All,
Trove [1] is more than just a discovery portal, it’s also a source of
machine-readable data drawn from cultural heritage organisations
around Australia, including the National Library of Australia and all
State and Territory libraries. Through Trove’s API [2] you can access
millions of records [3] to build your own tools, applications or
visualisations.
With GovHack 2013 [4] approaching, we’re inviting developers to take
our API and see what they can create. What could you do with 90
million newspaper articles, 7 million photos or objects, or the
details of more than 17 million books?
For additional inspiration NSLA (National and State Libraries
Australasia) are offering a prize to GovHack entries that make use of
data from Trove. [5]
Here’s a few possibilities to get you thinking:
* How might you use or visualise resources relating to World War I or
the 1967 Referendum?
* Are there new ways of exposing state based material in Trove that
isn’t held by the relevant state library?
* Could you enrich individual library catalogues by displaying a
short list of relevant Trove resources?
* Where next for the idea of ‘generous interfaces’ as demonstrated by
Mitchell Whitelaw’s Trove Mosaic [6] and Manly Images [7] projects?
* Could you use photographs of places to automatically populate social
media tools? What about creating a map-based view of Trove resources?
* What about combining spatial and temporal data to create a visual
timeline of newspaper publication?
To get started you need to sign up for an API key [2] and have a look
through the API documentation. [8] We’ll also be posting extra hints
and tips in the API section of the Trove Forum. [9]
To help you find your way through the riches of Trove, staff from the
National Library of Australia will be available as data mentors at
GovHack 2013 in Canberra. We’re looking forward to seeing what you
make!
Cheers, Tim
[1] http://trove.nla.gov.au/
[2] http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/api
[3] http://trove.nla.gov.au/system/counts
[4] http://www.govhack.org/
[5] http://www.nsla.org.au/news/govhack-2013-include-trove-prize
[6] http://mtchl.net/TroveMosaic/
[7] http://mtchl.net/ManlyImages
[8] http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/api-technical
[9] http://trove.nla.gov.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?30-Trove-API
Dr Tim Sherratt
Manager, Trove
National Library of Australia
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600
p: +61 (0)2 6262 1224
e: tsher...@nla.gov.au
