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Grow with Praise of Future Ages: Creating The Baillieu Library Building 1959James Kilpatrick AbstractThe Baillieu Library opened as the new University Library of the University of Melbourne in March 1959 and is now the arts/humanities library. This paper discusses the significance of the Baillieu Library building. A study of the building reveals the challenges facing the university during the 1950s. The motto of the university is Postera Crescam Laude, which loosely translates as 'Grow with Praise of Future Ages'. The Baillieu Library, opened on 21 March 1959, exemplified this spirit; it was designed to grow with the university. One of the responses by the university to the demand by the federal government for an expanded and improved university system was to build one of the most up-to-date libraries of the time. The library became a symbol of an ambition to become a modern institution. The Baillieu Library was first opened to the Melbourne University community at the beginning of February 1959. Library users were lucky compared with students and staff of the Architecture school; on March 17 The Sun carried an article decrying the fact that the Architecture school was beginning yet another academic year accommodated in the converted army huts, which it had been occupying as a 'temporary measure' for the previous twelve years.1 On the same day, the registrar, F H Johnston, told The Age that the building program laid out by the 'Murray Report' of 1957 into Australian higher education was 'too late because the money was not available and the number of students was increasing'.2 But Mr Johnston probably appreciated that the library was a symbol, as well as a real part of a change taking place within the university and higher education as a whole: an aspiration to be modern. The university library was part of a wider library and education context. The university was attempting to meet the challenges of a system expanding at an unprecedented rate, and responding to increasing federal control. In 1954 Ian Clunies Ross, then Chairman of CSIR (now CSIRO) and others had urged Prime Minister Robert Menzies to commission a report into higher education.3 In 1957 this bore fruit as the 'Report of the Committee on Australian Universities' which came to be known as the Murray Report in honour of its chairman, Sir Keith Murray. The committee was invited to enquire into matters including:
It concluded that:
The report lamented the inadequacies of the infrastructure of contemporary Australian universities to meet this challenge and discussed research libraries specifically. It discussed the importance of good library provision:
The report went on to observe that 'while the importance of the library is recognized in all universities, there is wide disparity in the standards of library service offered.7 In general, library standards were inadequate to meet future needs. For example, the library at the Australian National University was housed in a wooden building that posed a serious fire hazard. The library of the University of Tasmania was part of a university in a 'situation... [that]... almost beggars description...'8 and included the accommodation of whole faculties in ex-army huts. The library of the University of Sydney was so overcrowded that students were discouraged from using it. The report noted that though not yet open, plans for a new library were already well advanced at the University of Melbourne. We can see here the beginnings of the themes of federalism and internationalisation now central to Australian higher education. Up until this period, universities were a state responsibility. The Universities of Sydney and Melbourne were founded in the 1850's. Individual universities appealed directly to State premiers for funding support. When inviting him to chair the committee that created the Murray report, Robert Menzies asked Sir Keith Murray, who was chairman of the University Grants Committee of Great Britain, to 'pay attention to what Australian Universities could reasonably be expected to do, how they might be organized to do this and how they might be financed'.9 The federal government acted on the findings of the report, in the continuing process of Australian federal government assuming control from the states and positioning the country to face the wider world in the post-war period. Menzies spoke to the Report in the House of Representatives on 28 November 1957, announcing the establishment of a permanent Australian Universities Commission and spending initiatives to expand the university sector. In the first submission of need to the commission - a task then novel in Australian university administration – University of Melbourne authorities described
