AustLit

It's that time of year when we look back on what has happened with AustLit in the last ten months, and what the last two months of the year will bring.

New Bibliographical Records:

As always, AustLit regularly adds to the bibliographical records that form the core of our database. New works are added to AustLit on a daily basis, and one of the great joys of working for the only database of national literature in the world is finding these new works and new authors every time we come to work.

Here are some of the statistics on new works and authors that caught our attention in the twelve months since October 2015.

Records for more than 28,000 new works that have been added to AustLit in the past year, including new records for over 12,000 new works with a 2016 publication date. Australians: they know how to write.

AustLit doesn't just index current works: we're regularly adding new records for old periodicals and newspapers. For example, did you know that we added 60 works published in 1905 in the last twelve months? Not to mention 80 works from 1891.

In terms of genre, here's a breakdown of some of the new works added in the last twelve months:

• 1023 romances.
• 271 horror stories.
• 240 young-adult works.
• 95 Indigenous stories.
• 7 operas.
• 2 westerns.

Scholarly bibliography: the most exciting job out there!

Research:

In 2015, we unveiled two new research projects: Trauma Texts and the Joseph Furphy Digital Archive. This year, we have another two research projects ready to release:

• the Literature of Tasmania dataset, with a rich monograph by Philip Mead, enhanced with images and video.
• a history of steampunk in Australia, the work of AustLit's new winter scholar, coming to you very early in the new year.

Both of these projects are very exciting to AustLit staff, and we are hoping they'll prove very exciting to you, as well!

Perhaps the most exciting research work of the early part of this year was AustLit's work with the Ian Potter Foundation and UQ drama students to bring back to the stage the lost work of Dorothy Blewett. AustLit's director, Kerry Kilner, wrote about the discovery and production of The First Joanna earlier in the year, when it was beautifully produced by UQ students under the aegis of director Sue Rider. Students involved in that production also produced online exhibitions about their experiences with the play, which were published on AustLit.

We welcome two student interns in the first half of 2016, who worked on Dorothy Blewett's archive and on AustLit's collection of full-text speculative-fiction collection.

In second semester, student interns assisted in digitising more of Dorothy Blewett's plays and other unpublished works and produced work around teaching with AustLit, including detailed teaching notes on Australian Gothic drama. Stay tuned to see these new materials unveiled.

Exhibitions and Information Trails:

When we published our yearly round-up for 2015, we highlighted some of the fantastic new additions to the database, including Anita Heiss's BlackWords essays and a new information trail on the Stolen Generations.

BlackWords has continued to gain in strength in 2016, with a new information trail on the Gulf of Carpentaria region about to be published. This trail will highlight writings by the Garawa, Waanyi, and Anindilyakwa people and languages, among others.

In 2016, AustLit also published Diversity in Australian Speculative Fiction : A Bibliographical Exhibition. This online exhibition is a series of reading lists targeting Australian speculative-fiction works that showcase racial and ethnic diversity; physiological, neurological, or sensate diversity; sexual and gender diversity; and religious diversity. Showcasing dozens of works in categories from short stories to graphic novels, the exhibition is accompanied by a list of further reading. Both list and exhibition are regularly expanded.

Tech Update:

Late last year, our big excitement was the new 'Follow' function. This allows you to follow an author's or organisation's AustLit record, and receive updates when a new work is added or substantial changes are made to a biography–an excellent options for fans and students alike. To follow an author or organisation, go to their AustLit page and add your email address to the 'Follow' box on the right-hand side of the record.

In June this year, we announced our new programmer, Brenden Jeon. Brenden has been busy working with our lead programmer, Jonathan Hadwen, on the development of AusArts, perhaps our most exciting new technological update of the year. AusArts is a large project that allows the AustLit content management system to be used by tertiary students. As well as allowing students to create mini web sites that they can publish and use as part of their web portfolio, AusArts also allows for online annotation of text and images. The system has been in development throughout 2016, and is generating much excitement about academics and students at UQ, its first trial site, not to mention AustLit staff.

Remember, if you're ever in doubt about how to use AustLit, check out our handy Help page, complete with video guide, or email us.