National Library of Australia

success, challenge and uncertainty

Dr Marie-Louise Ayres

Digging deep in Trove:

Union catalogue for librarians

Australian Bibliographic Network

1981

Manuscripts

Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts

1997

Pictures

Picture Australia

2000

Music

Music Australia

2005

Research

Australian Research online

2005

Newspapers

Australian Newspapers

2007

Dance

Australia Dancing

2003

Union catalogue for public

Libraries Australia

2006

2009

Web archives

Pandora

1997

Achievements

• National collaboration• Innovation and leadership• Research infrastructure• National and international exemplars

2007The idea…

Now…• 300 million resources• 50,000 unique users a day• 10% mobile devices• 70 million newspaper

lines corrected• 1.5 million tags• 42,000 comments• 28,000 lists• 140,000 Flickr images• Forum• API

“To all involved in bringing trove to the internet I say thank you! My research would be severely lacking if not for this resource. .”

“We're just writing to congratulate you on a job well done - Trove is an absolute treasure. We're so pleased Australian resources have entered the 21st century.”

“I want to express my gratitude, and to say how very welcome it is for anyone with internet access to be able to use your database! As someone teaching at a university with somewhat modest financial resources for our libraries, I welcome the access to vital information. I have been telling all of my fellow scholars about Trove, and will be using it as a model of what can be for years to come.”

“ Just HAVE to say how much I love Trove!!! You folk have made an amazing “thing”…My research would be so difficult & time consuming if it were not for TROVE…If THIS is what a library service is all about, the NLA is the epitome of “library” unequalled in the world!!”

Key success factors• 30 years of collaboration → →

• Lots of practice• Technology finally caught up• National leadership• Trust• People

The Trove teamExcellence in eGovernment

2011

Were the successes the ones we expected?

Were the challenges the ones we anticipated?

Ask?

Challenges• Increased content = more servers, software• Increased use = more bandwidth• Increased profile = higher expectations

– Users want more content– Users want new services– Which users do we serve– Constrained resources

• National or National Library service?

2007The idea…