2. Agent Records
This guide outlines how to read an AustLit agent record. On AustLit, an agent is an author
or other creator (translator, illustrator, etc.) or an organisation.
The guide covers:
■ The various sections on an AustLit record.
■ What the sections mean.
■ How you can find exactly what you’re looking for.
5. The Header
General information is contained in the
header. This can include birth and death
dates, alternative names and writing
names, cultural heritage, and gender.
6. Biography
Directly below the header is the Biography.
AustLit agent records include a detailed
biography. Biographies are regularly edited
and updated but, as AustLit contains over
160,000 authors and organisations,
updating can be a lengthy process.
8. Left-hand
Tabs
The left-hand margin contains most of the
core navigation tools:
• Works by the author
• Works about the author
• Awards
• Works taught in tertiary institutions
9. Works by
Click on the Works by tab to see a full list of
works by the author.
Clicking on the title of any of these works
will take you to the full AustLit record for
that work.
10. Filtering the
results
The list will automatically order the works
in reverse date order, beginning with the
most recent.You can adjust the filtering
and narrow down results using the right-
hand margin. For example, the options
circled below allow you to select works by
form: short story, novel, film and television,
etc.
11. Works about
The Works about tab lists works about the
author themselves (not about their works).
Again, you can filter by type (interview,
essay, criticism, and so on).
Blue arrows indicate that the work is
available in full text.
Clicking on a title will take you to the
AustLit record for that work.
12. Works about
their works
The Works about their works tab will list
works written about the author’s writing.
Blue arrows indicate the work is available in
full text.
Clicking on the title of a work will take you
to the AustLit record for that work.
13. Awards
This tab lists awards won by the author.The
tab is divided into two parts:
• Personal awards
• Awards for works
Note: awards for unpublished works appear
under personal awards.
14. WorksTaught
This tab includes information from AustLit’s
long-running collection of data on teaching
Australian literature.
It will list which of the author’s works are
taught, where, and when.
This content is updated annually.
15. This Author in
Trove
Finally, the This Author inTrove tab will
take you directly to a pre-setTrove search
on the author.
18. ‘Follow’ an
Author
‘Following’ an author means receiving an
email when substantive changes are made
to their record, including new works by or
about the author being added to AustLit, or
their biography being substantially
increased.
19. Explore
The ‘Explore’ tab indicates that the author
is included in an AustLit exhibition or
information trail—in this case, AustLit’s
Reading Australia resources.
Click on the tab to view the exhibition or
trail.
20. ExportThis
Record
The export function allows you to export
AustLit content as aTXT or a CSV file.
You can also export the author’s
bibliography or lists of critical works about
the author.
21. Other
mentions
This tab searches AustLit’s notes and
abstracts for other references to the author
on AustLit: for example, if they appear in an
anthology where the content is not
individually indexed, or they are a cast
member in a film.
Note: this is a general keyword search and
can return false results.
22. Now you know all there is about interpreting AustLit agent records. Some records will
contain less information (for example, the author may not be included in any information
trails), but all agents records follow this pattern.
Go forth, and explore AustLit.