Researching Australian Literature

in the Digital Age

AustLit www.austlit.edu.au

Kerry KilnerThe University of Queensland

Underpinning Goals

To establish a full record of the nation’s literature

To reduce duplication of research effort and encourage collaboration in the field

To provide tools to support research and scholarship

To promote access to Australian writing

History• 1998: Partnership built between 8 universities

& the National Library of Australia

• 1999: Research Infrastructure funding application submitted

• 2000-2003: Australian Research Council and partner funding achieved– Funding Mix:

• Australian Research Council - $1.3 million• University Partners - $1.8 million plus in kind assistance• As a point of comparison:

– One Mass Spectrometer costs $10 million

• 2004 – Self funding

Partners / Research Leaders

• University of Queensland - John Hay, Janine Schmidt & David Carter

• Uni of NSW - Bruce Bennett & Paul Eggert• Monash - John Arnold • Flinders Uni - Gus Worby & Lyn Jacobs • Deakin Uni - Wenche Ommundsen • Uni of Sydney - Elizabeth Webby & Ross Coleman • Uni of Western Australia - Dennis Haskell, Delys Bird,

Toby Burrows• Canberra Uni - Belle Alderman • NLA – Margy Burn

AustLit – the nuts and bolts

AustLit is:– A database of information on agents, works, subjects

relating to Australian literature– A records management system for 600,000+ records

with complex structures and relationships– An access point for appropriate full text and

interoperability with appropriate external resources

• AustLit uses:– A distributed, 100% web based content authoring,

review and management system– XML syntax to represent a complex data model and

enable repurposing of data

Data Provenance

Previous projects / pre-existing content:– AUSTLIT: Australian literary database (1988-

1999) Current and retrospective indexing of periodical based material.

– The Australia’s Literary Heritage Project (1995 -1999)

• The Bibliography of Australian Literature Project and the List of Australian Writers

• Drama • Writers from a multicultural background • Western Australian and South Australian writing• Australia’s Literary Responses to ‘Asia’

New Content Areas Covered

• Children's literature

• Full Text – Scholarly electronic text and image service– NLA’s PANDORA Archive for digital content

Content Development Model

1. Contemporary material

2. The national bibliography

3. Special research projects

4. Full text & interoperability

Textual history and context

• Tracking the history of a text

• Representing the history of the text

• Showing the contextualisation, interrelations and links

Contextualisation

Work

Creation

Reception/reputation

Where?

When ?

By whom? Male or female?

What heritage/ethnicity?

Under what name or

pseudonym ?

What influences ?(another author

another worka place

a periodan event…)

Inspired by what?

What type ?

What genre?

What form ?

What subject ?

What setting ?

Critical reception?

Influences exerted?

Works generated? Awards won?

Characteristics of different versions?

Features of different publications?

Publications

Versions

Opportunities & Plans

• Emerging research and scholarship - many new areas of interrogation

• Interoperability with new resources – Australian Dictionary of Biography, digital mss collections; archives.

• Various publications in different formats – eg. BAL; Newsletter; subsets; journal backsets Westerly and Australian Literature Studies.

AustLit www.austlit.edu.au

Kerry KilnerThe University of Queensland