In 2012, the South library opened on the old JH Boyd Girls' High School site. The land, purchased in 2007, cost $10.5 million. The council invested $9.5 million in building the library and community hub.

In 2014, Library at the Dock (Docklands) was opened at a cost of $23 million. In its first year of operation, more than 123,000 people visited the facility, and nearly 4000 new members signed on to the library service. This in an area that is routinely described as a cultural dead zone.

Yesterday, the Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre opened in Carlton, following a $15.5 million refurbishment of the historic Kathleen Syme building that was previously used as an education centre for the Royal Women's Hospital. The site, listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, cost the council $4.88 million.

This $60 million-plus investment, according to Ian Hicks, manager of community strengthening at the City of Melbourne, is a response to the inner city's growing and diversifying population. "Our essential role is to provide opportunities for local, vulnerable and disadvantaged people to be empowered and participate in community life."

Carlton serves a case in point. The 2011 Census data shows that 56 per cent of Carlton's residents were born overseas. Younger residents aged 12 to 25 years make up 46 per cent of Carlton's population. The median age is 25. This represents a mix of international students, migrant families, housing commission families as well as the Greens-voting, comfortably well off cohort.

At the Kathleen Syme centre, 10 per cent of the books and other materials are in Chinese, Japanese or Korean. The Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre will use the new community centre to deliver literacy, English language, vocational, and job seeker skills classes for adult learners, including long term and new arrival migrants.

The centre – which houses a recording studio, computer lab, conference rooms and meeting spaces – will also be used for planned activity groups for seniors,  talks by the Carlton Community History Group and meetings of the Carlton Senior Citizens Group.

The libraries, connected to other local services, are serving as cultural and community portals for new arrivals and for people who may otherwise be outliers. It's a strategy being adopted by cities around the world. "Libraries have become central to the community hub model," says Ian Hicks.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle believes that Melbourne is leading the trend. "Find another city in the world that has opened three brand new libraries within spitting distance of the CBD," he says. "And there is a fourth one in the very near future."

The city library in the CAE building at Flinders Lane is being crowded out, and plans are afoot for a new facility to be built within the next five years or so.

The State Library is also undergoing major changes to adapt to a changing city population. The Andrews government had pledged $50 million toward a refurbishment of the library, including restoration of the beautiful 1850s Queen's reading room that has been closed to the public for 12 years.

But the main idea, says Justine Hyde, acting CEO and State Librarian, "is to respond to changing community expectations and needs. One aspect of the (refurbishment) is to build a designated area for children and their families who haven't been a large user group of the library historically."

But that's changing with more families moving into the city centre. "A lot of families who come to the children's programs are recent arrivals. Parents use them as a way to improve their English and literacy skills. During Baby Bounce or Rhyme Time they learn stories and songs with their kids."

Ms Hyde says the international trend is to "scaffold libraries with other social infrastructure so residents can access a range of services... and it serves to build social cohesion. People value coming here and being treated as a citizen rather than a consumer."