Coolest library ever

Today I visited the State Library of Victoria, which according to the Lonely Planet should even be worth visiting for the building itself. And it definitely is! The central 6 floors high dome is overwhelming. On the ground floor of the dome is a reading room with 8 long tables, each with one end aligned to the center, the other end pointing outwards. In between every two of these tables are 3 smaller tables arranged, providing even more places to sit.

On the different floors that circle around the central dome are various exhibitions. You can even get to the 6th floor to have a magnificent view inside the dome. On the 2nd floor is a exhibition of paintings about the history of Melbourne. Some of them even almost seem to come alive, so real and vivid they are painted.

But it got even better as I discovered the Experidome, a experimental multimedia area, where you can play games on 50” tft widescreens, watch movies and cartoons on a huge projector screen, design on one of the Apple computers or just browse the internet on one of the widescreens if you really have trouble reading small letters.

Amazed as I already was, I really was speechless when the nice woman at the info desk told me that there would be free wireless internet in the library soon. She even handed me a webpage with free wireless hotspots in Melbourne and printed out the first page. In the brochure that she gave me it was explained that registering to the library is completely free!