Royal Melbourne Botanical Library.
I began my research,on botanical libraries with a visit to my local library(Parkdale), and came up empty handed, the librarian suggested looking at Trove, which opened up information about the Royal Melbourne botanical library, containing the most complete collection of Australian botanical literature
Ferdinand Von Mueller had donated his personal book collection during his tenure as director of the botanical gardens between the years 1857-1873,The Botanical library is housed in the National Herbarium of Victoria,built in 1861 near where the Shrine of Remembrance stands today,it was relocated to it's present site in 1934.
The herbarium is similar to a library in that it stores information in a biological form rather than a book form.It contains a Taxonomy section,which deals with identifying and naming plant species,then classifying them,Also is a plant systematics area which tries to unravel the relationships and evolutionary history of flora.
.The oldest book still in the collection is called "Herbal" and is dated approximately 1531.also the library publish a journal called ''Muelleria'' which is exchanged with other botanical journals around the world.
Apart from books the herbarium also houses a virtual herbarium,collections of digital images of preserved plants or plant parts, it's show piece is some of the specimens collected on Burke & Wills ill fated expedition.
Some 30,000 photos,plus artwork by Australia's best botanical artists,printed matter,maps and museum pieces help make up the rest of the collection.
Ferdinand Von Mueller spent most of his life collecting botanical specimens and samples in and around Australia and a lot of his collection is still housed at the National Herbarium of Victoria, I found his life story fascinating,and am including a link to a condensed biography about him.
I have also included this link to give an overview of the library
resources
Hoping to pay the library a visit i was told you need to make an appointment and you need also to be a researcher,and they recommend you exhaust all avenues of enquiry before coming in.
Citations
Ferdinand Von Mueller
Morris,D 1974,Mueller,Sir Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich Von,(1825-1896),Australian Dictionary of Biography,vol.5,Australian National University, Canberra.
Viewed 11 April 2012,<http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mueller-sir ferdinand-jakob-heinrich-von-4266.>
Royal Botanical library Melbourne
Viewed 11 April 2012,<http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/information-and-resources/library.>
Image of Ferdinand Von Mueller
Viewed 11 April 2012,http://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Ferdinand_von_Mueller.
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