Burton & Garran Hall - Campus - Acton - Australian National University Library

Australian National University Library

The Australian National University Library is part of ANU's Division of Information. The Australian National University Library began with the appointment of the first University Librarian, Arthur Leopold Gladstone McDonald, in early 1948. The establishment of the ANU Library was deemed so important to the development of the University that McDonald was appointed by the Interim Council before any of the professors.

Initially McDonald and several assistants were housed in Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, where they began to form the collection. At the end of 1950s the collection, which had grown to approximately 40,000 volumes, was transferred to Canberra, to be located in the Canberra Community Hospital and nearby huts. Over the course of the 1950s the collection grew steadily, and by the time of McDonald's retirement in the 1960s, the collection had grown to 150,000 volumes.

The ANU Library collection is housed in four main locations; the R.G. Menzies Building (Asia Pacific material); the J.B. Chifley Building (Social Sciences & Humanities material); the W.K. Hancock Building (Science material); and the Law Library in the Law School Building. Additional services are provided by five science branch libraries: Art Library, Chemistry Branch Library, Earth Sciences Branch Library, Eccles Medical Sciences Library and Music Library. ANU owns a collection of rare books, housed in a closed access collection held in the Rare Book Room in the R.G. Menzies Building.