Home > About Us > Policies & guidelines > Collection-related policies

Collection-related policies

We have been developing our collections for over 150 years. Over that time, collecting has reflected changes in taste, research needs, intellectual fashion, technologies and the financial resources available.

The Collection Strategy 2020-24 defines the purpose, vision, guiding principles and strategies that will shape our collections and content to the year 2024.

The collection-building responsibilities of the Library are outlined in the Libraries Act 1988. The collections are further developed by provisions in the Act relating to legal deposit, which requires publishers to lodge copies of their publications with the Library.

Donations to the collection are guided by the Library's Collection policy, and general collecting principles are supported by the Digital preservation policy.

There are also policies that guide public access to our collections, specifically Australian manuscripts and Newspapers. We aim to balance public access to original material with the Library's responsibility for the long-term preservation of the state's cultural heritage.

Read the Collections and Content Strategy

You can download the strategy in PDF format, below.