6.6 Dig deeper in the archives
The first thing to think about when digging deeper in the archives is who might have created records on your topic as this will help you determine where to look.
Community collections
Community archives and other collections provide an important antidote to silences and absences in mainstream government and media collections. They collect, describe, and share communities’ histories in their own words.
- Victorian Collections – a gateway to community GLAM collections, including some of those from the Australian Queer Archives, many multicultural heritage groups and RSLs, and so much more. See their reuse and more policies.
- Collections NSW– Collections of objects and photographs from regional areas in NSW.
- Living Histories at Newcastle -Collections from the University of Newcastle and community history groups in Newcastle
- Reason in Revolt: This database contains digitised primary source documents of Australian radicalism. We recommend browsing by events, institutions, people, places, and subjects. These sources are primarily licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Australia License. There are some exceptions to this license on the platform, so always check the collection item you want to use.
- Digital Transgender Archive – search across a variety of collections related to trans history. Check out their comprehensive and thoughtful copyright, privacy and takedown policy and more policies.
Government archives
Government libraries and archives are often a traditional starting point for archival research and may have useful perspectives, but they represent dominant values at the time the materials were collected.
Remember to think critically about what systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia that determined what histories are preserved and the gaps and biases in these collections and about decisions around what records are digitised and how they are described.
Try to find personal and community-led histories to complement this government perspective.
One of the first things to think about is which level of government (local, state, or federal) is most likely to have been involved in creating records about this topic. This determines where the records are stored. There is some overlap of responsibility and funding for most Federal and State government issues, so you may need to check both Federal and State-based Libraries and Archives.
- Australian archival research guide – Public records page: Find and use Australian records and archives online and at the library.
- Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV): Divorce records, Criminal/Court records, Prison records, Health records and Education records. See Copyright for researchers | PROV.
- National Archives of Australia : Records of defence/war, migration and citizenship, and security and intelligence. See Copyright | naa.gov.au.
Local governments work with local communities, including around local history, arts, culture, parks, recreation, environment, and sustainability and beyond. Local libraries are increasingly supporting digital history projects, so if you are interested in histories related to a particular place, the local library could be a good starting point.
Querying Trove
Trove is a platform you can use to search across multiple library collections in Australia. It is particularly well known for its digitised newspaper collection.
News search tips
- Use the names of people involved.
- Try to think of your topic in media language used at a particular time (different publications may use different language just as they do today).
- You need to use the terms /language used at time.
- Note that many traditional, mainstream media sources have a history of not reporting, under-reporting and/or misrepresenting race, gender, and sexuality, so you will often need to think creatively about the language used and even look beyond them to compare with alternative news sources. We have provided some alternatives for you on this page.
- Compare reporting in broadsheets (e.g., the Age) to tabloids (e.g., Truth).
- Restrict the search to the approximate date of a particular incident or refine a simple search by Decade to see the historical specificity of a term or issue.
If you have not used Trove before or need a refresher, watch this quick guide to Trove Newspapers search:
Trove Tip | Trove Newspapers Search
If you would like to dig deeper in Trove newspapers, you can watch this webinar on Trove’s newspapers:
Webinar: Discover Trove’s Newspapers – July 22, 2020
