National Library of Australia's service gets $16.4 million in funding in MYEFO update
The National Library of Australia (NLA) has received some funding support in the mid-year budget update to help it upgrade and expand its digitisation efforts.
The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) revealed the NLA's Trove service, which has digitised millions of records, would receive $16.4 million over the coming four years to upgrade infrastructure linked to the service.
After the 2016-17 Budget was handed down, the library warned that without extra funding support it would not be able to continue adding content to the Trove archive.
But ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja said the Christmas boost would be welcome news and help to shore up Trove's future.
"We've had some losses and some wins, and this is a significant win I think," he said.
"It'll help underpin the growth of Trove.
"Whether you're a historian, whether you're a schoolteacher, whether you're a student, whether you're just interested in Australia's history, Trove is an amazing resource."
Staff cuts continue to bite
The NLA has been subject to efficiency dividends under several consecutive governments, despite pleas from both sides of politics to ease pressure on the institution.
In the most recent budget, it was forecast that 28 jobs would go in 2016-17 because of the efficiency dividend.
Vince McDevitt from the Community and Public Sector Union said the funding boost would be cold comfort for the 22 NLA employees who had already lost their jobs this year.
"Unfortunately this funding will do nothing to address the unsustainable budget cuts that have been inflicted on the library over a number of years now," he said.
"Even as recently as this year's budget we saw another 22 highly trained professionals lose their jobs, thrown on the scrap heap.
"It's not going to add any staff to the library. They're already overworked, underpaid — they've been on pay freeze for three years."
Senator Seselja agreed efficiency dividends had hit the library hard, and said he would continue to lobby for the NLA to be exempt from further cuts.
"I argued against the additional efficiency dividend and I've certainly argued in favour of this extra money," he said.
"There's not a lot of fat to cut, so this will really give a lot of breathing space."
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