1. Researching Australian Literature in the Digital Age AustLit www.austlit.edu.au Kerry Kilner The University of Queensland

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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’

7. New Content Areas Covered Children's literature Full Text –Scholarly electronic text and image service –NLA’s PANDORA Archive for digital content

8. Content Development Model 1.Contemporary material 2.The national bibliography 3.Special research projects 4.Full text & interoperability

13. Textual history and context Tracking the history of a text Representing the history of the text Showing the contextualisation, interrelations and links

14. 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 work a place a period an 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

25. 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.

27. AustLit www.austlit.edu.au Kerry Kilner The University of Queensland