Australian material

The Library's collections of Australiana have developed into the nation's single most important resource of materials recording the Australian cultural heritage. The Library not only collects Australian printed materials such as books, serials, maps, music and ephemera but also online publications and unpublished material such as Australian manuscripts, pictures, oral histories and print material published abroad.

The Library acquires Australian material mainly through legal deposit, purchase (either direct from publishers, at auctions or through library suppliers), exchange, gift or donation.

Copies of all works published in Australia are received by the Library under the legal deposit provisions (s201) of the Copyright Act, 1968 - which cover books, journals, maps, newspapers and printed music. Commonwealth, State and Territory Government publications are excluded from this legislation, but are also received by deposit under a variety of directives and circulars. Material issued in microform (that is, microfiche, microfilm and microcard) is normally purchased by the Library to supplement its collections in other material formats. Electronic formats, such as CD-ROM, are also acquired through voluntary deposit or purchased. Unpublished Australian materials such as manuscripts and pictures are acquired through purchase or donation, with additional photographs and oral history recordings commissioned for the collection.

Events such as federal elections and the Sydney Olympics in 2000 generate a vast range of publications and other printed ephemera - including programs, flyers, posters, leaflets, memorabilia, stickers, etc. The Library's active acquisitions program aims to provide broad-ranging collections of material documenting such significant events in Australian life.

Auctions are a significant form of acquisition for Australian materials. Recently the Library purchased the only two known copies in existence of the following titles: An Authentic and Interresting [sic] Narrative of the Late Expedition to Botany Bay as Performed by Commodore Phillips and the Fleet of the Seven Transport Ships Under His Command …/ written by an Officer just returned in the Prince of Wales transport …London: Printed by W. Bailey, H. Lemoine and J. Parsons, 1789 and Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean on Discovery Performed in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 … Faithfully Narrated from the Original Ms. London: Printed for E. Newbery, 1781

   Portrait of Sir George Jackson, watercolour on ivory, 
   National Library of Australia Pictures Collection vn3300961
  http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3300961-v

Overseas material

The overseas collection comprises books, serials, newspapers, maps and atlases, music, research materials on microform (microfilm, microfiche and microcard) and material in a variety of electronic formats. It has had a consistently strong emphasis on the social sciences mainly in the areas of economics, law, politics and government. The monograph collection is predominantly in English, but there is also a large range of other languages represented. There is a strong emphasis on collecting material from of Asia (especially East and Southeast Asia) (see also under Asian collections).
and the Pacific.

Overseas material is selectively acquired primarily through arrangements with commercial vendors where material is supplied according to previously specified profiles. The Library and its Regional Office in Indonesia also selects material on a title-by-title basis to ensure that acquisitions are maintained in accordance with the Collection Development Policy. Publications of international organisations and world governments are deposited with the National Library as a regional centre - this includes material from the United Nations, World Bank, OECD. Material is also received on exchange, gift or donation. 

The overseas collection has undergone some important historical changes in direction, most recently with an increased emphasis on access to electronic resources. Recently the Library has acquired several large electronic sets such as Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Early English Books Online and Early American Imprints as well as electronic aggregator services such as Academic Search Premier and Factiva.

    Title page of Eighteenth Century Collection Online brochure 
    (Thomson Gale: Michigan, 2004)

Asian collections

The National Library houses the largest and most actively developing research collection on Asia in Australia, with holdings of over half a million volumes. The priority in collecting about Asia in Western and Asian languages has been on East Asia (that is, China and its periphery including Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as Japan and the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia, consisting of Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). There are also significant English language collections relating to South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

In total, over 5 million items are held in the Library. Collection statistics detail the extent of the Library's holdings by type of material and the growth of the collection over time (http://www.nla.gov.au/collect/collstats.html). New Library acquisitions are listed at http://www.nla.gov.au/collect/newacq.html. Significant acquisitions are often also reported in the National Library of Australia Gateways publication (http://www.nla.gov.au/ntwkpubs/gatehome.html) and in media releases.

Vera Dunn. Acting Manager, Research, Coordination Support, National Library of Australia.