections of books, sound and video in these art forms.

Formerly the Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library, it was named in honour of Lenton Parr (1924-2003), the distinguished sculptor, arts educator and Founding Director of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The collection was founded with the National Gallery School Library collection when the VCA was proclaimed in 1972. The two founding Schools of Art and Music provided early strengths in these areas including books, journals, music scores and sound recordings. The addition of the Schools of Drama, Dance, Film and TV, and Production in the following decades are reflected in the collection, with extensive audiovisual collections on laser disc, video and DVD.

Learn more about Lenton Parr:

Lenton Parr and the birth of the Victorian College of the Arts in this ART150
article by Professor Emeritus Andrea Hull AO

Precinct: VCA Founding Director Lenton Parr: a spectrum of human experience

Hub Building
Building Number: 863, Southbank Campus
Collections: Dance, Film & TV, Fine Art, Music, Theatre, Special Collections.
Floor plans:

Direct Enquiries

Email: southbank-library@lists.unimelb.edu.au

General Library Queries:

Visit the contact the library page.

Faculty staff and students are welcome to contact the specialist Library staff listed below.

Senior Librarians

Ashley Sutherland
Faculty Librarian, Fine Arts and Music(acting) and Arts Faculty Librarian
ashley.sutherland@unimelb.edu.au
+61 3 9035 9056
Natasha Story
Senior Librarian, Library Services and Spaces
Architecture, Building and Planning Library, Creswick Library & Southbank Library
natasha.story@unimelb.edu.au
+ 61 3 8344 1166