State Library of NSW Reviews

Modern library with diversified study places. Lockers is convenient and open on Sunday all day.

The staff are pretty acrimonious. Security asked if a book I was holding was mine and I said yes before he thought about it for a moment and asked me to hand it over to hold near the detector.

Just ask for the book to begin with; you re communicating that you mistrust the visitor if you ask them and then disregard their answer.

My most favourite cave when in need of a quiet study place in the city. Uncountable books that, when available, can be on the shelves within reasonable time (usually ready while I was travelling up there thanks to prior online processing). Desktops are everywhere for personal use. Anyone living in NSW can easily apply for a membership.

When I visited the Sydney Library they had an exhibition on called "Pulp Fiction" which was all about the old magazines that used to be produce back in the early 20th century. There were plenty of examples and contributions in the spacious gallery; so amazing that is was a free exhibition!

A beautiful place with so much history. Very inspirational.

Best place for intense study. Love their quietness. The silence place with many visitors. The visitors having a high self-control of not making noise. Love this place so much !!!

Great place. Attentive and helpful staff. If you need to get out of the house in order to focus; This is the place to do it. Don't know what Inga is saying.

A real gem and excellent hide-away on a rainy day in Sydney. They offer free tours daily and have very well set-up changing and permanent exhibitions.

Amazing place not just for book lovers but also for tourists. Just check out the colonnaded facade which is really impressive and well designed. Step into the foyer where you will find a floor mosaic depicting an early Dutch map from the 17th century showing Australia. Discover all the accuracies and marvel at the early discoveries even before Cook had come close to the South Eastern coast of the continent. Then step through the crystal glass French doors and enter the hall of books - a wide room with polished desks, two or three storeys of book shelves along the gallery walls, sneaky staircases to the upper levels, a glassed ceiling, picture windows like in a church. Now walk on a descend into the basement. A tunnel will lead you to the modern part of the library, but not before you walked past some exhibits such as spoons and picture frames. The modern part of the library is the exact opposite from the old part - it's busy, lively, all glass and straight lines. Next time you are in the city have a look at this beautiful building, it's free of course.

Great place to work, easy to go by public transport, either by train or bus. Staff members are friendly. The books, in general, are not for borrow, you can only read them in the library. Nice cafe. Wifi is provided.

One of my favourite places to be/study when I stayed in Sydney, free WiFi :)

The State Library of NSW is located in Maquarie Street, near the corner with Hunter Street. It's a fantastic library and great for utilizing its facilities for researching Australian history. I got there by getting off at Wynyard and walking east along Hunter Street.

There are quiet readings rooms and various galleries and exhibitions. There's also a Library Shop and a cafe. Every Friday the library has a Curator Tour where a subject matter expert will go through the collections and exhibits of the library. These tours are free but you have to book.

Joining the library is free.

Beautiful space and fantastic reading library. Be aware that this is a reference library and books can't be borrowed. Good WIFI.

One Of the best libraries in Sydney. Free and Fast WIFI. Aesthetically pleasing to look at and very quiet atmosphere
Amazing array of books but downside is a little less accessible, packed with all ameneties: water machines, restrooms and power outlets to charge workstations and electronic devices.

An underrated Sydney gem - fantastic collection, amazing architecture + design and a great location. Check it out next time you're in town - the World Press Photo Exhibition was a great.

Read a newspaper or book in peace and tranquility or just wander among those 1000-th books in the library.

Good place to study but good luck finding a powerpoint for laptop that works.

Rude staff, most of the staff barely speaks English. Stupid rules, no water in a study room...this is ridiculous. How people are supposed to study with no water?
One star is way too much for them
!!

Nice place, nice ambiente, sometimes a bit noisy (around the computer area) and maybe the timetable could be better, but, anyway I love this library definitly

Quite decent environment for studying. Ventilation is good and very quiet.
But library is always packed. sometimes there are some weird people laughing around, and too many couples...

Amazing array of books, very picturesque. Plentiful areas for study. Helpful staff at hand.

Well designed. Good location. Good service but a relatively small size

Beauty of tradition. One of the best place to visit. You would be overwhelmed and loved it.

I was greeted by the Security Manager during my visit and he was absolutely HOT! Worth visiting the library just to see him. He was friendly, helpful and charming. I think his name is Ben.
Great reference library too.

Beautiful place , wish they had longer working hours for those who needs to study .

In summary: an authoritarian library with poor internet access, passive-aggressive staff, patronising security, random bag checks, and no liquids permitted.

Not a friendly place. More like a place to show rather than use. Don't like the staff and not reasonable rules.

Beautiful place though.

This place feels like heaven for a bookwarm like me. I can spend there entire day and forget about everything in the world!

Excellent place to work or study. Quiet, tables with power outlets for laptops, good Wifi and rental lockers ($2 for 4 hrs).

Perfect as working space, free WiFi, and good atmosphere, though not close to public transportation

The image shows a large room - wall to wall with books on every manner of subject. This was how information was distributed - and absorbed - before the phenomenon of relying on search engines such as Google to provide us with answers to our questions. The space was deliberately quiet - and tellingly empty - like a display in a museum. The role of the library is clearly changing in the age of information. We came for a remarkable exhibition of photographs and memorabilia from The Great War. The library is in an ideal position to bring history alive through such exhibitions. Situated at the top of Macquarie Street - overlooking Shakespeare place - the bard himself would be impressed by the grandeur and grace of this wonderful Sydney icon. Five stars. Open every day. Entry is free.

