National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act 1960 for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people", thus functioning as a national library. It is located in Parkes, Canberra, ACT.
National Library of Australia as viewed from Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra
Image: National Library of Australia, ACT perspective controlled
Original National Library building (1934), demolished 1968
The library seen from Lake Burley Griffin in autumn.
A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant works. A national library is that library which has the duty of collecting and preserving the literature of the nation within and outside the country. Thus, national libraries are those libraries whose community is the nation at large. Examples include the British Library in London, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.
British Library in London, the largest in the world
Italian National Central Library in Florence
The Biblioteca Nacional de Chile or The National Library of Chile in Santiago, Chile
The National Library of Brazil is the largest library in Latin America.