NLA Trove

Trove

Logo
Homepage (December 2014)
Type of site	Australian library database aggregator
Available in	English
Owner	National Library of Australia
Slogan(s)	The national resource discovery service
Website	www.trove.nla.gov.au
Commercial	no
Registration	Optional
Launched	2009; 8 years ago (2009)
Current status	Online

Trove is an Australian online library database aggregator; a free faceted-search engine hosted by the National Library of Australia, in partnership with content providers including members of the National & State Libraries Australasia. It is one of the most well-respected and accessed GLAM services in Australia, with over 70,000 daily users.

Trove's origins can be seen in the development of earlier services such as the Australian Bibliographic Network. It was originally known as the Single Business Discovery Service, a project that was launched in August 2008. The intention was to create a single point of entry for the public to the various online discovery services developed by the library between 1997 and 2008-2009 including Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, Picture Australia, Libraries Australia, Music Australia, Australia Dancing, PANDORA search service, ARROW Discovery Service and the Australian Newspapers Beta service.

The key features of the service were designed to create a faceted search system specifically for Australian content. Tight integration with the provider databases has allowed "Find and Get" functions (e.g. viewing digitally, borrowing, buying, copying). Important extra features include the provision of a "check copyright" tool and persistent identifiers (which enables stable URLs).

The scope of the project is to help "you find and use resources relating to Australia" and therefore the content is Australian-focused. Much of the material may be difficult to retrieve with other search tools as it is part of the deep web, including records held in collection databases, or in projects such as Picture Australia, Music Australia, the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, Australia Dancing, Australian Research Online and the PANDORA web archive. Trove includes content from many libraries, museums, archives and other organisations.