Policy statement
The National Library of Australia is the country's largest reference library. Our role 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 Library’s exhibiting role is mandated by the National Library Act 1960 Section 6 which requires the Library:
(b)
to make library material in the national collection available to such persons and institutions, and in such manner and subject to such conditions, as the Council determines with a view to the most advantageous use of that collection in the national interest;