Trove, an Australian database that uses the deep web and memory institutions, helps users to discover material on Australians and Australia. Trove provides research and references in the fields of social sciences, literature, local or family history.
Launched in November 2009 it is named after a treasure trove and “is derived from the French verb trouver, meaning to find or discover” (Cathro, 2009). Developed as a one‐stop shop the National Library incorporated its eight free discovery services like the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts and the PANDORA web archive into one single entity.
Search results are returned via relevance ranking and also in FRBR‐like format groups. So if a resource has been published as a book, CD, and a DVD all of these results are returned. The site is grouped into eight sections and includes Books, Newspapers, and Diaries. According to the About Trove page, the site has been designed is to “facilitate access to a significantly greater range of resources from major sources, including selected digitised material freely available online”. While this is a terrific idea in theory the results that return “no maps” for example, when the searcher did not want a map in the first place is a slight annoyance.
For any librarian or user who pines for the days of structured, Boolean searches, Trove comes to the rescue. The search tips are clearly explained, but are not intuitive. For example, a subject search on the novelist Peter Carey, two‐time winner of the Man Booker Prize and now featured on an Australian postage stamp, is entered as subject:(Peter Carey). The same results are returned with a search of subject:(Carey, Peter). From here results can be refined further into format, such as a book or thesis or portraits of Peter Carey. Searching can continue right down to the local level where, if a researcher could get to Leichhardt Library Service in New South Wales, the library has a local history vertical file called Balmain Writers, full of newspaper clippings.
Navigation of a search with many results is a trifle confusing because the searcher links out from Trove, explores the link, and then has no redress apart from the back button to return to the results page. Other ways of searching include creator (think author or illustrator), title, ISSN or ISBN. Tags contributed by the public – public tags – can be searched too. These tags, and public comments, are one of the most fascinating aspects of this site. A researcher can easily be side‐tracked by the contributions made by users to the newspapers and photographs sub‐sets in particular.
Trove intrigues and is indeed full of treasure. Highly recommended for Australian searching, especially at a local history or grassroots level. The search tips help to develop a refined strategy, and the fact that it has been produced by the National Library of Australia gives it great authority.
