AustLit

We are an authoritative database about Australian literature and storytelling, with biographical and bibliographical information, full text, exhibitions and rich online content.

AustLit is...

— the host of BlackWords and a range of other datasets

— a rich educational resource for teachers and students 

— a partner and collaborator in and publisher of scholarly research

— a key resource of national significance and digital humanities infrastructure

— supported by subscribing libraries, universities, schools, and other institutions

— a small, powerhouse team of scholars, librarians, researchers, and volunteers!

Governance

Led by The University of Queensland, AustLit is a non-profit, research-driven collaboration between a network of researchers from Australian universities and the National Library of Australia.

The University of Queensland has been the lead university since 2002, following UNSW at ADFA's (now UNSW Canberra) lead status in the project's first years (2000-2001).

The School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland provides significant levels of core non-operational funding, infrastructure, office, and administrative support. Our partner universities provide infrastructural support to staff working on AustLit-funded projects.

AustLit operates under the guidance of a Stakeholder Advisory Group, whose members are drawn from a number of partner institutions.

AustLit has a broad definition of 'the literary', covering all forms of storytelling.

We create database records that communicate with and, where possible, link to authoritative bibliographical and production information for works of fiction and poetry, writing for the theatre, biographical and travel writing, writing for film and television, criticism and reviews.

We also provide biographical and historical information about the people and organisations associated with the works covered.

AustLit also provides extensive information about writing-related organisations such as publishers, film and theatre companies, and aims to extend coverage of writers’ centres and festivals, and literary agencies.

AustLit indexes current publications to provide an up-to-date record of Australian literature and criticism. Our indexing schedule is determined by the level of Australian content published. For example, journals are indexed either quarterly or annually; newspapers on a weekly or monthly basis. We welcome receiving publication details of works we may not yet have indexed.

We support the activities of researchers working across a broad range of Australian literary and narrative cultures, digital humanities, book history, and print culture.

We aim to increase access to and engagement with the rich storytelling culture Australia has had for millennia.

What makes AustLit special?

No other country in the world has attempted to compile such a comprehensive record of a nation’s creative writing and associated critical works. On average, six hundred work records are added to the database each week and, in 2023, AustLit reached a milestone one million individual 'work' records indexed on the database (and still growing!).

AustLit captures and interlinks both ‘by’ and ‘about’ information to map a rounded ‘Life and Career’ view of authors. Biographical records link to publications, to awards and prizes, to interviews and critical reviews, as well as to material related to teaching. Even minor works are covered.

AustLit also provides access to a range of full text material, such as novels (My Brilliant Career), children’s books (Blinky Bill Joins the Army) and recently published poetry. The AustLit Anthology of Criticism makes available complete articles about authors from Marcus Clarke and Henry Lawson to Dorothy Hewett, Peter Carey and Sally Morgan.

As an element of national research infrastructure, AustLit is a demonstration of the way scholarship in the humanities engages with new technologies and new methods of sharing research results. The high value of AustLit to the international Australianist research community has been realised through the work of AustLit's advisory and management bodies, the AustLit Team, and many others who have given generously of their time and professional knowledge to support the creation and continuation of AustLit.

Publisher, Partner, Collaborator

AustLit houses and supports a growing number of individual research projects, undertaken by scholars, which add rich and diverse content streams to AustLit. For example, the BlackWords team contextualise AustLit’s timeline by the addition of ancient stories and songs, while Banned in Australia presents the impact of censorship on reading in Australia between 1901 and 1973. Reading by Numbers mined, visualised and modelled data from AustLit to produce a study that revises established conceptions of Australian literary history.

AustLit’s capacity for interaction is enhanced by projects such as HuNI, Teaching Aust. Lit and Aus-e-Lit.

YOUR WORK IN AUSTLIT

To be included in AustLit as an author, illustrator or translator, your work must have been published either in book form, or in a journal, magazine or newspaper. Playwrights and screenwriters who have had their work produced are also eligible for inclusion. The kind of writing you do must fall within AustLit's scope for inclusion.

Our indexing schedule for journals and magazines is determined by the regularity of relevant Australian content published. We index many journals either quarterly or annually. Newspapers are indexed on a weekly or monthly schedule.

Contact us about contributing information. We also appreciate being alerted to gaps in our coverage. 

AustLit is a searchable, scholarly source of authoritative biographical, bibliographic, critical, and production information about Australian writers and writing.

It also documents the publishers, newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals that make this work known.

Material dates largely from the arrival of European print culture in Australia (c.1788) to the present. However, pre-1788 works, such as Gabriel de Foigny's utopian, imaginary work from 1676, La Terre Australe Connue, are included, as are references to the pre-colonial and continuing storytelling cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

We interact closely with our academic colleagues through the growing number of Research Projects supported by AustLit, and undertaken by scholars around the country.

