Melbourne Library Collection Strengths
Introduction
La Trobe University Library provides access to physical and digital collections across campuses in Melbourne and regional Victoria. The Borchardt Library, Melbourne is the largest library, providing a collection of over 1,200,000 books, close to 40,000 electronic and 4500 print journals, and a substantial collection of Audiovisual items.
Subject areas
The Borchardt Library, Melbourne began collecting upon the establishment of the University in 1965 and rapidly built up a core collection to support the original disciplines taught. The strong collections in Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Politics, Literature, Philosophy and History date back to this time. Music was particularly strong with much effort going into developing the collection of scores and recordings.
Area collections also began development during this period resulting in strong collections based on specific staff interests. Of particular note are the collections in Latin America, India and South Asia, Africa, Canada, and European Communities. A grant from the Vaccari Foundation in the late 1970s and early 1980s allowed the collection of materials to support Art History and Italian. For some time the Greek collection was supported by similar kinds of small donations.
When La Trobe amalgamated with the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in the late 1980s, and the Abbotsford and Carlton branch library collections were brought together at Bundoora, the strength of the Health Sciences collection was apparent. Of note were the areas of : Gerontology, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational therapy, Speech/ Communication disorders, Ergonomics, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Rehabilitation and Social Work.