Two key standards in this area are Z39.50 and the International Interlibrary Loan Protocol. The National Library was active in monitoring the development of the Z39.50 standard and in ensuring that it became an official Australian standard. Directory services provide a critical underpinning to the library and information infrastructure allowing the discovery of relevant information suppliers and providing access to information about the methods and conditions of supply. The Library has created and published a number of directories of Australian library collections and services. The Australian Libraries Gateway and the Directory of Australia's Oral History Collections provide a single web interface to these directory services.
Directory services play a significant role in supporting interlibrary loan services.
The Library has developed the Australian Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory, which includes a national register of library symbols. The Library is engaged in a number of projects converting physical collection items to digital form in order to enhance access or support preservation programs. The Library is currently trialling the use of Ebind, a method for bringing together digital page images using an SGML document type definition. Despite the growth in digital collections, the National Library remains committed to the preservation of very large non-digital collections. Preservation reformatting, especially in microform, and standards for 'permanent paper' are two of the areas in which the Library takes an active role.