Back to the future

Celebrating Mechanics Institutes
It's History Week 2009 and we've just launched the Frankston residency of a travelling display on the history of the Mechanics Institutes of Victoria. The display features pictures and stories from around the state, with a special emphasis on Frankston's own Mechanics Institute.


Mechanics Institutes were (and still are in some places) the local home of what we would now call lifelong learning. Many became public libraries and Frankston's first free library was established in 1880 with 300 books at the Mechanics Institute on Nepean Highway. They were also places for classes, meetings and debate, which is the kind of thing public libraries are now catching up on.

The display is in and near the Long Room at Frankston Library until the end of the first week of November.

harps