The number of university students in Victoria was conservatively estimated to rise from 7588 in 1956 to 12,410 in 1967. The committee was asked to explore the possibilities for establishing a second university in Victoria but there was a consensus at the time that it would not be possible to have one open to students until 1962. It soon became apparent that these figures greatly underestimated enrolment growth in this period. The demands placed on the university's decision-making systems soon revealed the inadequacies of these systems, and forced major changes. The interest shown by the federal government was soon to become federal involvement and control. The Baillieu Library, which served the information needs of a campus with rising enrolments and expectations in this 1957-62 period, is one symbol of this change. Many of these initiatives, begun in this period, continue to be central to Australian higher education administration. The Wider Library ContextThe six original state-based universities were founded between 1851 and 1911. In 1932 the Carnegie Corporation commissioned a report into library services in Australia. Ralph Munn, a representative of the Carnegie Corporation, worked with Ernest Pitt, principal librarian of the Public Library of Victoria, on what was to become known as the Munn-Pitt report. The report, tabled in 1935, found that university library services were inadequate to meet the needs of that time but economic circumstances and the Second World War postponed action. In the post-war period, expectations of higher education changed and universities marshaled the will and resources to respond; with the opening of the Baillieu, Australian universities began to develop a modern library infrastructure. New universities began to be built immediately after the Second World War. This began with the Australian National University, established in 1946 but after the findings of the Murray Committee, expansion became systematic. Libraries had a strengthened role within the post-war universities. The University of Melbourne had a library system prior to 1959. It was inadequate but many of its shortcomings were recognized. Studying the Baillieu helps us to understand how one of the old universities expanded library resources in this post-war time of change. Within the University of Melbourne the role of the university librarian was a difficult one from which to direct change, as it had historically been a curatorial rather than strategic management role. Axel Lodewycks certainly found it so.11 In this period, information resources were entirely paper-based, but knowledge was growing and universities were expanding both course offerings and enrolment numbers. The more innovative libraries were built with the largest floor space that the budgets of their respective institutions would allow, but to a utilitarian design. This would allow the greatest number of people to locate the resource they wanted, as efficiently as possible. The library-as-monument was replaced with the idea of library-as-classroom. Any monumentalism in these buildings was a byproduct of their size and the innovative use of advanced technology and building materials rather than integral to the design. Planning for a New Library BuildingFor a quarter of a century there had been plans to build a new university library. In 1935, Leigh Scott, librarian since 1926, prepared a report to the university on the need for a new library building. The vice-chancellor of the time, Dr Raymond Priestley, gave the project the highest priority but action was postponed during the 1930s depression and the Second World War. The Baillieu benefaction of approximately £105 000 for library purposes was made to the university in 1944 from the estate of Edward Lloyd Morgan Baillieu. By 1945 the architectural firm of John FD Scarborough and Associates had been commissioned to plan a new library. By 1948 it became clear that Leigh Scott was unwell, and intended to retire before the new library that the university hoped to build was completed. Axel Lodewycks had been appointed from the Public Library of Victoria to the position of deputy university librarian in August of that year, and was handed the task of liaising with the architects to plan the anticipated new library building. Lodewycks was soon dedicating much of his time and energy to this project. Lodewycks found that the architect, J F Scarborough, proved
The initial estimate of the total cost for the new library was £450 000. A committee of the University Council recommended a 'functional unit' costing between £100 000 and £200 000. In the type of building being planned, £200 000 would only have been enough for a basement and ground floor. The architect supported Lodewycks, advocating an expenditure of £325 000 as the minimum possible for a functional building. This is an example of pre-Murray thinking: the university was attempting to build a new library as cheaply as possible and in response to local needs. Examining the Baillieu helps us to grasp a shift from local to strategic planning of university resources. The Murray report, coming as it did just as the Baillieu library was being created, added federal government vision and support for the university and its library. In 1951 the university adopted a master plan. It was agreed that `the most economical use of the grounds would be by... [building]... on the perimeter'.13 During 1952 a site for the new library was chosen. This followed much negotiation; someone once made the ambiguous observation that 'whatever site was chosen for the library, this would become the centre of the university'.14 The university chose the site of university house number three, and also encroached on the sites of houses 2 and 4, of the ten buildings, formerly professors' residences, lining Professors' Walk. Construction of the Baillieu Library altered