An historical outline of the building and development of the Australian Library from its origins in 1827 to its solid establishment as a Sydney institution in the 1860s. The article states that: 'There are now six hundred subscribers on the books' and the library 'boasts of 20,000 volumes, embracing every department of literature, and to which, by each mail, every new work worth reading is added. The attendance of visitors averages thirty daily.'