The Library aims to acquire primary source materials of military relevance.

The key driver of our collecting is the teaching and research interests of UNSW@ADFA. This will generally mean materials of direct or indirect relevance to conflicts or areas of potential conflict with Australian involvement.

The Library aims to avoid competing with or duplicating the collections of other institutions with collecting interests in this area. Specifically:

• We should not collect Commonwealth of Australia archival documents, as these are the responsibility of the National Archives of Australia and the Australian War Memorial.
• We should not seek out private papers resulting from Australian military participation in specific wars, military conflicts or peacekeeping operations, as these are the collecting focus of the War Memorial.
• We aim to collect the personal papers of ADF persons that reflect a predominantly peacetime service, and papers from other than Australian military combatants, which are of military or strategic relevance.

As manuscripts are very expensive to process, they will only be collected under the following conditions:

• They are unpublished, original personal papers of unique value as historical evidence.
• They are available at little or no additional direct (up front) cost.
• There are no conditions attached to the gift.
• They are in an acceptable state, e.g. free of mould.

For further information please contact Special Collections via specialcollections@adfa.edu.au or on 02 6268 6270.