Budget delivers NLA funds for Captain Cook commemoration; cuts to staffing levels

Wednesday, 9 May 2018 Books+Publishing

The National Library of Australia (NLA) will share in a $48.7 million investment released in the 2018-19 federal budget to deliver events and programs to commemorate the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s first Pacific voyage.

The $48.7 million will be delivered over four years to the NLA, the National Museum of Australia, the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

In a media release, the Department of Communications and the Arts said the measure ‘will support a range of exhibitions, activities and events which will allow Australians to mark this significant anniversary in a spirit of reflection that acknowledges the meeting of two cultures’. The measure saw the NLA receive $0.9 million in funding in 2017-18, and will provide $2.7 million in 2018-19, $0.5 million in 2019-20; and $0.5 million in 2020-21.

NLA’s total budget income for 2018-19 will increase by $1.9 million compared to 2017-18, which includes the Cook anniversary funding, as well as $0.5 million of additional funding from the Public Sector Modernisation Fund’s Agency Sustainability Stream to ‘support innovation, productivity improvements’. The library will also see an equity injection of $9.5 million for the ‘acquisition of heritage and cultural assets’.

Staffing levels at NLA and the National Archives will both drop, with 12 staff to be lost at the library (down to 371) and 10 at the archives (down to 355).

Category: Library news