By Chris Clarke
Upstairs, through a quiet corridor in 国产探花鈥檚 Joyce Ackroyd building, lies a literary world like no other. It is a place where Eli Bell sits alongside the Kelly Gang, somewhere along the River of Dreams. 鈥� one of the world鈥檚 largest literary databases, hosting more than a million bibliographical records and adding thousands more each year.
Though much of its work goes unrecognised, AustLit鈥檚 cultural significance is unmatched. It has documented the vast majority of Australia鈥檚 modern literary history and connected countless authors, researchers, and historians 鈥� even reuniting long lost family members in the process.
Research News visited AustLit鈥檚 office at St Lucia, in Brisbane鈥檚 inner southwest, where a small team of incredibly passionate quiet achievers keep Australia鈥檚 most important literary resource alive and thriving.
Its director, , took over the reins in June 2023 with a goal to build relationships and increase global awareness about AustLit鈥檚 work. Between research projects, grant-seeking and community engagement efforts, the industrious team of five spend their days updating a vast ongoing record of new authors, publishers, award winners, stage performances, and international rights sales.
AustLit has a deep connection with Australia鈥檚 First Nations authors through its BlackWords initiative,听 which provides access to an incredible record of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and their publications. It is the cornerstone of AustLit鈥檚 work.
鈥淎ustLit officially launched BlackWords in 2007 by Uncle Sam Watson with Dr Jackie Huggins as a specially curated 鈥榙atabase within a database鈥�, which affiliates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers with their stories throughout the entirety of the database using the BlackWords logo 鈥� a symbolic, cyclical representation of Indigenous people and their cultural connections to land, language, stories, and voices.鈥�
This initiative has not only been successful at cataloguing some of Australia鈥檚 finest literary works and achievements, but also at supporting people to find out more about their loved ones.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not uncommon to get emails from people who have been separated from family members and have found life stories listed on AustLit, especially on BlackWords,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
鈥淲e can tell people where they can find the life stories that we list, and hopefully help them find a bit more information about their families that way.鈥�
Among the pioneers who have championed BlackWords over the years is , author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams).
Associate Professor Nolan said Professor Heiss was critical to the development and success of BlackWords, and 鈥� like many of Australia鈥檚 much-loved authors 鈥� she continues to support the database.
鈥淧rofessor Heiss has maintained a warm and reciprocal relationship with the AustLit team through her tireless support and fundraising for Indigenous literacy, and putting First Nations stories front and centre,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
鈥淎ustralia has a long and rich tradition of storytelling, and over generations this has evolved and shaped the diverse literary culture we celebrate today.鈥�
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AustLit鈥檚 cultural significance has innate and wide-reaching roots.
鈥淢illenia of stories are embedded in land, sky, and sea going back 60,000 years to now, and in the future, of Indigenous culture and heritage,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan explained.
There is a complex network of spreadsheets and calendars that keep AustLit鈥檚 updating schedule on track.. The process tracks the output of over 400 publishers and other 鈥渁gents鈥�, as they鈥檙e referred to, in real-time.
鈥淭his is a living document,鈥� Dr Catriona Mills, AustLit鈥檚 Content Manager. said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly adjusting to add new publishers, and remove ones that no longer operate.
鈥淟ast month, the DANZ Children鈥檚 Book Award longlist, the Dublin Literary Award longlist, and the British Science Fiction Awards longlists all contained Australian authors, so we鈥檝e been checking notifications of rights sales.
鈥淥ur work is done directly on the database: if an award is announced, we will add that information directly to AustLit. It means AustLit鈥檚 content is updated daily.鈥�
If that wasn鈥檛 busy enough, the team also answers regular queries from the database鈥檚 users. They receive dozens of emails a day 鈥� some with quite unexpected outcomes.
鈥淪omeone contacted us to say they鈥檇 found a credit card in a supermarket carpark, googled the name, and found that person listed on our database,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 keep author contact details, but their record told us this person was an active member of a writing group that had a public event that night, just down the road from where the person who found credit card lived.鈥�
鈥淪o, they popped along, and were able to reunite the person and the credit card.鈥�
Many of the more usual queries are from academics working on research projects, or authors, teachers or librarians looking for information.
AustLit first emerged in 1998 as a collaboration between Australian university libraries and the National Library of Australia. Initially, it aimed to merge a range of disparate bibliographical and other research datasets and databases that had been under development, in some cases, since the 1970s.
The team back then wanted to develop one central database and grow the resource. It eventually became available online in September 2001, and has been led by 国产探花 since 2002.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e an Australian literary scholar, AustLit is indispensable to your work,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
鈥淚t has shaped the field, and it is hard to imagine what the field would look like without it.
鈥淎ustLit is the definitive 鈥� the only 鈥� database that allows scholars and educators to deep dive into the Australian literary field to construct complex searches and extrapolate rich swathes of data with exceptional granularity.听Researchers from around the country partner with AustLit on large funded research projects in order to expand and even reconceptualise Australian literary history and culture.
鈥淏ut AustLit is not only a research tool, it is also highly valued by the reading and writing community more generally, including librarians, teachers and students, writers, even members of book clubs for whom AustLit is a must-have resource.鈥�
AustLit鈥檚 users can access the database to conduct any number of weird and wonderful database searches 鈥� such as a list of Australian zombie novels set in Melbourne that became films, for example.
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) by Professor Anita Heiss AM.
鈥淚t鈥檚 no understatement to say that to lose AustLit is to risk losing one of Australia鈥檚 largest and longest-running cultural heritage and digital humanities projects, and a vital piece of our nation鈥檚 digital research infrastructure,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
That is why she is so passionate about growing AustLit鈥檚 reach internationally.
With a successful webinar taking place in China last year and a virtual presentation to India in February this year, she hopes that more institutions such as libraries, schools, and universities worldwide will be encouraged to subscribe to the database so that more people can have access to Australia鈥檚 unique and iconic literary heritage through the simple click of a button.
The team also aims to gain further funding so that 19th-and early 20th-century Australian fiction 鈥� which was only ever serialised in newspapers rather than novels 鈥� can be catalogued in AustLit and made readily available to users.
鈥淭he biggest issue for AustLit is financial sustainability,鈥� Associate Professor Nolan said.
鈥淎 piece of digital research infrastructure this size and scope costs money. We would love to see AustLit be more widely available, but subscription fees are needed to provide a specialised team of indexers and software engineers who maintain and build on the existing site. AustLit鈥檚 system is custom-built and the longest it鈥檚 ever been down for is 24 hours, and that was during the 2011 floods 鈥� an enviable statistic.
鈥淏alancing the sustainability and accessibility feels like a wicked problem.
鈥淚n many ways, it would be a dream come true to see AustLit proudly housed at 国产探花 and sitting safely on robust national digital infrastructure, available for everyone to use, as part of the investment that this country makes in its past and for its present and future.鈥�
Anyone interested in subscribing or donating to AustLit should visit .
