Cirrus@Austlit

Below is a brief introduction to reading AustLit records, and what the terminology means. This page is under development: we will be adding videos and new how-to's in the new year.

For instructions of searching and advanced searching,

please visit How to Search AustLit.

Please also visit Frequently Asked Questions.

AustLit is the first major implementation of several important new data models, and its result displays are significantly different to those found in many other citation or full text databases.

Authors, publishers and other organisations are all classed as AustLit agents and in some cases have quite detailed records. These can contain:

• Primary names: the name most commonly used by this author
• Also Known As (AKA) names: other names used by this author, including non-writing names or common shortenings of names
• Also Writes As names: pseudonyms and alternative writing names
• Gender: female, male, non-binary, unknown.
• Heritage: cultural heritages publicly identified by authors
• Awards: for works, or for contributions to literary culture
• Biography: a brief summary of author's life and career
• Summary of works by and works about this author.

Works are classified by type, form and genre. As many works have more than one classification (e.g. novel and crime, website and biography), the numbers indicated in the Works by and Works about lists may be greater than the total number of works listed.

AustLit Work records can contain:

• Creator: records a range of creator roles (e.g. editor, illustrator etc.)
• Work title: records the first title under which a work is published
• Alternative titles: title/s under which the work has also been published
• Work subjects: including general concepts, places, people, time periods and organisations
• Work awards: Australian and international literary awards
• Relationships: to author or publisher series, sequences and other related works
• Publication history: details of multiple versions (where the content has been changed, e.g. translations or revised editions, and reprints)
• Publication details: place, date and publisher plus URL for online items
• Contents: individual contents of journals, selected works, anthologies, multi-chapter works and websites.
• Teaching resources where available.