Victorian Labor unveils $50m SLV plan

The Victorian Labor Party will contribute $50 million to upgrade the State Library of Victoria (SLV) as part of its state election campaign, reports the Age.

The proposed upgrade will see the library’s floor space extended by 40 per cent, and will include the refurbishment of several areas of the library, including the historic Queens Hall.

The funding will also be used to broadcast seminars to libraries across the state and for video conferencing in workshops, while onsite literacy and numeracy programs and professional development programs for teachers will be expanded.

In October, the Victorian Liberal Party, which is seeking re-election in November, announced that all Victorian libraries would share in an extra $1 million worth of new books for their collections as part of the 2014-15 allocation from the Premier’s Reading Challenge Book Fund.

The Minister for Local Government Tim Bull said: ‘The four-year $4.5 million Premiers’ Reading Challenge Book Fund complements this government’s $17.2 million Living Libraries Infrastructure Fund, which has delivered new and upgraded libraries across the state and which is on top of this year’s record $39.52 million Public Libraries Funding Program.’

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Category: Library news