National Library of Australia

National Library of Australia
35°17′47″S 149°07′46″E / 35.29639°S 149.12944°E / -35.29639; 149.12944
Location	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Type	Reference library
Scope	Commonwealth of Australia
Established	23 March 1961; 63 years ago (1961-03-23)
Reference to legal mandate	National Library Act 1960
Collection
Items collected	Books magazines pictures photographs maps sheet music manuscripts websites
Size	6.93 million items
Criteria for collection	Publications made available to the Australian public
Legal deposit	Digital and hard-copy Australian published materials
Other information
Budget	A$57,800,000 (2015–16)
Director	Marie-Louise Ayres
Employees	400 (2016)
Website	www.nla.gov.au
Building details
National Library of Australia as viewed from Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra
General information
Status	Completed
Architectural style	Late Twentieth Century Stripped Classical
Address	Parkes Place and King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Country	Australia
Construction started	1961
Inaugurated	15 August 1968 (1968-08-15) by Prime Minister John Gorton
Cost	A$8 million (1968)
Technical details
Material	Marble, granite, bronze, slate, trachyte, and copper
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Walter Bunning
Architecture firm	Bunning and Madden
Other designers	Leonard French (stained-glass windows) Mathieu Matégot (Aubusson tapestries x3) Tom Bass (copper sculpture) Henry Moore (sculpture)
Commonwealth Heritage List
Official name	National Library of Australia and Surrounds, Parkes Pl, Parkes, ACT, Australia
Type	Listed place
Criteria	A., D., E., F., G., H.
Designated	22 June 2004
Reference no.	105470
References: [1][2][3][4][5][6]

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 "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people", thus functioning as a national library. It is located in Parkes, Canberra, ACT.

Created in 1960 by the National Library Act, by the end of June 2019 its collection contained 7,717,579 items, with its manuscript material occupying 17,950 metres (58,890 ft) of shelf space. The NLA also hosts and manages the Trove cultural heritage discovery service, which includes access to the Australian Web Archive and National edeposit (NED), a large collection of digitised newspapers, official documents, manuscripts and images, as well as born-digital material.