Editing State Library Victoria (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Melbourne State Library from above Swanston St.jpg|thumb|left|Aerial view showing the Domed Reading Room, commissioned in 1909 to celebrate the library's jubilee]]
In 1909, most of the remaining Intercolonial Exhibition buildings were closed and the Great Hall was demolished. On part of the land they occupied, Baldwin Spencer Hall was built (now the "Russell Street Welcome Zone"), and work began on the library's famed Domed Reading Room. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Bates, Peebles and Smart, the successor to Joseph Reed's firm, now known as [[Bates Smart]].<ref>{{cite web|title=State Library of Victoria|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/812|website=Victorian Heritage Database|access-date=5 November 2017|archive-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107002549/http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/812|url-status=live}}</ref> Its construction led to much less use of Queen's Hall, which led to it becoming the home of a reborn I&T Museum in 1915.
The reading room was refurbished and reopened in 2003 as the La Trobe Reading Room, with the dome's skylights that had been hidden behind copper sheathing since 1959 again revealed.<ref name="slv">{{cite web |title=La Trobe Reading Room |url=https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/visit/our-magnificent-spaces/la-trobe-reading-room |website=State Library Victoria |access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref>

In 1928 the South Rotunda opened. The McAllan Gallery on the LaTrobe Street side was built in 1932. In 1940, the North Rotunda opened.

[[File:A handcoloured photo of a woman wearing traditional Chinese clothings standing next to the State Library of Victoria, c. 1920s.jpg|thumb|A handcoloured photo of a woman wearing traditional Chinese clothings standing next to the State Library of Victoria, c. 1920s]]

The Public Library, National Gallery and Museums Act 1944 organisationally separated the four major cultural institutions, while they continued to share the one site.

In 1959, the dome's skylights were covered in copper sheets due to water leakage, creating the dim atmosphere that characterised the Library for decades.

In 1963, the south-west courtyard next to the dome became a planetarium. (This space is now the Pauline Gandel Children's Quarter.)

In 1965, the La Trobe Library was opened to house the Library's Australiana collections. This building later became the Conference Centre and Theatrette.

The [[National Gallery of Victoria]] (NGV) moved to a new home in [[St Kilda Road]] in 1968. This led to the I&T Museum moving out of Queen's Hall and into the NGV's buildings. Queen's Hall returned to Library use.

In 1971 the Lending Library closed. Melbourne's CBD was to be without a public lending library until the opening of the [[City Library]] in 2004.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lucas |first1=Clay |title=City Library on borrowed time as council plans new CBD facility by 2020 |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/city-library-on-borrowed-time-as-council-plans-new-cbd-facility-by-2020-20160828-gr32qw.html |work=[[The Age]] |date=28 August 2016 |language=en |access-date=10 August 2019 |archive-date=10 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810234330/https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/city-library-on-borrowed-time-as-council-plans-new-cbd-facility-by-2020-20160828-gr32qw.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Public Record Office Victoria]] was once the Archives Department of the Library. In 1973 the Public Records Act established the Public Record Office as the state's archive authority, independent of the Library. The Office moved to Laverton in 1977, then to North Melbourne in 2004. PROV now frequently supplies exhibits for the [[Old Treasury Building, Melbourne|Old Treasury Building]] museum.

[[File:Melbourne City Loop Museum Station, now Melbourne Central, under construction 1974 on the corner of La Trobe and Swanston Streets 1.jpg|thumb|Construction of Museum station, now [[Melbourne Central railway station|Melbourne Central]], under [[La Trobe Street]] in 1974, with the library visible in the background]]
In 1973, construction began on Museum station (now Melbourne Central station), which, upon completion in 1981, provided direct heavy rail access to the State Library for the first time. The National Museum and what was now known as the Science Museum of Victoria merged in 1983 to form the [[Museum of Victoria]], filling the Russell St end of the site. Part of this combined museum was moved to Spotswood to form [[Scienceworks (Melbourne)|Scienceworks]] in 1992, with the bulk of the galleries remaining until 1997. At that time the remaining museum closed temporarily before part reopened elsewhere as the [[Immigration Museum]] in 1998, and the rest as the [[Melbourne Museum]] in 2000.

The Library underwent major refurbishments between 1990 and 2004, designed by architects Ancher Mortlock & Woolley. The project cost approximately [[Australian dollar|A$]]200 million.

In 1995, the north-west courtyard next to the dome was glassed in to become a reading room (and later the Genealogy Centre, and now the Conversation Quarter). In 1998, the north-east courtyard was glassed in to become the Newspaper Reading Room (and is now the Ideas Quarter).

The NGV returned to the Library building from 1999 to 2002, occupying the Russell Street halls while its St Kilda Road buildings were renovated.

The reading room closed in 1999 to allow for renovation, when the skylights were reinstated.

By the late 1990s, on Sundays between 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm, a speakers' forum took place on the library forecourt. Orators took turns in speaking on various subjects, and it was a popular location for protest meetings and a rallying point for marches.