National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act 1960 for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people", thus functioning as a national library. It is located in Parkes, Canberra, ACT.
National Library of Australia
23 March 1961
National Library Act 1960
- Books
- magazines
- pictures
- photographs
- maps
- sheet music
- manuscripts
- websites
6.93 million items
Publications made available to the Australian public
Digital and hard-copy Australian published materials
A$57,800,000 (2015–16)
400 (2016)
Completed
Parkes Place and King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Australia
1961
15 August 1968 by Prime Minister John Gorton
A$8 million (1968)
Marble, granite, bronze, slate, trachyte, and copper
- Leonard French (stained-glass windows)
- Mathieu Matégot (Aubusson tapestries x3)
- Tom Bass (copper sculpture)
- Henry Moore (sculpture)
National Library of Australia and Surrounds, Parkes Pl, Parkes, ACT, Australia
Listed place
22 June 2004
105470
Created in 1960 by the National Library Act, by the end of June 2019 its collection contained 7,717,579 items, with its manuscript material occupying 17,950 metres (58,890 ft) of shelf space. The NLA also hosts and manages the renowned Trove cultural heritage discovery service, which includes access to the Australian Web Archive and National edeposit (NED), a large collection of digitised newspapers, official documents, manuscripts and images, as well as born-digital material.
Collections[edit]
Australian & General Collection[edit]
The library collects material produced by Australians, for Australians or about the Australian experience in all formats—not just printed works—books, serials, newspapers, maps, posters, music and printed ephemera—but also online publications and unpublished material such as manuscripts, pictures and oral histories. Hazel de Berg began recording Australian writers, artists, musicians and others in the Arts community in 1957. She conducted nearly 1300 interviews. Together with the library, she was a pioneer in the field in Australia, working together for twenty-seven years.[16]
A core Australiana collection is that of John A. Ferguson.[17] The library has particular collection strengths in the performing arts, including dance.
The library contains a considerable collection of general overseas and rare book materials, as well as world-class Asian and Pacific collections which augment the Australiana collections. The print collections are further supported by extensive microform holdings.
The library also maintains the National Reserve Braille Collection.
As a national library, the NLA is required by legal deposit provisions enshrined in the Copyright Act 1968 to collect a copy of every Australian publication in the country, which publishers must submit upon publication of the material.[18][19]
At the end of the Australian financial year of 2018–19, the National Library collection comprised 7,717,579 items, and an additional 17,950 metres (58,890 ft) of manuscript material.[3] The library's collections of Australiana have developed into the nation's single most important resource of materials recording the Australian cultural heritage. Australian writers, editors and illustrators are actively sought and well represented, whether published in Australia or overseas.
The library's collection includes all formats of material, from books, journals, websites and manuscripts to pictures, photographs, maps, music, oral history recordings, manuscript papers and ephemera.[20]
Approximately 94.1% of the library's collection had been catalogued by July 2019, a total of 5,453,888 items[3] and these are discoverable through the online catalogue.[21]
Funding problems[edit]
In 2016, with threatened funding cuts to Trove, a public campaign led to a government commitment of A$16.4 million in December 2016, spread over four years.[52][60]
By early 2020, with the surge in demand for all types of digital services, the National Library was having to cope with increasingly dwindling staff resources to develop services on Trove and National edeposit, and undertook a restructure of its staffing and operations.[61]
This Wikipedia article was originally based on National Library of Australia and Surrounds, Parkes Pl, Parkes, ACT, Australia, entry number 105470 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2004 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 18 May 2020.
