THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Posted by Doug Compo
Founded in 1901, the National Library of Australia (NLA) is the largest reference library in Australia. As one might expect, it focuses on archiving and maintaining information specific to Australia. According to the NLA (2019):
The Library’s role, as defined by the National Library Act 1960, is to ensure that documentary resources of national significance relating to Australia and the Australian people, as well as significant non-Australian library materials, are collected, preserved and made accessible either through the Library itself or through collaborative arrangements with other libraries and information providers.
The NLA isn’t contained to one building. It utilizes four buildings: three in Canberra and one in Jakarta, Indonesia. The NLA building in Parkes, Canberra was opened on August 15, 1968 by John Gorton, who was Prime Minister at that time (NLA, 2019).
The NLA is highly popular and well-staffed. On its website, the NLA (2019) provides the following statistics:
- A total of 259 shelf kilometers
- Roughly 10 million collection items
- 5 petabytes of digital storage
- 382 staff
- Approximately 2,000 Friends of the National Library
- Over 36 million website visits
- 545,666 on-site visitors
- 762,353 off-site visitors
In March of 2019, the NLA launched its Internet-specific “library”, named The Australian Web Archive, or AWA (see video below). The purpose of this endeavor was to keep a record of all accessible web content on .au domains, dating back to 1996 (NLA 2019). This is different from a search engine query, due to the fact the AWA would be storing these records permanently, regardless of whether the website was defunct or not. The implications are tremendous, although they could be considered positive or negative.
Let’s assume that, several hundred years into the future, humans are still inhabiting earth and haven’t destroyed everything. How neat would it be to look back in time and get a realistic glimpse into society as those primitive, early 21st century barbarians knew it? The happenings of the day, no matter how mundane, would all be captured in a snapshot, either figurative or literal (probably a selfie, so our descendants could see how awesome we really were). Many people would consider this to be a positive thing for society and future generations.
Conversely, many people, especially when they’re younger and/or they’ve been drinking too much, are prone to posting a little too much on social media and end up regretting it later. If you haven’t done this yourself, you probably know someone who has. Should that embarrassing moment be captured forever and leave a stain on someone’s legacy? Sure, that person may have done plenty of good things, but it can be hard to live down one’s low moments, especially when those moments are permanently stored online for all to see.
Is the AWA a good idea that other nations should emulate? Why or why not? Should the NLA be able to do archive anyone’s personal web activity? Why or why not?
References
National Library Association. (2019). Facts and figures. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://www.nla.gov.au/facts-and-figures
National Library Association. (2019). History of the Library. Retrieved June 22, 2019, from https://www.nla.gov.au/history-of-the-library
National Library Association. (2019). Our building. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://www.nla.gov.au/about-us/our-building
National Library Association. (2019). Who we are. Retrieved June 23, 2019, from https://www.nla.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are
National Library of Australia. (2019). Trove. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/?q=
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