National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA), formerly National and State Libraries Australasia, is the

peak body A peak organisation or peak body is an Australian term for an advocacy group or trade association, an association of industries or groups with allied interests. They are generally established for the purposes of developing standards and processes, ...

that represents the national, state and territory libraries of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The libraries collaborate on and support working groups addressing issues including: copyright issues, archival collections,

collection development Library collection development is the process of systematically building the collection of a particular library to meet the information needs of the library users (a service population) in a timely and economical manner using information resources ...

, marketing, collecting and preserving digital content, collections and services focusing on

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

, and other issues relating to the collection, storage and dissemination of the various types of resources held by member institutions. It also compiles annual statistics on

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

activities and usage throughout Australia, and publishes statistics on the services of its own collaborating libraries. Precursors to the organisation include the State Librarians Council, the State Libraries Council and Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL). NLSA also collaborates with partner organisations such as the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

on research and development projects. One of its latest major completed projects is the development of the

National edeposit National edeposit (NED) is a collaboration between Australia's nine national, state and territory libraries which provides for the legal deposit, management, storage and preservation of, and access to, published electronic material across Aust ...

service (NED), "an online service for the deposit, archiving, management, discovery and delivery of published electronic material across Australia", which was formally launched in August 2019.

History

State librarians from

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

first met as the State Librarians Council in March 1973, with the aim of forming a

to represent and lobby for their organisations in dealings with the

Commonwealth Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

. The Northern Territory joined in 1980,

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

in 1987 and the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

from 1986 onwards. In 1990 it was renamed to the State Libraries Council, with the membership including the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

s of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and Australian Capital Territory Library and Information Services, and the National Library of Australia. From 1992, the organisation became the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL). During this time, many projects were developed, such as the Distributed National Collection agreement and the AskNow online virtual reference service. With the

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

attending first as an observer and then a member, in 2005, it decided on a change of name to reflect this, becoming National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA). The first NSLA meeting was held at the State Library of Western Australia in September 2006. At the November 2017 meeting, NSLA developed a new

strategic plan Strategic planning is an organization's business process, process of defining its strategy or direction, and making decision making, decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals. It may also extend to control mechanisms for gu ...

and

business model A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, social, ...

, deciding to focus on Australian constituents and stakeholders, and from 2018 the name became National and State Libraries Australia.

Description

The NSLA is a national organisation, whose membership consists of the directors or CEOs of the state libraries and the Director-General of the National Library of Australia. It manages a wide range of collaborative initiatives among its member libraries and with other organisations. It aims to improve library services throughout its member libraries by collaboration, and also contributes to

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

affecting the library sector. The Executive Officer and Program Coordinator of the organisation are based at State Library Victoria.

Research, alliances and projects

One of NSLA's ongoing projects is collecting, collating and making accessible a range of statistics pertaining to public library services in Australia, which are available on its website dating back to 1996. The organisation has been involved in a number of projects funded by the

(ARC), such as Climate History Australia and Grey Literature Strategies. It has alliances with the

Australian Digital Alliance The Australian Digital Alliance (ADA) is an Australian non-profit coalition of public and private sector interests, formed to promote balanced copyright law by providing a voice for the public interest perspective in debates about copyright ch ...

Australian Libraries Copyright Committee The Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) is an Australian organisation dealing with copyright law. It has a particular focus with relevance for the GLAM sector in Australia. It is related to the Australian Digital Alliance. Formed ...

Australian Media Literacy Alliance Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

, GLAM Peak and the National Early Language and Literacy Strategy. The individual member libraries also participate in a number of state-wide or national projects. It runs advisory groups on a number of topics and manages the "Culturally Safe Libraries Program", with the aim of making "programs, services and collections that are accessible, respectful and responsive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ needs and perspectives".

NED

Legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

is an important function of national and state libraries. The federal ''

Copyright Act 1968 The copyright law of Australia defines the legally enforceable rights of creators of creative and artistic works under Australian law. The scope of copyright in Australia is defined in the '' Copyright Act 1968'' (as amended), which applies the ...

'' and legal deposit legislation pertaining to each state mandates that publishers of any kind must deposit copies of their publications in the National Library of Australia as well as in the state or territory library in their jurisdiction. Until the 21st century, this has applied to all types of printed materials (and in some states, to

audio-visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service prov ...

formats as well), and on 17 February 2016, the federal legal deposit provisions were extended to cover electronic publications of all types. Most states and territories are reviewing or amending existing legislation to extend to digital publications as well. The NLSA consortium has developed and delivered the

(NED) service for electronic publications, with the project led by the NED Steering Group, consisting of representatives from each member library. NED was formally launched in August 2019, and is now running in all NSLA libraries. Work continues on the system, with further enhancements are in the pipeline.

Indigenous heritage position statement

In May 2021, NSLA published a position statement on

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property that is "collectively owned" by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such prop ...

(ICIP), which recognises

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

s as the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

and custodians of Australia and acknowledges the gaps in Australian legislation in protecting their cultural heritage. NSLA member libraries "acknowledge their collective, individual and moral responsibilities to ensure that management and access to these collection materials is culturally informed and respectful

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

includes recognition and protection of the ongoing, communal nature of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights".

Member libraries

members are: *

Libraries ACT A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...

* Libraries Tasmania *

* Library and Archives NT *

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...

State Library of Tasmania The State Reference Library is the reference library in the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is part of Libraries Tasmania. Libraries Tasmania includes a state-wide network of library services, community learning, adult literacy and the State� ...

* State Library Victoria *

State Library of Western Australia The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Culture and t ...

Each member library is represented by their

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, State Librarian, or

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:National and State Libraries Australia Library consortia 2006 establishments in Australia