National Library’s digital archive needs funding to maintain Trove of treasures

National Library boss Marie-Louise Ayres has warned the ­future of its digital archive, Trove, remains uncertain without government funding beyond July.

Director-General of the National Library, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres.

National Library boss Marie-Louise Ayres has warned the ­future of its digital archive, Trove, remains uncertain and could be forced to “wind down its services” if the cultural institution does not secure government funding beyond July.

The popular online resource, accessed by millions of researchers, academics and members of the public each year, receives $5m annually in government funding, but the National Library of Australia’s director-general said the institution faced a “difficult period ahead” with its funding due to end in less than six months.

“It’s very clear that if we do not secure funding (Trove) will not be able to continue in its current form because we will not be able to maintain that central digital infrastructure,” Dr Ayres said.

“The library’s council will consider all options over the next few months when the government’s funding position is clear, but there is certainly no doubt that we cannot guarantee Trove will continue with this current model,” she added.

The digital platform, which was launched more than a decade ago, contains about six billion digital items, including news­papers, magazines, photographs, journals, parliamentary papers, official reports, personal papers and academic theses.

The platform’s free-to-access content is derived from more than 800 libraries and archival collections throughout Australia, with contributing organisations providing up to 40 per cent of Trove’s operating costs.

One of two original pictures from the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860–1861 by William Hodgkinson. His dramatic watercolour depicts an 1861 battle at a stockade at Bulla (Bulloo, near Thargomindah). Picture: Trove/National Library of Australia.

But a recent National Library of Australia strategy review of the platform estimates the institution will require about $30m over the next four years to maintain Trove and further upgrade its digital ­archival system.

“There is no doubt all our cultural institutions are facing major problems,” Dr Ayres said.

“But, ultimately, governments have to decide where they put taxpayer money, and we understand successive governments have been grappling with unprecedented shocks to our society and economy.”

Dr Ayres said previous funding cuts under the Turnbull government forced the NLA to cut back its overseas collecting, cease international exhibitions and dramatically reduce its engagement with the Asia Pacific region in order to sustain Trove to the standard users expected.

“No one can say that this is the fault of any particular government. But I think it would be a tragedy if they (cultural institutions) decline further,” she said.

“We’re completely focused on reducing the tyranny of distance so our collections can be available to all Australians everywhere.

“It’s not about bringing people to the library,” she said.

“We’re about an egalitarian model that allows access to all Australians everywhere … and Trove is at the heart of that.”

Late last month, federal Arts Minister Tony Burke told an audience at Queensland’s Woodford Folk Festival there was a “justified outcry” about long-term “systematic underfunding” of many of Australia’s cultural ­institutions.

“There will be major decisions that the government will take in dealing with those challenges,” the minister said at the time, ­noting that funding for the NLA would not be ­addressed in the government’s cultural policy announcement, which is due on January 30.