West End Library

Story

Kurilpa Library is a heritage-listed library at 178 Boundary Road, West End, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1929. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2007.HistoryThe Kurilpa Library is a two-storey brick building with a projecting central clock tower and addresses the main street in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End. It was constructed by the Brisbane City Council and opened in 1929.The provision of libraries by municipal councils in Queensland is a relatively new phenomenon, with most libraries currently operating having been established since the late 1940s. Previously, Schools of Arts and privately owned Reading Rooms provided books for loan by subscription. Schools of Arts or Mechanics Institutes were established in Britain in the early 1800s with the declared intention of assisting self-improvement and promoting moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, classes and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that providing access to them for a moderate subscription was an important educational and recreational service. Local councils had sometimes subsidised Schools of Arts and were granted authority in the Local Government Act 1878 to establish and operate libraries, although this was very uncommon until the twentieth century. Kurilpa Library was the first publicly funded municipal library in Queensland and South Brisbane Library opened soon afterwards. However, local councils did not become seriously involved in the construction of libraries in Queensland until after the Libraries Act 1943 was passed which provided for the establishment of a State Library Board and the improvement of library services throughout the state.