Home to some 30,000 different objects, and a population of very inquisitive minds, Darling Square City of Sydney Library is our own cabinet of curiosities—a next-generation realm for learning, that’s here to shake up everything you imagined a library could be.
Before you step inside the City of Sydney Library in Darling Square, don’t expect a silent sanctuary of books where staid librarians monitor your every move. In fact, throw all those pre-conceived, cobweb-coated notions out the door. This space, like some of the world’s most advanced contemporary libraries, is more a social sphere—a place that makes way for people—for inventing, not just taking, and understands how they like to learn and come together. Noisy thinkers, curious minds, idea creators— look no further for a space in which to make those light bulb moments real.
Step inside and you’ll discover over 2,000m2, and two separate levels, a hub for learning, innovation and creativity, but most of all, a welcoming space to connect, imagine, read, or work. Here’s just a few of the reasons why you’ll want to visit.
MEMBERSHIP IS FREE
While you don’t need to be a member to visit, if you’re a NSW resident, it’s free to join the City of Sydney Library. Members can borrow a range of resources from here and any of the other eight, City of Sydney Library venues. There are books, DVDs, magazines and makerspace kits, as well as access to printing and computer services too.
SPACES TO COLLABORATE, WORK, STUDY OR RELAX
Whether you need a private room for a meeting or a group assignment, or a cosy space to curl up with a book, there are plenty of different spaces to choose from.
Meeting rooms, and a large seminar and workshop space are all available for community or commercial hire, and primary, high school and tertiary students can use available meeting rooms for free for up to two hours a day.
All Library members can use self-serve computers for free for up to three hours a day, and non-members can purchase a casual-use ticket for a small fee. Here, you can browse the internet, use Office based software or access Adobe Creative Cloud for graphic design, video and photo editing and website development.
With free Wi-Fi throughout the library, you can also log in and connect on your own device.
IDEAS LIVE HERE
Darling Square Library is home to the Ideas Lab, a 200m2 maker space and multi-purpose room designed to spur and support the ideas of Sydney’s curious creators. From designing and 3D printing to experimenting with robotics and prototyping, the possibilities are endless.
Need help with your own project or idea? Bring it along to the weekly session where experienced makers will be on-hand for advice.
Watch out too for the school holiday sessions starting in January 2020, featuring 3D paper circuit sculptures, 3D printed bookmarks and cycloid drawing machines.
BORROW FOR FREE
Darling Square Library has a collection of more than 30,000 items to borrow, including books, films, magazines, music, video games, robotic and electronic kits.
Members can borrow up to 30 items for three weeks from the City of Sydney Library’s entire collection of over 9 million items. Highlights of the collection at Darling Square Library include:
The makerspace collection of robotic and electronic kits to explore programming and tinker with at home. Why not create instruments with a modular synthesiser kit or turn
a banana into a touchpad to play online games! There’s a range of kits for ages 5+.
Extensive community language collections: The library is home to extensive multi-media collections in Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai languages. The Chinese collection itself includes over 17,000 items that range from DVDs and music CDs, to newspapers, magazines, non-fiction and fiction books for adults and kids, and children’s bi-lingual materials.
A DEDICATED KID’S ZONE
For the little ones, the dedicated fun space will be their new favourite hub, with plenty of colourful books and places to read, play and create. There’s also weekly story time and rhymetime sessions for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers in both English and Mandarin.
The fortnightly after-school drop-in series is a great opportunity to test-drive kits from the makerspace collection, including robots, coding equipment and electronics.
There’s also a fantastic line-up of school holiday makerspace workshops coming up in January. Kids can learn how to make a light-up paper circuit, 3D print their own custom bookmark or create a gear-driven drawing machine.
EVENTS A-PLENTY
From the entertaining adults-only Late Night Library series, to fascinating talks, workshops and activities for all ages, Darling Square Library hosts a year round program of free events. See what’s coming up at cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/library and subscribe to the monthly library e-newsletter to be the first to find out what’s on.
