It is a website, a system and a service,[1] the result of a project by National and State Libraries Australia, and is a world-first collaboration.
On 17 February 2016, the day the Copyright Act amendment for digital publications came into effect, the first ebook, Napoleon’s Last Island by Thomas Keneally was deposited by staff at Penguin Random House.
[3] The steering group from the nine organisations met 100 times between 2017 and 2019, according to Kate Torney, CEO of State Library Victoria and Chair of NLSA.
The new system was designed so that the National Library would host the NED service and be responsible for secure storage of deposited copies.
[8][15] Individual state libraries request publishers to fulfill their legal obligations by depositing their digital publications via the NED portal.
[5] NED was formally launched by the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher, on 16 August 2019.
[21] A number of other factors also contribute to its uniqueness:[21] Other benefits touted by project collaborators include ease of use for publishers, more content overall, and the enhanced ability to collect a wider sweep of material from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including migrants and Indigenous Australians.
[24][25] This article incorporates text by Lemon, Barbara; Blinco, Kerry; Somes, Brendan available under the CC BY 4.0 license.