Processing

On acquisition, all items in the Library's collection are accessioned and recorded on the Library's Integrated Library Management System (ILMS). The Library currently uses the Voyager system. In addition, for manuscript and large picture archives, the collection management system Archive Space is used for the accessioning and detailed description of this material.

All material is then catalogued according to the Library's Collection Description policy, with different levels of description employed for various categories of material.

Describing

All new material is catalogued using RDA : Resource Description and Access.

The Library also uses the following standards for cataloguing:

  • Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in conjunction with the Australian extension to LCSH, which includes additional Australian subject headings and references that have been authorised for use in Libraries Australia.
  • Dewey Decimal Classification numbers are included in the bibliographic records for serials and Chinese language material. Library of Congress classification numbers are included in bibliographic records for most printed cartographic materials.
  • MARC21  is used to create records in the Library's ILMS using the Unicode character set. Non-Roman script is now added to records for a variety of language materials, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai language materials.

The Library also uses internal thesauri to index some material types such as manuscripts, pictures, oral history and ephemera.

The Library has implemented the Encoded Archival Description standard for the standardisation and exchange of data about the content, structure and control of archival collections. Finding aids for all manuscript collections and large picture archives are created according to the EAD standard.

Arrangement

Printed materials are arranged and stored in various sequences in the Library's onsite stack areas or at two offsite storage facilities. Call number prefixes indicate the location and size of these sequences.

Historically, the Library has used Dewey classification based call numbers for the arrangement and storage of the majority of its monograph and serial collections. However, since 2010, running number call numbers are instead being used for the arrangement and storage of most newly acquired monographs.