Introduction

The digital collections of the National Library of Australia include full-text databases, online Australian government publications, archived websites, and online copies of significant Australian material in traditional formats - photographs, paintings, cartoons, transparencies, negatives, postcards, maps, printed music, manuscripts, books and journals.

Use the search box to find online material in our Catalogue.

See our infrastructure page if you are interested in how the Library manages its digital collections.

For more information on our digital collections in specific formats follow the links below.

Pictures | Music | Maps | Manuscripts | Oral History & Folklore | Books | Journals & Newspapers

Pictures

Almost 85,000 items from the Library's Pictures Collection have been digitised, more than 82,700 of which are now available online through the Pictures Catalogue. Examples include:

• Photographs of Antarctica, Papua New Guinea and the Middle East by Frank Hurley.
• Botanical watercolours by Ellis Rowan.
• Watercolours of colonial Australia by Joseph Lycett, Augustus Earle and John Hunter.
• Photographs of Australian 20th century industry and architecture by Wolfgang Sievers.

Music

The digitised printed music collection comprises Australian sheet music and some published albums held by the National Library published before 1930. Music is defined as Australian if it involved an Australian composer, librettist, arranger, subject or place of publication. There are 9,300 pieces of printed music digitised, some examples of which are:

• O! Sydney I Love You (1929)
• Hurrah for the Bat & Ball: the Universal Cricket Song (1896)
• Advance Australia Fair (1900-1909)
• Waltzing Matilda (1905)
• I Was Dreaming (1940)

Maps

The digitised map collection consists mainly of sheet maps and selected atlases held by the National Library published before 1900. More than 4,500 maps have now been digitised from the rare map collections, and work continues. Access to the images may be made online through the catalogue record for each item. Some examples from the digitised map collection are:

• Americae sive novi orbis nova descriptio (1587)
• The Bridge estate, North Sydney (1892)
• Sketch and description of the settlement at Sydney Cove Port Jackson (1789)
• Chart of part of the coast of New South Wales (1801)
• Melbourne Harbour Trust. Drawing no. 3 & 4 (1879)

Manuscripts

The Library’s manuscript collections cover all kinds of unpublished records, including letters, diaries, notebooks, speeches, lectures, drafts of books and articles, research or reference files, cutting books, photographs, drawings, minute books, agenda papers, logbooks, financial records, maps and plans. The collection includes the archives of significant individuals or families, national non-governmental organisations and single or groups of documents of definitive research or exhibition value. A generic delivery system for digitised manuscript collections has been developed which provides integrated online access to finding aids describing the collection and digitised collection items. Some examples of digitised manuscript collections are:

• Journal of the H.M.S. Endeavour
• Patterns of cloth made and wore [i.e. worn] by Natives of the South Sea Islands being part of the collection made by the celebrated circumnavigator Capt. James Cook in his first, second and third voyages
• Papers of Sir Joseph Banks
• Papers of Lord Sandwich
• Diary of William John Wills
• Papers of Sir Edmund Barton
• Papers of Alfred Deakin
• Papers of Christina McPherson relating to the song "Waltzing Matilda"

Some of our digitised manuscript collection items are also featured in the Library's online exhibitions. For example, the interpretive website for the diary of William John Wills includes a revised transcript of the diary, illustrations and maps relating to the Burke and Wills Expedition.

Oral History & Folklore

We are gradually digitising the material in our Oral History & Folklore collection and will shortly have material available online. If you find sound recordings in our catalogue and wish to purchase a digital copy, select the Copies Direct option from the full record display.

Books

Selected works relating to Cook's South Sea voyages have been digitised. Some examples are:

• Selected plates from Cook, James, 1728-1779. A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the world
• List of plates from Volume 4 of Cook, James, 1728-1779. A voyage to the Pacific Ocean : undertaken, by the command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the northern hemisphere
• Images from Dalrymple, Alexander. An account of the discoveries made in the south Pacifick Ocean, previous to 1764
• List of maps contained in: Harris, John. Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca Or, A complete collection of voyages and travel

The Library is also involved in digitising classic Australian children's works as part of the International Children's Digital Library Project. See:

• Blinky Bill, the quaint little Australian / story and decorations by Dorothy Wall (Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1933)
• A Book for kids / by C.J. Dennis (Sydney : Angus & Robertson, [1921])

Journals & Newspapers

• The Library maintains a list of Australian Journals Online.
• The Library maintains a list of Australian Newspapers Online.
• The Library subscribes to a range of full-text databases containing newspaper and journal articles. See Indexes & Databases for the complete list.
• The Library routinely digitises articles indexed for
  • APAIS - Australian Public Affairs (APAFT), and
  • AMI - Australasian Medical Index (Meditext).
• The Library hosts Australian Periodicals 1840-1845, a digital library of Australian journals that began publication between 1840-1845.