Building the Collection

Acquisition of New Material

New material is acquired under the guidance of the NFSA's curatorial staff according to the NFSA's published Collection Policy [PDF 362 KB] and Statement of Curatorial Values [PDF 11.2 KB]. Contact the curators if you have material that you feel should be preserved as part of the Collection.

Home Movies: If you have home movies you'd like to offer to the NFSA, our Home movie FAQ and questionnaire will help you provide information to allow the curators to assess your films. You will need to download and fill in the questionnaire before sending us any films.

Acquisition Methods

Once we have established that material should become part of the National Collection, there are several ways it can be lodged:

Donation

Donations to the NFSA are permanent gifts of collection items. The NFSA welcomes donations of works that match its acquisition criteria. Unlike works on deposit, the NFSA acquires title to, and control over, the physical items. Unless the intellectual property of the works are in the Public Domain, the intellectual property of the works donated to the NFSA remains with their legal owners. The NFSA will respect both the privacy of donors and the legitimate interests of copyright holders.

Deposit

The owner of a work may wish to transfer it to the NFSA for preservation or storage purposes while retaining title, intellectural property rights, and a degree of control over the material. Ideally, the NFSA should receive fair value in exchange for providing such preservation and storage services and should seek funds to offset any incremental operational costs incurred because of the deposit. The NFSA Management may accept, upon the recommendation of the curators, such items on deposit within the limits set out in this policy.

Purchase

In evaluating a proposed acquisition for purchase, the NFSA will seek to ensure that a. it acquires the works it intends to acquire; b. it acquires clear title to the works; c. pays a fair price, and d. obtains the works on carriers of appropriate format and condition.

Bequest

Living artists, producers, collectors and others may wish to name the NFSA as an intended recipient of works or other property upon their death. Many such bequests have been made known to the NFSA during the artist, producer or collector's lifetime. When there is a long-standing professional relationship, or when the NFSA has participated in the development of the terms and conditions surrounding the bequest, the expectations and requirements of both parties are well known to each other. In these instances, the NFSA can confirm the relevance of the bequest material to the national collection and hence verify the benefits of the bequest for all concerned.

Unsolicited Gifts and Portfolios

The NFSA cannot take responsibility for unsolicited works it receives. Staff, interns, volunteers or commissioners who receive such materials should deliver them immediately to the curatorial staff for further decision. The NFSA reserves the right to accession such unsolicited material into the national collection, to return to sender if practical to do so, or to dispose of the material if it does not meet the NFSA acquisition criteria.

National Film and Sound Archive
Curatorial Branch
Head Office Canberra
Phone: (02) 6248 2000
Email: collection@nfsa.gov.au

See Contact Us for State offices