National Library of Australia

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Image:NLA Canberra-01JAC.JPG Image:Natinal Library at Dusk.JPG The National Library of Australia is located in Canberra, Australia. Established in 1960, the Library grew out of the Federal Parliamentary Library, which was established in 1901. In 1960, the National Library was separated from the Parliamentary Library by the National Library Act 1960. In 1968, a new building inspired by the Parthenon was built for it on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. Australian copyright law requires that a copy of every book published in Australia be deposited with the National Library of Australia.

The Library is "closed access" so the public cannot simply browse its 40km of shelves. Its vast collection consists of books, journals, pictures, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, microfilm and other media. The bulk of its collections are held on-site, but material is also stored off-site at Hume Annexe and other warehouse locations.

1 Collections
2 Facilities
3 National Directors
4 External links

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Collections

The Library has digitised over 105,000 items from its collection (the 100,000th being http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3409117) and, where possible, delivers these directly across the Internet. The Library is a world leader in digital preservation techniques (see padi), and maintains an Internet-accessible archive of selected Australian websites called the Pandora Archive.

The large National Library building is home to various reading rooms and collections. On the ground floor is the Main Reading Room - this is where the bulk of the library's Internet access terminals are located, and where wireless access is available. Services are also delivered on-site from the Petherick Reading Room (for advanced readers) on the ground floor; the Newspaper & Microcopy and Map Reading Rooms on the lower-ground floor, Manuscripts and Pictures on level 2, and Asian Collections on level 3. Limited space is also available for readers at the Hume Annexe.

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Facilities

The National Library of Australia hosts the national bibliographic database and offers access through the Libraries Australia service. The Library also provides Cataloguing-in-Publication (CiP) details, ISSNs and ISMNs for Australian publishers.

In addition to the research facilities available, the National Library offers a gift shop specialising in Australian books, a café, and a Friends Lounge for members. There are also several exhibition galleries for temporary exhibits.

Interestingly, the National Library is also a popular venue for Canberra's climbing community — the unique use of roughly cut blocks in the outer northern wall presents a challenging bouldering problem.

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