We connect with communities, and connect communities with their national collections.

Environment

Australians from all walks of life and diverse cultural backgrounds, and with interests ranging across family, community, professional and academic research, exhibit a great appetite for Australian stories, and especially for more digital content. They relish opportunities—in both physical and digital realms—to produce new knowledge and learn from others, and expect their institutions to enable their research and learning. In a digital environment in which lines between content creators and consumers are blurred, and in which revenue streams for authors are becoming fewer, the Library must always balance rights of access with the legitimate rights of creators.

The Library’s digital innovation makes Australian collections accessible from all corners of the world. Through Trove, we connect communities with cultural collections—both ours and our partners’—around the country. Australians use these collections to:

  • recover local history
  • bring families together
  • strengthen language and community
  • open the home to new knowledge and ideas
  • create world-leading research.

The Library seeks to build a significant and sustainable philanthropic revenue stream to digitise the most important, impactful and unique areas of its collection, and to make them accessible to Australians everywhere through Trove. The Treasured Voices campaign will ensure a truly national library that removes geographical, economic and other barriers, and connects all Australians with their stories.

The Australian Government is supporting this ambition by providing $10 million over four years starting from 2019–20 to leverage philanthropic contributions.

Challenges to the Library’s aim to connect with many communities include:

  • increasing community expectations about the volume of collection material that can be delivered online and free of charge
  • the need to balance investments between existing services and new initiatives that enable more Australians to connect with their stories.

Priorities

  • Extend national reach and engagement, increasing the number and diversity of Australians who engage with the Library’s collections.
  • Curate engaging onsite and digital experiences that delight, inspire and nourish Australians’ curiosity about the nation’s past, present and future.

Actions

  • With the National Museum of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum, launch the digital platform Horizons and Reflections: Endeavour 250 to support community engagement and access to collections around the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s Pacific voyages.
  • Implement a new fundraising strategy and leverage government funding to increase and enhance access to the Library’s collections through the Treasured Voices campaign.
  • Deliver a renewed Trove, with refreshed branding and user experience.
  • Implement the Library’s first Reconciliation Action Plan.
  • Deliver high quality learning experiences for Australians of all ages, through a wide range of platforms and delivery mechanisms.

Performance

2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23

19 million online engagements with the Library

# of online engagements with the Library^

# of online engagements with the Library^

# of online engagements with the Library^

370,000 onsite engagements with the Library

# of onsite engagements with the Library^

# of onsite engagements with the Library^

# of onsite engagements with the Library^

% increase in use of the digital collection^^

% increase in use of the digital collection^^

% increase in use of the digital collection^^

% change in use of the digital collection^^

Qualitative evaluation using case studies of the value of the collection and services

Qualitative evaluation using case studies of the value of the collection and services

Qualitative evaluation using case studies of the value of the collection and services

Qualitative evaluation using case studies of the value of the collection and services

^ Target is equivalent to or greater than previous year. ^^ No target is set.