the peppercorn tree lined Professors' Row constructed in the 1870s as residences for the professors at the university. This avenue had lost its original purpose well before the 1950s. Although the foundation chancellor, Sir Redmond Barry, had envisaged that all the professors would live together in the university, it had ceased building professorial residences on the campus after the land boom of the 1880s, and most of them were living in the suburbs by the 1920s.15 The facade would be parallel to the west wall of the arts building, and was not supposed to expand beyond the west line of the road in front of these houses. In 1953 the concern about the cost of building led to the proposed six level library being reduced to three levels. In 1956 the university accepted a tender for £603,944 from Prentice Builders. Only £230 000 was available, but the Finance Committee and the Council recommended accepting this tender, provided that the Buildings Committee was convinced that funds would come from the State Government. In 1957 the vice-chancellor described the library as the 'central core of all university training', in a letter to the Premier of Victoria, Henry Bolte, asking for funding.16 The Council committee known as the 'Buildings Committee' was the central organ for making decisions on major university buildings including libraries. The committee process assessed the need for a library in competition with other demands. The university did eventually find enough money to support a substantial new library building. In one appendix it listed the amount available for the library as £65 000, the total cost at £505 000, and the amount available from the building fund at £440 000. Compared with the cost listed for the new, ceremonial Wilson Hall, engineering, the new arts and agriculture schools and the university press, the total cost of the library was the greatest, and the amount to be allocated to it from the building fund was also the largest, demonstrating that the university was at last able to give priority to the library.17 Designing the New Library BuildingThe design of the new library was governed by three principles: ease of use, efficiency and potential for expansion. Lodewycks presented the essential features of the building plans to the Library Committee in 1955. In the plans 'the catalogue, floor directories at lifts and stairways and the sign posting of stack areas... guide the reader to the book'.18 The card catalogue was located in a catalogue hall on the ground floor. There was a reference service in the catalogue hall to help library users. Lodewycks believed that library users' reading involved 'at least 28 different methods of study'.19 Library users were to be dispersed over reading areas throughout the building, which were to be equipped with generous study tables. Space amounted to 1030 reading places, twice what was offered in the previous building, but this was still 'insufficient to meet demand'.20 The flow of users throughout the building was calm, fulfilling the promise of dispersal techniques integral to the design. There was an exit control guard at the library door, to prevent 'unwarranted borrowing'.21 It was possible to detect books not charged out by the presence of an uncancelled date slip. Each floor was arranged with book stacks radiating from the central staircase. A suggestion box was placed in the lobby; there were complaints about the air conditioning. Groups of students were given instruction in library use during Orientation Week, as were individual students throughout the year. The university community flocked to its new library, keen to get to know it. Lodewycks believed that 'efficient layout achieves economy of space, motion and time' for use by both library staff and users.22 Staff workrooms were positioned near the card catalogue. They were located so that staff would have the 'shortest possible routes with regard to the frequency with which the member of staff concerned... [used]... the catalogue', an important issue in an era of card catalogues.23 No part of the building was to be more than 50 feet from a staircase or lift. A steel framework of columns placed at 23-foot intervals supported the structure of the building. The design was based on a large square module; this allowed a clear line of sight and horizontal expansion. Lodewycks believed that 'in a growing university, library requirements cannot remain static'.24 The only permanent features were staircases, lifts, air conditioning ducts and plumbing. The book stacks were to be free standing. Any section of outside wall could be removed, to allow extensions without damaging the overall structure of the building. The Buildings Committee meeting of 15 September 1958 recommended that the new library be named the Baillieu Library, in honour of Edward Lloyd Morgan Baillieu, because his estate had bequeathed £105 000 to the university for library purposes in memory of his brother, William Lawrence Baillieu. A commemorative plaque was later erected in the library. The acting vice-chancellor approved the design for a mural, to be placed in the foyer of the library, and the proposal that the purpose-built rare books room for the new library be named the Leigh Scott Room, in honour of Leigh Scott, university librarian from 1926 until 1954. From an