AustLit

Maddock's Select Library advertised regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald from April 1863 onwards. By 1868, the library was open daily from 9.00am to 6.00pm and was ‘supplied regularly by every mail steamer' with ‘the Latest Publications on History, Travel, Biography, Philosophy, Popular Theology, and the higher class of [?]; also with all the leading Magazines and Reviews’.

An American visitor to Sydney in the 1880s, Maturin Murray Ballou, describes Maddock's in the following way: 'Another circulating library, known as Maddock's Select Library, was found in George Street, after the style of Mudie's in London, or Loring's in Boston, the object of which was to supply its patrons with the best books and serial publications as soon as published. Besides the periodical literature of the day, this establishment contains thousands of standard books, which are constantly lent for a moderate sum to the reading public.'

Sources:

'Advertising.' The Empire 1 Feb 1868: 1

Ballou, Maturin Murray. Under the Southern Cross, or, Travels in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Samoa and other Pacific Islands. Ticknor and Co, Boston, 1888.