School programs and guided tours

Looking for something else? To speak to an educator about tailoring a visit to suit your school students or teachers, contact us on 02 6262 1289 or email education@nla.gov.au.

Education tours present participants with an appreciation of role of the National Library as the world's largest storehouse of knowledge about Australia and its people.

Curriculum-based school programs exist for years 5 to 12, and utilise the Library's exhibitions, collections and reading rooms as a springboard to find out more about Australian history and culture. Students critically interpret texts and learn search methods to understand historical and contemporary events and issues.

 For primary school students

Cool Librarians

Meet Prue Theroux the very cool librarian! Children will learn about Mr Dewey's great idea for arranging books that they can find in their own school library. Discover all the things librarians do at the National Library. Activities include storytelling, games and optional tours.

  • for: Years K-3
  • availability: Monday to Friday 9am-4pm
  • bookings: a minimum of 2 weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 50 minutes
  • group size: max 25

Combination tour: exhibition and library orientation

A jam-packed tour exploring all there is to see, including a behind-the-scenes look at the Library and an interpretation of historical items on display in the Library's exhibition spaces. Discover the Library's role, the treasures it collects, and changing technologies it uses to manage the vast collections.

  • for: Years 5 - 7
  • availability: Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm
  • bookings: a minimum of two weeks notice required, during exhibition periods only
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 70 minutes
  • group size: max 70

Stacks of Stories: library orientation tour

Canberra's best discovery trail leads primary school students through areas of the Library out of bounds to the public. See the old tube room, maps and newspaper stacks, book-moving robots and a giant compactus. Read the State and Territory Curriculum outcomes (PDF 153 Kb)

  • for: Years 5 - 7
  • availability: Monday to Friday 9am - 4pm
  • bookings: a minimum of two weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 40

 Night at the Library

Jane Austen and zombies! Well, not quite. The National Library operates around the clock: visit subterranean spaces to learn about secret librarians business, ghoulish collection items and our resident ghost. Senior school groups can combine a tour with study time in the Main Reading Room. For larger groups the option exists to combine this tour with a School Screen viewing (not available after 2012).

  • for: Years 5 - 7
  • availability: Monday to Thursday 4pm - 8pm
  • bookings: a minimum of three weeks notice required
  • cost: $3 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 35

Adventure in the South Pacific!

All aboard HMB Endeavour to discover the famous voyage through stories, games and characters such as Cook, Banks and Solander. What factors made such a successful voyage of discovery: teamwork, good luck, an inspiring vision or harsh discipline?

  • for: Years 3 - 5
  • availability: Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm, from Term One 2011
  • bookings: a minimum of three weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 35 

Bushrangers get booked

Stories of heroes, villains, stagecoach hold-ups and narrow escapes are recorded in the Library's collection. Gather evidence from original material related to Ned Kelly, Ben Hall and Captain Moonlite to help re-enact the mometns of crime!

  • for: Years 3 - 5
  • availability: Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm, from Term One 2011
  • bookings: a minimum of three weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 35 

For secondary school students

Mapping History

Students explore the role of the map in our society: as a source of information, beauty, and sometimes deception. Discover maps, not only as geographic documents, but as historic objects evidence of social and political ideology.

  • for: Years 7 - 10
  • availability: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm, from Term One, 2011
  • bookings: a minimum of two weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 35 

Print and Prejudice

Student explore topical issues through critical reading of comparable texts, analysing what they do, say and mean. As primary sources, newspapers record past events and are portals into different periods, societies and cultures throughout Australia's history. Students explore the media's role in reporting events, providing knowledge, opinions or propaganda.

  • for: Years 7 - 10
  • availability: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm, only from Term 2, 2010
  • bookings: a minimum of four weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 35

Online and Underground

Secondary students discover the history and role of the National Library, and how to source imagery, sound and text using it's website. Students will examine digitised collections and understand the significance of original primary resources recorded in UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. Read the State and Territory curriculum outcomes (PDF 153 Kb)

  • for: Years 10 - 12
  • availability: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm
  • bookings: a minimum of two weeks notice required
  • cost: $2 per student
  • location: Ferguson Room
  • duration: 70 minutes
  • group size: max 40

Thirst for Knowledge: advanced research skills

Advanced Yr 11/12 college students learn to access catalogues, databases and electronic resources available within and outside the Library. Participants must register online to become a Reader prior to attending, and bring photo ID in order to collect their reader's card. Teachers are advised to provide details of specific topics students are researching. This program does not include a tour of Library building or exhibition.

  • for: Years 11 - 12
  • availability: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm.
  • bookings: a minimum of three weeks notice required
  • location: IT Training Rooms 1 & 2
  • cost: $2 per student
  • duration: 50 minutes
  • group size: max 40 

The A - Z of Art at the Library

Senior Visual Art students explore the Library's rich art collection, ranging from illuminated manuscripts, rare book woodcuts, artist diaries, colonial paintings through to digital photographs, including work by prominent historic and contemporary Australian artists. Students explore Library resources related to Major Works and Visual Arts Process Diary entries.

  • availability: Years 11 - 12
  • bookings: a minimum of three weeks notice required
  • location: Conference Room
  • cost: $10, includes some materials
  • duration: 2 hours
  • group size: max 30 

For tertiary students and ESL

International Student Library Orientation

An introduction to the Library’s facilities tailored for international postgraduate students recently arrived in Canberra. This short program introduces students to general library services and public spaces, how to utilise the NLA homepage to get a Library card and find online tutorials to aid searching catalogues, e-resources and databases.

  • availability: ESL, and International postgraduate NESB students (of a Non-English speaking background)
  • bookings: 02 6262 1271 or bookings@nla.gov.au
  • cost: free
  • duration: 30 minutes
  • group size: max 40 

For teachers

Teacher’s know-how: Library skills outreach workshop

Incorporate a morning at the Library into your schools PD opportunities in 2011. Contact education staff at the Library to find reader education presentations are on offer and can be tailored for your school requirements

  • availability: we visit - you pick the day and time!
  • bookings: 02 6262 1271 or bookings@nla.gov.au
  • cost: free, at your place or ours
  • duration: 60 minutes
  • group size: max 50