The National Library of Australia is the country's largest reference library, tasked with collecting, preserving and making accessible Australia's documentary heritage for generations to come. Under its legal deposit mandate, the Library holds a singular responsibility: to retain one copy of everything published in Australia. With the National Collection growing by hundreds of metres of shelving every year, the challenge was never simply about finding more space. It was about finding the right space.
What the Library told us they wanted
In 2023, the National Library received funding to extend its repository at Hume. The brief was ambitious: deliver significant new storage capacity while maintaining continuity of access and day-to-day operations throughout construction. Storage needed to be sustainable, efficient, and capable of supporting the Library's mission well into the future. With limited ground footprint to work with, the answer was to think vertically.
How we acted on what we heard
Castledex was engaged to develop, engineer and install a high-rise, static-case shelving solution tailored to the building and the Library's operational requirements. Working closely with the Library, we designed a system that maximised both the building's footprint and its vertical volume, while meeting strict structural, seismic and safety requirements.
The solution combines pallet racking and shelving, with every element engineered for strength, stability and long-term performance. The completed installation is fully structurally certified and compliant with Australian standards for earthquake actions. Integrated with the Library's existing manual handling equipment, workflows and access processes, the system allows staff to safely retrieve collection items at heights of up to 10.4 metres.
