'The AustLit database (Kilner, 2002) contains bibliographical records for more than 882,000 works of Australian creative and critical writing and over 161,000 author and organization records. As an information resource, it is unsurpassed in comprehensiveness and breadth of coverage and is a central plank in Australia’s research infrastructure for the fields of cultural history and heritage. As a full-text repository, AustLit contains over a thousand items selected and digitized from original documents. These comprise seminal works of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Australian literature, a collection of early speculative fiction, a large corpus of early children’s literature, and selected criticism and scholarly works. Much of the creative writing full text is out of copyright, and we are soon to embark upon a digitization project to make available play-scripts written and performed in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to this aspect of our activities, AustLit’s comprehensive bibliographical records link outwards to more than 80,000 full-text items that are available online. This selection, curation, and development of full-text collections make AustLit a valuable site for finding contextualized reading material and content that supports historical research and teaching.' (Introduction)
