A companion research guide for the Your Library Online webinar
You can browse our collections by format via the Search & Discover menu.
Our historical collections date back to 1854, and include photographs, personal manuscripts & diaries, maps, magazines, newspapers, comics, theatre programs and much, much more. Not sure what we hold? Try exploring our collections by format:
Here you will find pages on:
| Audiovisual material | Journals & magazines | Newspapers |
| Books | Manuscripts, letters & diaries | Pictures |
| Ephemera | Maps | Realia |
| Eresources | Music scores & sheet music | Zines, comics & graphic novels |
Many of these formats will include digitised items which can be accessed from home.
Ephemera are ephemeral items that are designed to be temporary in nature. For instance, posters, junk mail, menus, catalogues, press clippings, calendars, invitations, and political flyers, badges and stickers. The Library collects many of these items, with a focus on Victoria and Victorians. Most of our ephemera collections have been donated by members of the public. We frequently ask for ephemera donations, particularly during elections and other major events. We have a particularly strong collection of political ephemera. You can see a selection of our digitised ephemera collection in this catalogue search.
Realia is library-speak for objects, mementos, and artifacts. Generally speaking, our Realia items are not retrieved for viewing, so our digitised images of these items are incredibly valuable. You can see a selection of our digitised realia collection in this catalogue search.
Click on the other format names above to learn more about each category.
Since 1993 we have digitised more than 770,000 Library items. Many of these are pictorial in nature, but some are digitised documents and journals. You can find our most popular of these collections in our Popular Digitised Collections page, available via the Search & Discover menu.
Here you can find an incredibly interesting assortment of collections, including the Football Record, the Port Phillip Papers, the Records of Coles Myer, the Victorian Groundwater Records, and the ever-popular Sands & McDougall directories - just to name a few!
The Library has digitised hundreds of thousands of pictures from our pictures collection, with over 170,000 of them available on our website. Select Copyright-free image search from our Search & Discover menu.
Use the search bar, or browse through some of our topics. You'll find all kinds of things here, including postcards from regional centres, architectural drawings, or even cat photos!
All of the pictures in the Digital Image Pool are out of copyright, and can be downloaded and used as you desire. Download them in high-resultion TIFF format for use in a publication, or to print it out and put it on your wall.
If using our collection items in pulications, remember to cite appropriately, even if they are out of copyright.
Access Collection Discovery, our curated collection of digitised items from the State Library Victoria collection from the top menu in our catalogue
Anyone can access these digitised items, no membership is required. There are a series of sub-collections that allow you to browse journal titles, artworks, photographs, sketchbooks and photo albums. You can also find digitised content from current and past exhibitions and items from specific collections such as the WG Alma Conjuring Collection.
You can also use collection discover to see our reading room browsing collections
The Redmond Barry Reading Room collection contains a selection of digitised Ned Kelly material (his armour is located in the Reading Room)
Our Stories page features curiosities, treasures and the latest inspiring stories from our community and inside the Library.
Watch video series about our collections:
