Editing State Library Victoria (section)

===The dome (La Trobe Reading Room and Dome Gallery)===
[[File:State Library of Victoria Dome.jpg|thumb|upright|The La Trobe Reading Room]]
The landmark Domed Reading Room was opened in 1913, and was designed by Norman G. Peebles of [[Bates Smart]]. Its six storey high octagonal space was designed to hold over a million books and up to 600 readers; as of 2024 it can house 32,000 books and 320 readers at its desks.<ref name="slv"/> It is 34.75 metres in both diameter and height, and its [[Oculus (architecture)|oculus]] is nearly 5 metres wide. The dome was the largest in the world on completion.<ref name="Lewis2003">{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Miles |authorlink=Miles Lewis |date=Spring 2003 |title=The Dome |url=https://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-72/t1-g-t6.html |url-status=live |journal=The Latrobe Journal |volume=72 |page=58 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324233310/https://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-72/t1-g-t6.html |archive-date=2015-03-24}}</ref><ref>It was superseded within months by the far larger, 69-metre-diameter [[Centennial Hall (Wrocław)|Centennial Hall]] in what was then Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland).</ref>

In 2003, the area under the dome was officially renamed the La Trobe Reading Room, and now houses the Library's Australiana collection, previously held in the 1965 La Trobe Building.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Dome|url=https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/slvhistory/dome|website=The history of the State Library of Victoria|publisher=State Library of Victoria|access-date=30 August 2017|archive-date=4 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904185117/http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/slvhistory/dome|url-status=live}}</ref> The Dome Gallery in Level 4 houses the free permanent exhibition "World of the book". Level 5 housed the long-running exhibition "The changing face of Victoria" until its closure on 6 February 2022. Level 6 provides visitors with a view of the reading room below.

The dome is also home to the Victorian Indigenous Research Centre.