The database encompasses bibliographic information about individual 'works' such as:

• fiction and poetry
• writing for the theatre, film and television
• biographical and travel writing
• criticism and reviews

and 'agents' who might be:

• individual authors who write creative and critical works
• writing-related organisations such as publishers; authors' groups and societies; Film and theatre production companies; writers' centres; literary agencies; arts and cultural organisations; and arts and literary festivals

These guides are designed to assist in some common queries of the AustLit database.

The videos do not have audio, but do have captions in English at the bottom of the screen. They are designed to be simple guides; if you have a more complex query or would like to discuss your research question with an AustLit staff member, please contact us.

View all video guides.

Available Guides:

Guides on Reading AustLit:

• Reading an AustLit agent record
• Reading an AustLit work record
• Reading an AustLit search results page

Guides on Searching AustLit:

• Searching for authors by heritage
• Searching for works by language
• Searching for peer-reviewed criticism
• Searching for full text
• Searching for works by form
• Searching for translations
• Searching BlackWords

AustLit relies on income from subscriptions paid by research and education institutions, and libraries. Without this income, AustLit would cease to operate.

The best way to support AustLit is by asking your library, school or institution to subscribe.

AustLit is freely available to members of subscribing libraries, universities, schools, educational institutions, and other organisations.

Visit the website or catalogue of your local, state or territory library or of the National Library of Australia, and use your library membership details to access AustLit.

Currently, all members of subscribing libraries, schools, universities and other institutions have full access to AustLit for personal research only. This means personal subscriptions must not be used by teachers to prepare for teaching Australian texts.

Schools are encouraged to subscribe to AustLit so that their teachers, students, and teacher librarians have access to the best resource for Australian literary studies available. 

Please note: users of subscribing libraries and other institutions must comply with the terms and conditions specified by the subscribing library.

Universities

If you’re a staff member or student at an Australian university, access is usually provided through the library catalogue (login required) or by onsite IP recognition. Search 'AustLit' in your university library catalogue, or contact your library’s helpdesk for further information.

Australian tertiary institutional subscriptions are generally managed by via CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians). Contact CAUL to manage your subscription to AustLit.

Primary and Secondary Schools

Schools can take advantage of a school-wide subscription to enable full access for teachers, librarians, students and staff, both on-site and remotely. We offer generous discounts to consortia arrangements for schools. Please contact us for details. 

State and Local Libraries

Ask your local library if they currently subscribe to AustLit, and they don't, why not put forward a recommendation to your local librarian and/or council member?

State Library subscriptions are generally managed via NSLA (National and State Libraries Australasia). If you are a State Library interested in taking out a subscription on behalf of local and regional libraries in your state, please contact us directly.

International users

A number of international libraries subscribe to AustLit. Check with your university library, major state or public library to find out if you have access, or contact us directly. 

Individuals

Individual users based in Australia may be able to access AustLit through their local or state library, or the National Library (NLA) by becoming a member of a subscribing library. Visit the website or online catalogue of your local, state or territory library or of the National Library of Australia, and use your library membership details to access AustLit. Please contact your library for assistance.

If you are not a member of such a library, or if your library does not subscribe to AustLit, individual subscriptions are available. Please contact us for details.

Organisations

Subscription fees for organisations depends on their size and individual requirements. Please contact us for further information and let us know if you are interested in negotiating a partnership.

Guest access

In certain circumstances, we will provide guest access for a limited time. However, we encourage individuals to access the database through a subscribing institution, such as a library, school or university, whenever possible. Please contact us for details.

Volunteers

If you have a particular area of interest in Australian Literature and would like to contribute to AustLit or would like to help us index poetry, short stories, criticism, the literary content in old newspapers, please get in touch for free access, and a crash course in indexing.

For further information, read our Frequently Asked Questions or Contact us. 

Please visit our Scope, Policies and Practices page for comprehensive information about these topics, or follow the links below: 

SCOPE : This section outlines AustLit scope, our coverage, and what we determine to be an Australian agent.

SOURCE MATERIALS : Outlines our primary sources materials for AustLit bibliographical and biographical records.

ACCESSIBILITY: An overview of AustLit's WGAC compliance.

PRIVACY POLICY : An overview of our privacy policies and practices.

LICENSING AND RE-USE : Advice on AustLit licenses and re-use of AustLit data.

CITING AUSTLIT

Citing AustLit in your research publications and as a source of authoritative information helps us enormously in demonstrating our value to the research community. When using AustLit as an information resource that you have relied on for your research, it is important you cite the database as a source of data and information. Adding AustLit to your reference list is also useful.

