AustLit

The video below shows you have to interpret an AustLit search results page, including:

• interpreting 'relevance'
• re-ordering the results (e.g, chronologically or alphabetically)
• filtering the results by work features (e.g., genre)
• filtering the results by author features (e.g., birthdate)

The video has no audio but has captions at the bottom of the screen. The captions are also available as text below the video. The video can be made full screen with the icon in the bottom right-hand corner. It runs for 2:37.

Captions appear exactly as they do on the video, and are preceded by a time stamp.

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0:00 This video shows you how to read AustLit search results.

0:05 This search is narrowed to novel + fantasy for convenience.

0:15 Search results default to 'Relevance',

0:18 which is an AustLit ranking based on republications,

0:19 reviews,

0:20 and other factors.

0:26 You can change the results to show by publication date,

0:31 either oldest or newest,

0:35 or by title,

0:40 either from A-Z or Z-A.

0:45 If we have more than one version of a work,

0:49 that will also show in the search results.

0:56 On the left-hand side, you can narrow the results in other ways,

0:59 By common subjects,

1:06 by different forms,

1:10 by genre,

1:17 by type, such as author series, or publisher series,

1:28 by popular authors,

1:36 by year of publication,

1:42 and by project, such as BlackWords.

1:51 You can also filter by author characteristics,

1:53 such as gender,

1:55 birthdate,

1:59 nationality or cultural heritage,

2:06 and whether they are affiliated with a research project.

2:17 Finally, you can see some of the universities that have taught these works.

2:25 Search results will also show whether a work is available in full text

2:29 with an orange square

2:32 or a blue arrow.

2:34 Why not try a search of your own?

This video shows a general search result page. For more targeted searches, see the videos on searching specifically

• by heritage
• by language
• by form
• for peer-reviewed criticism
• for full text
• for translations
• in BlackWords

AustLit is a large database. To get the best results, think about which filters are absolutely necessary for your search and which can be left out.

These searches can also help with other kinds of searches. For example, the search for full text is very similar to the search for works with available teaching resources and the search for form is very similar to the search for genre. Once you're familiar with one kind of search, it will help you complete other kinds of searches.