Security and access

Security of electronic publications

The National Library hosts the NED service and securely stores all deposited publications. NED security standards are based on those specified in the Attorney-General’s Protective Security Policy Framework, the Australian Government Information Security Manual, the ISO 27000 Standards and recommendations of the Australian National Audit Office.

As a collaborative service, authorised staff in NED member libraries have access to the content stored at the National Library that is relevant to their jurisdiction, for the purpose of managing the collection.

Transfer of files between libraries

Where state or territory legislation mandates that a copy of a publication be located within that jurisdiction or a member library elects for a copy of a work deposited in accordance with a legal deposit law in their state/territory to be located in that jurisdiction, files will be securely transferred from the National Library to the relevant state or territory library. The access conditions will be identical to those of the copy in the national repository.

Public access to deposited material

NED will increase the discoverability of your publication, reaching new audiences across Australia. NED material will have a catalogue record in Trove, and in the National Library of Australia and any relevant state or territory library.

You will also nominate the level of public access allowed when you deposit the publication in NED. This ranges from ‘openly on the internet’ to ‘onsite only within the National Library and applicable State/Territory libraries’. If your publication is available commercially, you may choose to limit access to ‘onsite only’. Choosing ‘onsite only’ means the item can be viewed, but not downloaded or printed at any point in time.

Publishers that choose to make their content openly accessible on the internet can also select to apply the following temporary access conditions on their publications during the deposit process:

  1. Openly on the Internet, with temporary download restriction – A temporary restriction on downloading – 6 months for serials, 12 months for monographs. After this time period the publication will be able to be downloaded.
  2. Openly on the Internet, with temporary download and location restrictions – A temporary location restriction – onsite, view-only access (no downloading, saving, printing) at the National, state and territory libraries for 12 months. After this period of time the publication can be viewed openly on the Internet and may be downloaded.

Access to deposited publications is consistent with the Copyright Act 1968 and legal deposit laws and in accordance with the access conditions nominated by depositors, noting that these access conditions cannot reduce or restrict rights under legislation.

Download, transfer, saving, printing or copying of files

Library users will not be able to download, transfer, save, print or copy your publication if you nominate ‘onsite only’ access for that publication. ‘Onsite only’ access allows users to view your publication via a secure viewer which does not permit capturing or storing the publication in any way. However, access conditions nominated by depositors cannot reduce or restrict rights under legislation.

Inter-library loan and document delivery

NED will provide inter-library loan (i.e. making a temporary copy of an entire publication available to a single user for a limited period of time) when the technology to do this becomes available. Publications deposited to NED will not be available for inter-library loan until a system is in place and publishers have been consulted.

NED will provide document delivery of publications to library users in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. For example, by providing a user with a copy of one article from an issue of a journal, or a copy of 10 per cent or one chapter (whichever is less) of a one-off publication of more than 10 pages.