Library Collections

Physical materials which meet the criteria for the Special Collection are permanent holdings of long-term value to the RMIT community. These are housed in the distributed Special Collection with restricted access designed to preserve materials while still allowing access to researchers and wider community. 

Digital Special Collection materials, which meet the criteria for archival preservation and are permanent holdings of long-term value to the Library Collections, are housed in the digital preservation repository system.

In support of the University’s strategic priorities of Open Scholarship and inclusive education and the Library’s digital first initiative, the Library actively curates and facilitates access to high-quality Digital Learning Objects (DLOs) through the Learning Objects Repository (LOR).

DLOs may include short-form educational videos, learning modules, infographics, multimedia presentations, audio, simulations and other interactive or instructional content. This content is identified within the Education plan as RMIT’s Signature Pedagogy and is unique to RMIT’s educational delivery. Most of these objects and their supporting assets have been developed within the RMIT community – by educators, learning designers, industry and community partners, and students. These works could include purchased materials permissible for redistribution as per licence terms.  Some of these resources include short courses (formerly micro-credentials), curriculum architecture templates and supports for educational delivery.

The LOR enables:

• discovery of teaching resources across disciplines
• reuse and remix of objects to support course development
• preservation of valuable institutional knowledge
• open access pathways for selected resources under Creative Commons licensing.

Inclusion of DLOs in the Library’s LOR is guided by a collection criteria rubric, which assesses curriculum alignment, accessibility, format, quality and intellectual property status. Metadata standards used for DLOR align with international frameworks such as Dublin Core, Schema.org and IEEE-LOM, and are designed to ensure interoperability with learning platforms such as Canvas.

The Library works closely with academic and professional staff to assess, describe and manage DLOs as part of a sustainable, accessible and evolving collection that reflects RMIT’s educational values and celebrates internal development of learning experiences.

The Research Repository collects peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed research outputs and publications produced by RMIT University researchers, including Higher Degree by Research candidates. This Collection Policy includes guidelines about the materials the Research Repository will and will not collect.

Research outputs collected by the Research Repository will have content that meets the definition of research as defined below by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). 

Research: “The concept of research is broad and includes the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative.”

Source: Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2018. National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council and Universities Australia. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018).

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For material to be included in the Research Repository, at least one of the authors/creators must be affiliated with RMIT University at the time of addition.

The Research Repository collects research publications, and those of a scholarly nature.

The Research Repository will not collect:

• Bachelor (Honours) theses, Masters by Coursework theses
• Undergraduate student works – see Student Works
• Confidential or proprietary information
• Material produced for the purpose of training or education e.g., textbooks or training programs/kits
• Culturally sensitive material
• Material that is defamatory
• Material that breaches or risks the privacy of the author or other people
• Evidence of engagement and impact activities – see LibrarySearch
• Self-published essays, items published by ‘vanity publishers’ or items published in predatory or unethical publications
• Patents (these are already collected by the Research Partnerships and Translation team, Research and Innovation)
• Abstracts
• Undergraduate research.

For material to be included in the Research Repository, at least one of the authors/creators must be affiliated with RMIT University at the time of addition.

The Library reserves the right to remove content from the Research Repository at any time and for any reason.

The Library collects final year and capstone Student Works across all disciplines, which may include non-traditional or creative research outputs. We may also consider Works outside of this scope. Collection of Student Works is constrained by the types of files supported by Library systems.

Student Works are housed and accessible via Alma Digital or Rosetta. They are available for showcases, research, events, exemplars, preservation and other purposes.

RMIT University Archives Collection operates as the institutional repository for records that are evidence of the functions and activities performed throughout the RMIT University. The University Archives’ mission is to acquire, organise, preserve and publicise such materials, and to assist researchers in their use.

The collection spans from the commencement of the Working Men’s College in 1887 until present day and includes records of predecessor entities. Refer to RMIT University Archives Collection Guidelines on the RMIT University Archives Collection page for information about collection scope, acquisition criteria and deaccessioning (deselection).

RMIT Australian Screen Research Collection

RMIT University Art Collection

RMIT Design Archives

RMIT Open Press is the imprint under which open textbooks are published at RMIT on the Pressbooks digital publishing platform. RMIT Open Press supports the RMIT Education Plan 2026-2028 Action Area 1 (linked from Our strategy).

Pressbooks platform enables authors to integrate text, multimedia and activities into dynamic OERs for teaching and sharing cost-free with learners and other teachers. Open books can also be adapted to suit local students’ needs.

The criteria for publishing in RMIT Open Press are in the RMIT Open Publishing Toolkit for authors.

RMIT Open Press books are discoverable in the Pressbooks Directory and LibrarySearch. The Pressbooks learning tool integration (LTI) can be used to integrate Pressbooks into courses in Canvas.

As a CAVAL Member, RMIT participates in two CAVAL-managed collections:

CARM Shared Collection

CAVAL Archival and Research (CARM) Shared Collection provides a sustainable, long-term solution for management and preservation of print resources, avoiding unnecessary duplication across CAVAL Member collections. The collection is stored in a high-density storage facility at CAVAL and is accessible to all Member Libraries and the wider scholarly community.

As a Member, we contribute material to the Shared Collection, ceding the ownership of that material to CAVAL.

Collective Shelf

The Library participates in the CAVAL Collective Shelf consortium. Collective Shelf is an assortment of shared print resources from participating stakeholders. It operates as a single, collaboratively-managed collection to optimise usage and storage while recognising each participating Library as an expert at collecting materials in specific subjects.

This collaborative approach to collection maintenance, access and management fosters progressive change, enhances access and ensures sustainability and responsiveness to the changing nature of Library spaces, services and collections.

The General Collection refers to the scholarly information resources of the Library in all formats and in all modes of access, except for resources housed in the Special Collection, University Archives, Research Repository, Digital Object Repository, Digital Preservation Repository System, CAVAL Collective Shelf and CARM Shared Collection.

Learning Resources

The Library supports teaching and learning by providing access to learning resources in various formats and by meeting the equity and access commitments reflected in RMIT policies, guidelines and strategic focus.

RMIT Education Plan 2026-2028 Action Area 1 (linked from Our strategy) encourages a transition to Open Educational Resources (OERs) to reduce financial barriers to learning for RMIT students.

Library staff work closely with teaching staff to:

• understand the needs of programs to provide equitable access to requested learning resources for the start of each semester
• recognise the need of our diverse student population to ensure engagement with course content
• create reading lists that can be embedded in courses
• support the creation and adoption of OERs
• source learning resources and recommend new resources
• support alternative ways of acquiring Indigenous and diverse resources.