Technical Collaborations and Research Tools
In 2008, AustLit joined the UQ eResearch Lab in an initiative to develop services and tools to help AustLit users deal with the emerging challenges of eResearch.
The Aus-e-Lit Project (2008-2011) developed AustLit's Federated Search which returns a snapshot of relevant resources from selected external databases when an AustLit search is launched. AustLit's full text delivery and search functions were also improved while a lightweight extension to the Firefox browser (LORE: Literature Object Re-use and Exchange) was developed to enable the browser to annotate most web pages. LORE allows users to collect, describe, and share disparate internet resources with a sophisticated bookmarking tool. Stored in a repository for sharing and re-use, these annotations and collections provide the foundation for a digital research commons.
First-time visitors to these pages are advised to view the video demonstrations of the new tools in action. Links to a selection of online tools and services that support textual analysis and visualization are also included.
These pages are an experiment in Digital Humanities for researchers in the fields of Australian literary, narrative and print culture studies. The establishment of a digital research commons is a first step towards more digitally engaged analysis and communication.
As many researchers acknowledge, future research will be conducted in both print and digital modes. AustLit aims to provide a space in which to discuss the related challenges of this evolution, and to test models of future scholarship.
Project Information
A collaboration between AustLit and the UQ eResearch Lab, the Aus-e-Lit Project aimed to provide services to address the eResearch needs of researchers studying Australian literature and Australian print culture. Building on the firm foundation of bibliographical and biographical data provided by AustLit, the project extended and enhanced AustLit, linking it to other external but highly relevant databases and enabling researchers to enrich the collection by collaboratively adding new layers of scholarly knowledge.
For the technical background and links to publications, please visit the Aus-e-Lit Project web site hosted by the UQ eResearch Lab: http://itee.uq.edu.au/eresearch/projects/aus-e-lit/.
Project Leaders
Project Team
Acknowledgments
The Aus-e-Lit project was funded from 2008-2011 by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Platforms for Collaboration, through the National eResearch Architecture Taskforce (NeAT), and by The University of Queensland.