Donate

Deposit with the ACT Heritage Library

Publications

Fiction and non-fiction

The ACT Heritage Library collects material that relates directly to Canberra and the ACT. ACT publishers, publishers of ACT based authors and self publishing authors are encouraged to lodge a copy of their publications.

Hardcopy may be forwarded to the library. Electronic publications can be deposited through the National edeposit (NED) service.

National edeposit (NED) service is a collaborative initiative of Australian national and state and territory libraries for the capture, preservation and discovery of published electronic material across Australia. More information on this including deposit access for publishers can be found at https://ned.gov.au.

Government Publications

The ACT Heritage Library collects ACT Government publications and the publications of other jurisdictions where the content relates to Canberra. Government agencies are encouraged to lodge a copy of relevant publications. The ACT Heritage Library deposits ACT Government publications with the National edeposit (NED) serviceon behalf of all Directorates.

Serials

The ACT Heritage Library collects one copy of each edition of journals, newsletters, and other regular publications produced by Canberra community organisations, groups and businesses. If you have an electronic newsletter, you are encouraged to deposit via the National edeposit (NED) service.

Lodgement

To lodge your publication with the ACT Heritage Library, please send copies to:

ACT Heritage Library
GPO Box 158
Canberra ACT 2601

Queries about National edeposit (NED) may be emailed to TCCS.NED@act.gov.au

The ACT Heritage Library reserves the right to refuse or redistribute material that does not meet our selection criteria.

Original Materials

What, Why and How we collect

The ACT Heritage Library is a special service of Libraries ACT. It has the responsibility to collect, preserve and provide access to information relating to Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory.

We actively encourage the donation of personal, family, society and business records which document the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Australian Capital Territory.

The ACT Heritage Library does not collect Commonwealth or ACT Government records which are the responsibility of the National Archives of Australia or Territory Records.

Appraisal

The ACT Heritage Library does not automatically accept material offered for donation. Appraisal is conducted by specialist staff with reference to the Collection Development Policy. Other appraisal considerations include the context of existing collections, staff time, storage, conservation and other costs associated with acquiring and processing the records.

The appraisal process establishes whether the records contribute to documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the ACT sufficiently to justify permanent preservation. Appraisal also determines the processing priority for material which is accepted.

Pictorial images are subject to appraisal based on the need to provide unique ACT visual information with known contextual details such as location, name of photographer, identification of individuals photographed and approximate date.

Deed of Gift

A Deed of Gift is a legal agreement which transfers custody of records to the ACT Heritage Library, which holds the material on behalf of the ACT Government.

The agreement specifies any conditions the donor requires for access, copying and publication of the donated material. Where possible, the ACT Heritage Library will seek to acquire copyright via the legal agreement in order to ensure that future researchers are not disadvantaged by an inability to locate the copyright owners. In a minority of cases, where the records contain culturally sensitive or confidential information, access and copying may be embargoed.

Access

The ACT Heritage Library prefers that no unnecessary restrictions on access (including online access to digitised/electronic donations) be imposed, but accepts that certain sensitive materials may require this and will ensure adherence to all such restrictions specified in legal agreements.

Preparing records for transfer

You can help us make your records accessible quickly by:

Find out what to do next.