Collection

Melbourne Art Library is a free lending library. All are welcome.

We hold over 2300 items, with an emphasis on art and design practice and theory in Australia, Asia, and the Pacific. Our focus is on local texts, and those not held by other public collecting bodies.

Books, art journals, zines, pamphlets, artist books, exhibition material and more, can be browsed, read, and borrowed from the MAL reading room or through our .

It is free to become a borrowing member of the Melbourne Art Library. or in the library during opening hours.

The Melbourne Art Ephemera Archive is a local history project collecting exhibition literature and documents from artist-run galleries and projects in Melbourne. Material in the collection includes exhibition catalouges, roomsheets, critical essays and promotional posters, as well as video and audio documentation. The collection aims to reflect a distinct interest in critical approaches to making, exhibiting and interpreting art in Melbourne. The Archive's collection will be accessible to anyone, and we encourage contributions in all forms from galleries, off-site projects, individual artists and critics. All digital deposits will be uploaded to our online repository, made available to the public via the Melbourne Art Library website.

The Archive is currently seeking ephemeral material from galleries past, present, and future. Deposit digital material to the Archive’s online repository To submit physical material, please get in touch at .

Each year, MAL commissions a different Victoria-based artist to design a bookplate for the collection. The bookplates also acknowledge the donors of individual collection items.