The PMI Victorian History Library began life as the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute in 1854 and it still hold true to its original aims of being for the mental moral improvement and rational recreation of its members, by means of Lectures, Discussions, Library, Reading Rooms, Classes, Museum, Philosophical Apparatus, &c. The PMI Library still does all of this, excepting the museum and the Philosophical Apparatus, as the current staff remains unclear on exactly what a “Philosophical apparatus” constitutes. Today the PMI Library specialises in Victorian history and holds a collection of over 70 000 items onsite in its building in Prahran. Most of the PMI Library’s collection is available for loan to its members, with membership only costing $30 a year.

As the second oldest public library in Victoria, it predates that State Library by about three months, and as the oldest cultural institution in Prahran, the PMI Library is at the heart of Victoria’s cultural history and its future. The collection and the collection policy reflect the complexity of Victoria’s history, with a focus on minority voices so that everyone can find their story in the collection.  

This emphasis has also pushed the collection beyond books. While books remain at the core of the collection, with a real focus on small local stories, it has also grown to include : periodicals, ephemera, DVDs, videos, electronic resources, audio recordings (including podcasts), maps, zines, posters, some pictures and more. This is part of recognizing that the stories of Victoria are told in so many ways beyond books.

It’s also meant that the PMI Library is moving into new areas, including collecting You Tube and podcasts and carving out a little niche in video collection. This involves reaching out to film creators, including but not limited to You Tube, and asking for material for the PMI Library collection. As there is no legal deposit law for video in Victoria, it means that a lot of this material is not being collected elsewhere. The PMI Library is also unusual in that it owns all its electronic material and all material is kept onsite. This means that creators are more comfortable in donating or selling their born digital material to the collection.

The core of the collection, across all formats, is always going to be local history. The PMI Library contains information on just about every town in Victoria. Whether it’s a book, a mention in a periodical (the PMI Library collects and indexes the periodicals of every historical society in Victoria), or a piece of ephemera, you can find most places in the collection.

A key part of this local focus is the ephemera collection. The PMI Library collects ephemera from across Victoria: brochures, pamphlets and booklets. The ephemera collection began life as a vertical file collection, but was transitioned into an ephemera collection in the 2010s. Every time PMI Library staff, mainly the Collections Librarian, travel anywhere in Victoria, they collect the contents of the tourist information office. These small maps and brochures tell the hyper local stories and are a brilliant way of collecting information you just can’t get in any other way.

This collecting method is also highlighted in the PMI Library’s zine collection, which is a key way to collect minority voices. These are people of all backgrounds telling their stories in the way that matters to them. Like the ephemera, it’s also a great way of collecting local information. For example, on Trove the only two pieces of material on the Australian Pinball Museum in Nhill are a zine and a piece of ephemera that are only held in the PMI Library’s collection.

Beyond the collection itself the PMI Library is a community. With five staff, 38 volunteers and 835 members, the Library is a hub for researchers, students, family historians, heritage consultants, and people who just love reading about history. With free tea and coffee for members and plenty of place to just be, people often come to stay for the whole day. The PMI Library is just part of their routine. And a key part of that is the staff and the volunteers. The staff who will have a chat with you and still manually check out resources, and yes actually date stamp your books. Who will remember what you’re researching and help you find new and interesting material. The volunteers work across all areas of the library and range in age from early 20s to mid 80s and are the heart of the PMI Library community, with their longest serving volunteer there for 18 years. It’s the people that are at the core of the PMI Library. Whether you find them in the collection, sitting doing research, helping you at the front desk or indexing periodicals, the people and their stories are what makes the PMI Library special, in all senses of the word.