Its four Australian branches are located on the RMIT University campuses in Melbourne City, Bundoora and Brunswick; and its two Vietnamese branches are located at the RMIT University Vietnam campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

It was managed by the college's mathematics instructor Alfred Hart between 1902 and 1930, a leading Shakespearian of his day.

[4] From the 1930s, the library was expanded and relocated to the space beneath the public lecture theatre of Building 1 (what is today the Pearson and Murphy's café).

[3] During this time, it was primarily staffed by repatriated World War I soldiers as part of a federal government re-skilling program.

[5] By 1945, the library had outgrown its space and the decision was made to split it into specific field collections.

[10] The branches at the Ho Chi Minh City, known as Beanland Library, and Hanoi campuses opened in 2001 and 2004 respectively.

The reasons included... "Like the sprawling campus itself, [Swanston Library] has nooks and crannies and, best of all, dedicated silent places".