Digital environment brings greater collaboration between the National Library of Australia & The Australian National University
The longstanding relationship between The Australian National University and the National Library of Australia was reaffirmed following the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding.
For both institutions building research resources for scholars to use around the world, and taking advantage of the online environment to provide access to a rich array of research collections and experiences, is a vital objective.
Both institutions have a long history of cooperation; from a first agreement on collaborative collection building in October 1955 and the second in 1957 on archive collections, to this new agreement focusing on services and opportunities to provide digital access to collections.
Through collaboration the institutions have together created one of the most significant collections of Asian and Pacific print and manuscript material, including photographs, notebooks and publications, in the world.
Ms Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, Director-General of the National Library noted, "The collections of the National Library and The Australian National University are of world renown supporting the research of students and researchers as well as attracting visiting scholars. Our cooperation has been strategic and systematic not only in building collections, but in providing access through national resource discovery systems to benefit researchers around the world."
The new agreement supports cooperation in developing collections, providing access to them, and sharing information on activities and staffing that will contribute to efficient and effective services.
Professor Marnie Hughes Warrington, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) noted, "Building internationally significant collections can very effectively achieved through deep collaboration. The relationship between the two institutions will continue to benefit international research, particularly in Asia, the Pacific and labour and business history. The collections put Canberra well and truly on the international researcher map."
Cooperation will continue in funding digitisation of significant newspapers, sharing development opportunities and building capabilities in particular with visiting experts.
The Australian National University contributes records to national discovery and resource sharing systems including the Australian National Bibliographic Database, Trove and Libraries Australia. Records for material digitised and available through Digital Collections, the institutional repository, and the archives database add rich resources to these resource discovery systems.
