Federal Labor would pump millions of dollars into the National Library of Australia to ensure the award-winning Trove website could continue to archive material.
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The website, which stores more than 473 million records and is essential for research, has stopped aggregating content amid cuts caused by the federal government's efficiency dividend.
The dividend is tipped to strip $5.9 million from The National Library by 2019 in addition to a $1.5 million loss in the mid-year update. Budget papers reveal the library will lose 29 jobs by June 2017.
Labor arts spokesman Mark Dreyfus told Fairfax Media he would invest $3 million each year for four years if elected to secure the future of Trove.
"Failure to support and invest in this national resource is a poor decision in the digital world of the 21st century," he said.
"The destruction of an innovative resource like Trove works against Australia's transition to a knowledge-based economy."
The library had funded Trove from its own budget since it launched in 2009, but its director-general Anne-Marie Schwirtlich says that's no longer possible after cuts also forced the loss of staff and programs.
The federal government told the library to consider private funding or sponsorships for Trove in March after Ms Schwirtlich announced it would be suspended along with education programs and magazines.
In a letter to staff, she said the government's budget cuts would have "a grave impact" on cultural institutions in Canberra.
"Sadly, as half of the library's budget is expended on staff salaries, to make the savings the library will inevitably have to reduce staffing and the activities carried out by staff," she said.
Ms Schwirtlich said full-time-equivalent staff numbers would drop from 415 to 393 by June 2017, with further reductions to occur in coming years.
The government will save nearly $2 billion from its efficiency dividend, imposed across the bureaucracy and set to remain at 2.5 per cent before dropping to 2 per cent in 2018-19.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has warned the extension of the efficiency dividend could cost 1400 Canberra-based jobs by 2020.
National cultural institutions must find almost $40 million of savings within four years in addition to other budgets cuts, with many concerned the quality of offerings will suffer.
The dividend has been trimming the operating costs of Canberra-based institutions for nearly 30 years, despite bipartisan opposition from ACT politicians and taxpayers.
Cultural institutions have already cut their expenses by $29.4 million since September 2013, when the Coalition government was elected.
"The destruction of Trove is yet another area where Prime Minister Turnbull says one thing and does another," Mr Dreyfus said.
"He says he supports Australian arts and culture, and encourages innovation and creativity. Yet he is happy to destroy a precious information resource."
Trove allows anyone who has the internet to access resources free, and more than 70,000 people use the service each day.
International and Australian researchers have expressed concerns over its future, with many considering it a revolutionary and world-leading service.
Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann said Trove was "of tremendous value" and she had been contacted by many constituents concerned by the cuts.
"There's 70 years of The Canberra Times available digitally through Trove. It's got every letter to the editor, every classified ad, every birth, death and marriage, through until 1995."
