On this page you will find some interesting extracts from the various databases at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute.

For a fully searchable version of all databases, go to the relevant pages in the main index.

Books from the Ballarat East library are now housed within the main heritage collection, listed here.ballarat east library

A full quick to load version of the full Heritage database is listed here heritage full . For a fully searchable listing, go to the main menu.

There has been some interesting theatre events that have taken place in the now Minerva Space.    theatre-events  

For poetry buffs, here is a selection of poetical works in the collection. poems

This is a list of newspapers in the collection.  newspapers

Voyages in books. There is an extensive history of voyages of exploration and to far distant places, and they are recorded in some of our Heritage book collection. See the list here to gauge the extent of voyages.      list of voyages.

A fire in the proscenium of the theatre on June 20th. 1915 saw the theatre closed until September 12 1916 Fires at the BMI

There are 684 books from the Ballarat East Library in the Heritage book collection, here is a list… http://bmilibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ballarateast1.htm

The question was asked, do we have any magazines in the collection. The answer is yes and no. This is because there are a few single copies that were at one time read by members in the reading room. The majority of the magazines are in volumes, hard cover compilations of the titles over a period of months. This is because they were ordered and shipped out from England (usually) in sailing ships, and delivered to the BMI. Here is a listing of the titles that are still in the heritage collection. A lot of fine leisure reading, as well as the technical volumes, like the ‘Mechanic magazine’. Click here to read the titles.