Image
WANTED: Your 2022 Federal Election Ephemera
We are calling on all Australians to help us build the next chapter of Australia’s political history by collecting ephemera from the 2022 federal election!
Every three years, in the lead up to a federal election, Australians are bombarded with political party flyers, how-to-vote cards, banners, posters, as well as badges, stickers, and printed material.
This material provides a perspective into Australia’s social life and political landscape—the rise and fall of policies, issues, parties and careers. It offers historians and researchers of the future fascinating insights into the history of politics in Australia.
The National Library is keen to ensure a permanent documentary record of Australia’s political history is publicly available. We’ve been collecting federal election ephemera comprehensively and impartially since 1983, and thanks to the Australian public, we have the largest collection of political memorabilia in Australia, covering every Australian federal election since Federation in 1901. We are asking you, our citizen collectors, to help us again this year to add more political ephemera and build on this exceptional resource.
What are we looking for?
Our aim is to collect items from every Federal electorate as well as from every candidate, party and lobby group during the 2022 federal election campaign
-
Printed federal election campaign material including letters, ‘how to vote’ cards, posters, pamphlets, badges, stickers, T-shirts, hats and any other printed material to promote a party or candidate, or to lobby an election issue.
-
We are particularly interested in material from marginal electorates, independents, rural and regional communities, material from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities and Indigenous communities and candidates.
-
Material that records current issues of the day from health services, cost of living, Covid and industrial relations, to education, the environment, climate change and others.
Image
How can I support this collecting campaign?
If you, your colleagues, friends and relatives have access to this material, we encourage you to send it to us to add to the national collection. You can send smaller items (A4 size or smaller) for free using our reply-paid address. If you are in Canberra, you can also deposit items into one of the clearly labelled boxes in the Library’s Reading Rooms.
Our address is:
Federal Election Campaign Ephemera
Curatorial & Collection Research
National Library of Australia
Reply Paid 83399
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Image
We ask that you are mindful of the condition of the material you will be depositing. If you have any preservation concerns (eg mould, dirt, insects) or where the object is torn or in poor condition please email us (see below) and we can talk to colleagues in our Collection Care section.
What aren’t we collecting?
We don’t collect photocopies, duplicates of the same item and photographs.
What about digital material?
Behind the scenes we will continue to collect online information relating to the election. Online election material is collected by the National Library of Australia and archive partner agencies and delivered through the Australian Web Archive. For the 2019 election, we collected over 1000 websites including political parties, candidates and lobby sites, as well as media and social media, such as twitter, blogs and Reddit. We are excited to continue collecting in this area again and hope to capture even more in 2022.
Image
What if I have a question?
If you have question about donating ephemera to this collecting project, please email select@nla.gov.au.
What will happen to the items I send to the Library?
Once the election is over, printed material will be sorted and stored in preservation quality housing and added to our Federal Election Campaign Finding Aid. This guide lists different types of material collected, including online websites. Take a look at the Federal election campaign ephemera (1901-2019) to explore some of the weird and wonderful items we have collected for past campaigns
Please note that the Library may decline material that does not fit with our Collection Development Policy and may dispose of duplicate material in line with the Library’s Deaccessioning and Disposal Policy. Unfortunately, due to the amount of material we receive, we will not be in a position to acknowledge receipt of every item, unless specifically requested.
Help play a part in collecting political ephemera for the federal election, so that future generations will have a valuable documentary record of political life in 2022.
Image