If you are using author records, bibliographical records, organisation histories or other notes, or using AustLit data empirically, you should cite AustLit in this manner:

AustLit (www.austlit.edu.au), St Lucia: The University of Queensland, 2002-.

and, when relevant, include the name of the author or work title, for example:

For an author's or an organisation's record:

Author record, Patrick White, AustLit (www.austlit.edu.au), St Lucia: The University of Queensland, 2002-. [Retrieved dd/mm/yyyy].

For a work's record:

Work record, Voss, AustLit (www.austlit.edu.au), St Lucia: The University of Queensland, 2002-. [Retrieved dd/mm/yyyy].

Follow standard citation rules when citing full text works published by AustLit.

There may also be other rules you will need to observe about the citing of internet publications. This generally depends on the publications for which you are writing, and the citation style they expect you to follow.

USING AUSTLIT DATA

Data can be exported from AustLit by subscribers using the export button on the search results pages. Records can be exported as plain text, comma separated values (CSV), or RIS format, which is compatible with Zotero and EndNote.

Posters and print collateral for subscribers to promote AustLit

AustLit posters

Whether you're a librarian, teacher, student, academic, author or simply using AustLit for personal research, we have created a series of A4 posters you can download for free to distribute or print and display. Each of the six posters is customised for a specific user type, i.e. Teacher and provides information in an easy reference FAQ style with a case study relevant to how AustLit can be used in, say, a classroom setting. The posters are designed to be informative and to act as a first point of access for those interested in using AustLit but perhaps unsure where to start or how to make the most of their subscription. 

View and download AustLit posters.  

BlackWords posters

AustLit intern, April Li has also produced a wonderful range of BlackWords posters for teachers and students (primary and high school) as part of her work experience. These posters are fun and vibrant, and we are so excited to be able to share these! Please download, print and share this fantastic resource for the classroom and school library.

View and download BlackWords posters.  

We are a small team, situated within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland. Read about our team members.

The AustLit database has existed in various forms for over two decades.

For our 20-year anniversary in 2021, we compiled a 'History of AustLit', which we encourage you to explore.

FUNDING AND SUPPORT

AustLit gratefully acknowledges the generous support of its partners and collaborators.

The Australian Research Council (ARC), in particular the ARC's Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme, which awarded grants to AustLit in 2001, 2003, 2006–2012, 2013–2017. This support helped us develop AustLit's information architecture and the database content, full text, and website interface. 

ARC LIEF Grants (2001–2017)

• LE0238930: AustLit: The Australian Literature Gateway - Enhancement Stage Two (2001) – $357,658
• LE0347049: Building Australian Literary Knowledge Infrastructure (2003) – $412,530
• LE0668073: AustLit - humanities research infrastructure development through knowledge-based dataset building, augmentation of key research elements and ICT developments (2006) – $544,000
• LE0775619: AustLit: Phase Two - humanities research infrastructure development, augmentation and expansion (2007) – $350,000
• LE0882507: AustLit Phase Two: Research Infrastructure for Humanities and Education Researchers (2008) – $500,000
• LE0989090: AustLit Phase Three: Transforming the Study of Australian Literature through a Collaborative eResearch Environment (2009) – $650,000
• LE100100079: eResearch Infrastructure for Humanities Scholars: Facilitating literary and narrative studies; children's and popular fictions and film/TV studies (2010) – $520,000
• LE110100198: Digital humanities practice in Australian literary studies: data development, structural enhancement and open access innovation - AustLit phase 4. (2011) – $600,000
• LE120100106: Humanities in the digital age: infrastructure for Australian literary studies, publishing studies, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies (2012) – $270,000
• LE130100131 — The AustLit Resource: supporting research in studies of Australian literary and narrative cultures (2013-2017) – $645,000

We wish to acknowledge the ARC for their crucial support of AustLit through the LIEF program, and via funding projects of universities and other grant recipients who choose to partner with us. Since AustLit's establishment, its Research Projects have supported and continue to support researchers funded by ARC Discovery and Fellowship grants.

The ARC has also provided crucial funding to establish AustLit's primary place in the scholarly engagement with Australian storytelling through partner research projects such as the Children's Literature Digital Resources (CLDR) project.

Grants from the Department of Education (formerly the Office for Learning and Teaching [OLT] and, prior, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council). In 2008, the OLT funded the development of Teaching AustLit, and a survey of tertiary students and teachers at secondary and tertiary levels to ascertain their experiences of teaching and being taught Australian literary texts.

AustLit is indebted to the auDA grants program for the funding received to enable the AustLit Environments for Cross Curriculum Priorities (AECCP), which was officially launch in 2024.

