To be continued . . .

As was the case in Britain, America and elsewhere, 19th-century Australian newspapers contained a great deal of fiction. Indeed, due to their cheap price and availability – combined with the low levels of book ownership and of access to lending libraries in Australia at this time – newspapers were the major source of fiction for early Australian readers. Despite the importance of these publications, the size of the newspaper archive has meant that we know very little about this fiction, including what titles, authors, genres and themes were published, and their production, circulation and reception. The National Library of Australia’s Trove database changes this situation profoundly. In offering the largest mass-digitised collection of historical newspapers in the world, Trove makes it possible to search for fiction in Australian newspapers for the first time in a reliable and systematic ways. This project employed digital humanities methods (including data- and text-mining, topic modelling and network analysis) as well as established bibliographical, book historical and literary critical approaches to identify and analyse fiction over 9,000 novels, novellas and short stories in 19th- and early 20th-century Australian newspapers.
Type
Collection
Title
To be continued . . .
Collection Type
Dataset
Access Privileges
Centre for Digital Humanities Research
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
10.25911/5c99a9d57b40b
Website Address
http://cdhrdatasys.anu.edu.au/tobecontinued/
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Brief Description
The “To be continued . . .” project involved the data mining of National Library of Australia’s Trove database to discover over 9,000 novels, novellas and short stories published in 19th and early 20th century Australian newspapers. This fiction came from around the world, including Britain, America and Australia, as well as Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, and beyond.
Full Description
As was the case in Britain, America and elsewhere, 19th-century Australian newspapers contained a great deal of fiction. Indeed, due to their cheap price and availability – combined with the low levels of book ownership and of access to lending libraries in Australia at this time – newspapers were the major source of fiction for early Australian readers. Despite the importance of these publications, the size of the newspaper archive has meant that we know very little about this fiction, including what titles, authors, genres and themes were published, and their production, circulation and reception. The National Library of Australia’s Trove database changes this situation profoundly. In offering the largest mass-digitised collection of historical newspapers in the world, Trove makes it possible to search for fiction in Australian newspapers for the first time in a reliable and systematic ways. This project employed digital humanities methods (including data- and text-mining, topic modelling and network analysis) as well as established bibliographical, book historical and literary critical approaches to identify and analyse fiction over 9,000 novels, novellas and short stories in 19th- and early 20th-century Australian newspapers.
Contact Email
katherine.bode@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
School of Literature Languages & Linguistics Research School of Humanities & the Arts The Australian National University ACT 2600 Australia
Contact Phone Number
+61 2 6125 9845
Principal Investigator
Katherine Bode
Fields of Research
200502 - Australian Literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Literature)
Type of Research Activity
Strategic basic research
Time Period
19th Century
Geospatial Location
Australia
text
Date of data creation
2016
Year of data publication
2019
Creator(s) for Citation
Bode
Katherine
Publisher for Citation
ANU Data Commons, The Australian National University
Publications
10.3998/mpub.8784777
Bode, Katherine, 2018. A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, https:/doi.org/10.3998/mpub.8784777
A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History
doi
10.1353/vpr.2017.0005
Bode, Katherine. "Fictional Systems: Mass-Digitization, Network Analysis, and Nineteenth-Century Australian Newspapers." Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 50 no. 1, 2017, pp. 100-138. Project MUSE, https:/doi.org/10.1353/vpr.2017.0005
Fictional Systems: Mass-Digitization, Network Analysis, and Nineteenth-Century Australian Newspapers
doi
10.1353/bh.2016.0008
Bode, Katherine. "Thousands of Titles Without Authors: Digitized Newspapers, Serial Fiction, and the Challenges of Anonymity." Book History, vol. 19, 2016, pp. 284-316. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/bh.2016.0008
Thousands of Titles Without Authors: Digitized Newspapers, Serial Fiction, and the Challenges of Anonymity
doi
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=871250286231120;res=IELNZC
Bode, Katherine and Hetherington, Carol. Retrieving a world of fiction: Building an index - and an archive - of serialized novels in Australian newspapers, 1850-1914 [online]. Script & Print, Vol. 38, No. 4, Dec 2014: [197]-211.
Retrieving a world of fiction: Building an index - and an archive - of serialized novels in Australian newspapers, 1850-1914
uri
Access Rights
Open Access allowed (see rights held in and over resource below)
Access Rights Type
Open
Rights held in and over the data
Creative Commons Licence (CC BY) is assigned to this data. Details of the licence can be found at http://creativecommons.org.au/licences.
Licence Type
CC-BY - Attribution (Version 4)
Retention Period
Indefinitely
Extent or Quantity
2
Data Management Plan
No
Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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