National Library of Australia Trove Modernisation

Trove is the National Library of Australia’s online platform—a single access point that provides the opportunity to discover a significant array of unique Australian content, such as artefacts, curiosities and stories from Australia’s cultural, community and research institutions. It is one of Australia’s most popular online search platforms. Since the launch of Trove in 2009, public appetite for digital material has grown rapidly, with almost 90 per cent of Trove users seeking digital information. Increasing digital demand was a key driver for directing the Australian Government’s modernisation funding towards enhancing and refreshing the platform. The rebranded and upgraded platform was officially launched to the public in June 2020. The refreshed site aims to connect with a broad cross-section of Australian society, including younger Australians and diverse communities. Improvements to the underlying digital infrastructure, powered enhancements to the user experience through the addition of browse trails, optimised access for mobile phone browsing, a curated visual experience and the ability to form collaborative lists that allow the community, including families, teachers and students, to research together in new ways. The site features a persistent Acknowledgement of Country, a way to acknowledge and pay respect to First Nations people as the Traditional Owners and ongoing custodians of the land, as well as a First Nations portal and other features to create a culturally safe place that will deepen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement. The First Nations portal links to content that is organised using unique AUSTLANG language codes and the Aboriginal Biographical Index. AUSTLANG provides a vocabulary of persistent identifiers, a thesaurus of languages and peoples and information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages which has been assembled from referenced sources. Trove’s First Nations portal was developed by and for Indigenous Australians. As part of the release of the new portal, Trove developed a cultural sensitivity filter that enables users to choose whether to have culturally sensitive material depicted or blurred from view. This measure recognises that much material of significance to First Australians was recorded in disrespectful ways by non-Indigenous Australians. It enables truth-telling while maintaining Trove as an accessible space. The new Trove is welcoming to all, offers many more opportunities for Australians to engage with specific aspects of Australian history and showcases the wonderful collections held by libraries, galleries, museums, archives and historical societies in every part of our country.