architectural point of view the building was a significant advance in Australian library design and also helped set a new direction for the buildings of the University of Melbourne. The most noticeable feature was the curtain wall, an expanse of glass traversing the three storeys of the building on the east (front entrance) side. It related well to the contemporary Wilson Hall and Beaurepaire Centre, and 'set a new image to the university and a radical departure from the traditional collegiate style' such as the building that is now called 'Old Arts', built in free-stone in 1923 in imitation of the original Gothic Revival university buildings.25 The curtain wall had 'opaque spandrels' (the filled in upper and lower section of the windows.) There was contrast in the use and style of materials. The vertical sun-control louvres protect the glass on the west side of the building from direct sunlight. A wide flight of circular stairs formed the hub of the building. The curtain wall was less repetitious than many contemporary curtain walls. The foyer was lined with grey 'Italian Repin' marble. There were internal handrails, to provide a 'sense of security' to library users: expanses of floor to ceiling glass were a novelty in the late 1950s.26 The only other addition to the 'severity of this composition' was the entrance, in black polished stone, and a mural by Norma Redpath.27 This was made of timber finished to look like metal. The Baillieu Library included elements of 'featurism', which was once described by Robin Boyd as 'the subordination of the essential whole and the accentuation of selected separate features... Perhaps the explanation is that man, sensing that the vastness of the landscape will mock any object that his handful of fellows can make here, avoids anything that might be considered a challenge to nature'.28 Boyd did not describe the Baillieu building, but he wrote of the Wilson Hall, which had been opened on 22 March 1956:
The library building was a box, though a less inspiring box. The practical requirements of a library, as distinct from a ceremonial hall, dictated this. It is to Lodewycks' credit that the internal layout and fittings of the building were an advance in the functional design of Australian library buildings. Curtain walls were a feature of commercial buildings during the mid 1950s, but unusual in other types of building. They 'generally... [lacked]... the articulation of design of the Baillieu which reflects the different floor heights of the reading rooms and stacks areas'.30 We should remember that it was built in 1959, but planning began in 1951; it compares well with the La Trobe Library building at the State Library of Victoria, which was roughly contemporary but of comparatively conventional design. The 'T' shaped floor plan the building then had became an issue for discussion in library design circles. The 'T' shape was supposed to efficiently allow natural light into all parts of the building. DH Borchardt doubted whether the 'T' plan used for the University of Tasmania Library, when he was librarian of that university, was the 'most convenient'.31 Together with the new Wilson Hall, and the new Beaurepaire sports centre, the Baillieu library formed
The Historic Buildings Council report claims that the Baillieu 'appeared to have raised the modest talent of Scarborough to its full potential'.33 He was also engaged to design the new library buildings for the University of Tasmania (commenced in 1960) and Monash University (commenced in 1964).34 Other architects worked on other university projects, including Wilson Hall and the Biochemistry building. The firm of & Bates, Smart & McCutcheon, who were developing these buildings, had built the MLC building in North Sydney in 1957. This was the largest office building in Australia at the time, and noted for its curtain wall. Lodewycks had a major role in details of design for the new library. Even by the early 1950s he was finding that 'the planning process... became progressively more detailed and time consuming until much of my private time had to be devoted to it'.35 His efforts with this building made him an expert on library planning. He produced a monograph on the subject, Essentials of Library Planning, in 1962, described as having received 'international note'.36 The new building received 'world-wide publicity at the time of its construction and even before its doors were opened'.37 Leonard Jolly, university librarian of the University of Western Australia, wrote a decade later that Anyone in Australia who plans a new building without constantly consulting Mr. Lodewycks is not merely causing himself a great deal of unnecessary trouble, he is making sure that the building will be less satisfactory than it could be.38 At the University of Melbourne the role of the university librarian was rather circumscribed. When it came to making important final decisions on the construction of the new library building, university committees dominated. The fact that Lodewycks was able to achieve what he did with the Baillieu Library building, in that environment, was to his credit. Technologically Advanced, Educated, ModernThe Baillieu library, along with other post-war buildings on the Melbourne University campus, symbolized both the aspirations and financial realities of the post-war