Individual projects such as BlackWords, ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource, Australian Popular Medievalism, Writing the Tropical North and Resourceful Reading, have also been supported through internal university grants and through the ARC's Discovery grants scheme.

The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), through the National eResearch Architecture Taskforce (NeAT) program, provided funding for technical developments in 2008-2011 to facilitate the launch of the Aus-e-Lit platform.

PARTNER FUNDING

Key partners

Australian Society of Authors (ASA)

Australian Book Review (ABR)

Australian Publishers Association (APA)

Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL)

The Copyright Agency (CA)

The Life Course Centre (LCC)

The Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC)

The Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing (RCALC)

UQ Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies (DCS)

National Library of Australia (NLA) and Trove

To Be Continued: The Australian Newspaper Fiction Database (TBC)

University partners

AustLit also acknowledges the many university partners who have contributed substantially to its development.

Funding has been received through the internal grant schemes at The University of Queensland (UQ) — including the UQ Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies— the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), and James Cook University (JCU).

Many partner state and local libraries give generously of staff time, as well as providing privileged access to collections and technical expertise.

Thank you to our Subscribers

Subscription income from schools, universities, libraries, organisations and individuals has greatly supported the ongoing maintenance and operation of the AustLit database. Subscription fees are fully reinvested in AustLit’s content and service delivery.

For video guides on searching AustLit and interpreting results, see Help Guides (Video) above.

For instructions of searching and advanced searching,

please visit How to Search AustLit.

or visit our Frequently Asked Questions.

Our primary point of contact is email: info-austlit@austlit.edu.au

If you would like to update your AustLit record or published works, please check our scope policy first.

You can also find and connect with us on social media:

Bluesky: @AustLit.bsky.social

Instagram: @austlit_australianstories

LinkedIn: AustLit

X (formerly Twitter): @AustLit

Sign up to our eNewsletter for updates on the database, our projects, news and events.

AustLit's Data Model

AustLit employs a range of data models to manage information on Australian literature resources, regardless of format, and to facilitate discovery of those resources. We have implemented the International Federation for Library Associations and Institutions' Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model to describe literary and creative works.

Rather than treat each publication as a separate entity, as standard library cataloguing does, the FRBR model represents the publication history of works by incorporating the following four concepts into a single record:

The relationships between these concepts can be 'one-to-one', or 'one-to-many', namely:

— Works can be expressed in one or more versions

— Expressions can be published (manifested) once or many times

— Publications (manifestations) can result in one or several items

Event Modelling

AustLit augments the FRBR model with 'event modelling', based on work undertaken by the ABC Harmony, and INDECS groups.

Works have a Creation event, such as when an author writes a novel.

Expressions have a Realisation event, which relates to the version, for example, the authorised English text. When a work is translated into another language, this results in a new expression.

Manifestations have a Manifestation event, when the work is published in one or more versions.

Attributes

Works, Expressions and Manifestations all have attributes, and Creation, Realisation and Manifestation events all have attributes. Works, for example, can have subject attributes –- they can be about things –- and work creation events can have creators, places, and dates of creation as attributes.

Works can also have relationships. They can be the subjects of works, or they can influence other works or other writers.

Agents (Authors, Organisations and Others)

AustLit treats all organisations, and all people, including authors, as Agents. Like Works, Expressions and Manifestations, Agents can have attributes, such as names, including alternative writing names, gender, nationality, cultural heritage, and personal awards.

Agents can be associated with events, which themselves have attributes. All will have birth and, eventually, death events, with date and place attributes. They will also be associated with creation, realisation and manifestation events, with all the attributes which Works, Expressions and Manifestations can 'own'.

Agents can also have relationships: they can be the subjects of works, or they can influence other writers or other works.

AustLit and Metadata

Metadata is information in a structured format that describes a resource on the World Wide Web. The National Library of Australia provides information about metadata, the best known schema of which is probably Dublin Core.

AustLit's data is encoded in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). This XML representation reflects AustLit's metadata schema, and contains enough information to generate alternative encodings such as MARC, or to augment AustLit's HTML with Dublin Core or Resource Description Framework (RDF) metadata.

AustLit's Most Referenced Works

AustLit’s ‘Most Referenced Works’ lists on author pages draws from AustLit’s underlying relevance rankings, which enable us to position an author or work on how much has been written about them;  how many times a work has been republished, translated, or adapted; how many award listings they have appeared on; and other underlying data connections.

‘Most Referenced Works’ lists are drawn exclusively from data indexed on AustLit, and should be read as an internal database ranking system. AustLit indexes reviews and critical material from selected sources; ‘Most References Works’ will not include references or reviews from sources that are not indexed. If we are missing a relevant review or critical work from a source indexed by AustLit, please email us.

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