Under Commonwealth Legal Deposit legislation for electronic publications, the National Library collects digital material including books and journals. These items are all in our catalogue.
Access - restricted
The Library receives in copyright material with the same access conditions as any other in copyright collection item.
Items which have been deposited electronically, but are restricted, will have a link in the catalogue record:
National Library of Australia digital collection item: Access available in National Library of Australia reading rooms.
- If you select this link when you are not in the Library, you will see the message:
“Sorry, we can't provide access to this item outside the National Library's reading rooms. Please visit the National Library to access this material”
- If you select this link when you are in the Library, you can view the material, but you can’t print, copy or download any part of the item.
Access - available
Some authors and publishers agree to make an ebook freely available, for example:
- Aussie out d'backyard : the guide to the great Australian outdoors
- Home is where the hearth is : the 6 step feng shui guide to creating a home you love... that loves you back
- A River of Fortune / novel by P.J. Welch
These ebooks can be used in the National Library reading rooms or at home. Some items can also be downloaded as a digital copy to your own device. Please note that these items may still be in copyright.
Viewing restricted digital collections
Click on the green button to launch the viewer in restricted mode. This will lock the computer, no other functions will be available while you read the item.
A bar will appear at the bottom of the page; select 'Open' and wait for a few moments for the screen to appear.
Using the ebook viewer
The viewer has a menu bar at the left of the screen where you can adjust the viewer settings:
- Change the text size
- Use full screen mode
- Go to the table of contents
- Use arrows to move to the next page, instead of scrolling
- Highlighting and bookmarking tools
- Change the font to suit your preference
Find more information on our Access to Electronic Publications page