university. Before the Second World War, major public libraries were built in monumental style. The university sector was inadequate in its provision for libraries. With the opening of the Baillieu the University of Melbourne was establishing a new trend, one that continues to this day: that of the research library as utilitarian and a site for the latest information resources. Within Australia, access to higher education has become democratized since the Second World War. In the Menzies era governments were motivated to broaden access to higher education by nationwide skills shortages and the growing social ambitions and political power of Menzies' constituency: urban, middle class professionals, their children, and others aspiring to join their ranks. In a broader sense the university appears to have become aware of its national and international role, and perhaps also its inadequacy to fulfil that role without investment in new systems and infrastructure. This awareness may have been influenced by the direct involvement of national figures such as Menzies and Clunies-Ross in the affairs of the University of Melbourne. These people were also at the forefront of debate about the future of the nation in the postwar period, at least on the conservative side of politics. They had great faith in the contribution education could make. They wanted a society that was technologically advanced, educated and modern. They wanted to expand universities in pursuit of this goal. The Baillieu was both a symbol of this and a real resource, seeming publicly to proclaim that the University of Melbourne shared in this national vision. NotesNewspaper cuttings for the period 4 June 1958-31March 1960. University of Melbourne Archives The Sun 17 March 1959 (no page number given) The Age 17 March 1959 R G Humphries Clunies-Ross: Australian Visionary The Miegunyah Press Melbourne 1999 p190 Ibid p194 Ibid p 195 Report of the Committee on Australian Universities Canberra Govt Printer 1958 p50 para 178 Ibid para 179 Report... p50 para177 J Poynter and C Rasmussen in A Place Apart: The University of Melbourne: Decades of Challenge Melbourne Melbourne University Press 1999 p171 Ibid p176 J W Kilpatrick No Place in a Community of Scholars: K A Lodewycks and the Baillieu Library 1959-73 Australian Academic & Research Libraries vol 29 no 1 March 1998 K A Lodewycks The Funding of Wisdom: Revelations of a Librarys Quarter Century Melbourne Spectrum Publications 1982 p100 Historic Buildings Council (Victoria) Classification Report: Baillieu Library 1957-59 in File on the Baillieu Library: H B Baillieu Library. University of Melbourne Parkville City of Melbourne No 605534P Created 5 April 1993 p2 K A Lodewycks The Funding of Wisdom p99 G Blainey A Centenary History of the University of Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne University Press 1957 p167 Historic Buildings Council Classification Report... File on the Baillieu Library... p6 University of Melbourne Committees of Council. Committee of Council on Buildings. Minutes 1955 Book 42. University Archives Reel no 20 Appendix: Plan for 5 Year Finance for Buildings K A Lodewycks Report on Library Building Plans Australian Library Journal vol 4 April 1955 p57 Ibid p60 University of Melbourne Library: Report for the Year ended 31 December 1959 p2 University of Melbourne Library: Report... (1959) p15 Ibid p61 Ibid p60 Ibid p61 Historic Buildings Council Classification Report... File on the Baillieu Library... p1 Historic Buildings Council op cit p4 Ibid R Boyd The Australian Ugliness Melbourne F W Cheshire 1960 p9 Boyd op cit pp218-219 Ibid p5 D H Borchardt The New Library Building of the University of Tasmania Library Australian Library Journal January 1959 p21 Historic Buildings Council Classification Report File on the Baillieu Library... p6 Ibid H Bryan and G Greenwood (eds) Design for Diversity: Library Services for Higher Education and Research in Australia St Lucia Queensland University of Queensland Press 1977 pp430-438 K A Lodewycks The Funding of Wisdom p100 H Bryan and G Greenwood (eds) Design for Diversity p39 Design for Diversity footnote 11 in notes on Chapter 13 by H Bryan A Decade and a Half of Library Building (1959-73) pp697-698 L Jolley Notes on the New Library Building in the University of Western Australia Australian Library Journal October 1962 p197 CASL and NLA Form ConsortiumFollowing the signing of a recent agreement, the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) and the National Library of Australia (NLA) now form a consortium that aims to provide a series of initiatives that will, over time, increase public access to commercial information resources. During an initial trial year, electronic resources such as the Business Whos Who of Australia and Jobsons Online from Dun & Bradstreet, RMIT Publishings Australian Public Affairs Full Text and Gale Groups Health and Wellness Resource Center will be made available online. Currently readers in the CASL libraries as well as in the ACT public libraries and seven of the public libraries in Tasmania are able to access these services, and the consortium will add to the products available through the consortium and aims eventually to extend these services to all Australian public libraries.
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