Great scanning facilities. Don't bring too big a bag though as they have size restrictions. Lockers are available though for a fee.

nice place to study in peace and quiet but the wifi is very unreliable.

Clean and mostly quiet place to get work done. I never had any issues with the staff but I have only ever bothered to ask them directions, they always courteously pointed out where I needed to go, even if it was something fairly easy or obvious to find.

Love this place! So many free activities and exhibitions, it's a must do for locals and tourists. Dead Central is a fantastic exhibit - like a podcast brought to life with photos and artefacts.

Can t really say much. I like Melbourne and Canberra s libraries more. They are bigger and more classic.

Best place to study. Contains meeting rooms as well as study rooms. Every book you will find gere

Great multi purpose area, used for study, events and exhibits.

It's quite good library with desktops available and free WiFi you can connect your personal laptop as well.

Very nice facilities but the staff in the Bashir room are very discourteous. Exaggerated shrugging when they don't know the answer to something and an aggro, pressurising way of doing simple tasks. Encountered this behaviour during both the morning and afternoon shifts, so clearly there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the working environment. They need to lift their game. Never encountered this kind of petulant behaviour at any other state library in Australia or overseas.

Fantastic building. Great book shop. Excellent exhibitions and events.

The unique State Library of New South Wales, Australia, is solemn and elegant, and it is awe-inspiring.

I was told by the indignant lady at the desk today that it would be "better" if I came back to the library without my 9 month old son and his pram when I tried to enter the Marie Bashir Reading Room! Never mind we won't be coming back anytime soon.

Wonderful selection of books, great atmosphere to study or work

Amazing library because Lucas will give you a #freebies library card!

Awesome place to study.
Gets all types of people. Good light, and peaceful.

One of the biggest libraries in Australia, the collection encompasses the classics, an extensive non-fiction collection as well as data records from the last 100 years. A really good place to find a quiet corner to study.

Good service and cafe as well . but super super cold I feel like I m inside the fridge . I don t understand why they put too much air conditioner . It s not good for our health and also environment , using too much energy.

You'll need at least a few hours here. Bear in mind the closing time

Great! The book collection is very huge. It has such a nice atmosphere to it. Wish I could read here for longer.

This is library has a great collection of books, articles and magazines. It helped a lot to work on my scientific research paper.

I went to the library 2 days this week, one of them happened to be the first time i had been there. Signing up was fairly easy but then requesting the book was slightly confusing, i was confused by the process but eventually got the hang of it and requested my book. The lady informed me that i had a 45 minute wait until i recieved my book as there was only 2 staff members working? only 2 and it is a state library!? When my friend and I had returned we were walking down stairs to collect our book. My friend had her hand in her pocket and the man asked her what she was holding in her pocket as it appeared she was holding a gun or something?!!!! which she clearly wasn't! I then got my book which happened to be a very old book so i had to read in the special materials section.
The second day i returned, my book was there waiting for me and the staff in particular one lady were being very nice to us. The lady had mentioned to us that we perhaps shouldn't photocopy the book as it was very old and fragile (which we completely understood) so instead we were allowed to take pictures of it on our phones. The day went well until 10 minutes before we were about to leave when we started to take a few photos of some of the images in our books on our phones. This other lady walked past us and said in a really firm voice, "You should probably ask before taking pictures with that book!" and i replied with "We have, another lady gave us permission to take pictures with our phones" and she said, "Well the book is really old so you need to watch how you handle it!" By this point a few other people in the special materials section were looking at us as this lady had called attention to us. I then proceeded to stand up, return the book and leave! The lady then had the audacity to go and bother another fellow reader, which again brought attention to this poor man.
As well as that, throughout my experience the staff members at the service desk were obnoxiously loud which confused me as I thought I was in a library!!

Overall, nice interior and exterior design and most of the staff were kind however this lady really pushed my buttons.

VERY beautiful. A must see if you have a few days in Sydney. There's also the modern area in the building in back of the older building.

Now there are more study desks where I don't need to check my bag. The free internet access is descendly fast. The library Cafe is also nice. The best of all is the gallery on the top floor. I really enjoy the exhibition which is changed through out the year.

Relatively small for a state library, but otherwise a great space.

Beautiful building, very helpful staff and a great atmosphere. Just wonderful to admire the shelves of books, loved it!

Unfriendly staff. There are many homeless people living/ sleeping around and in the library as well.

Great place to sit and 'co-work' (in silence of course) in the CBD. Free WiFi and light open space available for people to install themselves for a few hours or the whole day. toilets and lockers are also available. Obviously you then have the wealth of information that is the State Library and it's content at (virtual) arms reach.

Steeped in history and with an ever changing gallery, the library is a great place to go to experience some local flavor. The map on the floor of the entry way is a glimpse into the past and the ways that map-making has advanced in the last two centuries. The main library room is absolutely breath taking, especially if you actually manage to make it inside. This is definitely a must see if you're trying to experience Sydney's history.

It is a great space to study, access free internet, rest and enjoy the huge range of different books and journals.

Would be better if the research centre was more user friendly rather than having to wait for staff to help