(27 Nov 2025) State Library of Victoria staff have accused management of undermining the 171-year-old institution’s core purposes in favour of flashy tourist-oriented “digital vanity projects” in a proposed restructure.
Under the plan, 39 jobs would be lost and the public-facing workforce of reference librarians would be cut from 25 staff to 10, while many publicly accessible computers would be removed.
According to documents provided to staff and seen by Guardian Australia, the restructure was designed around “enhancing digital innovation” and providing “a compelling digital experience”.
One staff member said those “digital experience” elements did not involve more digitising of collections, but focused instead on “what many of us would describe as luxury digital experimentation” or “digital vanity projects”.
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