We collect today what will be important tomorrow.
Environment
The Library’s collection reflects the community’s hybrid approach to producing creative works and new knowledge. Early assumptions that digital would supplant physical books and other collection types have proven entirely false; the Library must simultaneously acquire physical and digital material, and sustain the skills and infrastructure to manage, preserve and provide access to both.
The Library has focused on building efficient and highly automated digital collecting systems and has continuously refined workflows to fulfil its collecting mandate in this complex environment. We are intentionally shifting our collecting practice from physical to digital where this is possible and more efficient.
Challenges to fulfilling the Library’s collecting mandate include:
- the continuing growth, by 2.5 linear kilometres each year, of the Library’s physical collection, requiring urgent investment in new storage facilities
- the increasing size and complexity of the Library’s digital collection, requiring significant scaling of infrastructure and workflows
- the need for specialist skills, infrastructure and new investment for life-cycle management and long-term preservation as we shift to a greater focus on collecting digital content, especially dynamic social media content.
Priorities
- Build a comprehensive collection of Australian publications so that Australians—now and in the future—can participate fully in the creative and knowledge economies, using Australian content.
- Build a rich collection of Australian pictures, manuscripts and oral histories, enlivening the national story with the unique voices and viewpoints of individuals and organisations.
- Collect works from overseas, particularly Asia and the Pacific, that enrich the Australian community’s understanding of its place in the region.
Actions
- Negotiate and implement new storage arrangements to meet critical short-term collection housing needs identified in the Library’s Collection Storage Master Plan 2019–25, and initiate planning for medium- to long-term storage requirements.
- As a member of the National edeposit collaborative partnership, engage with publishers and lead collecting initiatives to build a rich national collection of digital publications.
- Increase and improve the representation of Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the collection through consultative approaches to acquisition and description.
Performance
2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
---|---|---|---|
30,000 Australian published works collected, including digital | # of Australian published works collected, including digital^ | # of Australian published works collected, including digital^ | # of Australian published works collected, including digital^ |
# of Australian unpublished works collected, including digital^^ | # of Australian unpublished works collected, including digital^^ | # of Australian unpublished works collected, including digital^^ | # of Australian unpublished works collected, including digital^^ |
# of overseas works collected, including digital^^ | # of overseas works collected, including digital^^ | # of overseas works collected, including digital^^ | # of overseas works collected, including digital^^ |
Qualitative evaluation of the relevance of the collection to researchers TARGET GROUP: |
Qualitative evaluation of the relevance of the collection to researchers | Qualitative evaluation of the relevance of the collection to researchers | Qualitative evaluation of the relevance of the collection to researchers |
^ Target is equivalent to or greater than previous year. ^^ No target is set. Trend data will reflect end of year acquisition outcomes.