National Library of Australia Trove archive under funding threat

Question

Trove, the wonderful free resource at the National Library of Australia, seems to be under threat of reduction or even shutdown if Federal government funding is not increased by July 2023.

There must be tens of thousands of links to Trove from WikiTree profiles, in particular to the extensive newpaper archive. It will be a tragedy both here and more widely if Trove is lost.

"National Library’s treasure Trove under threat from budget cuts", Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 2022.

"Trove’s funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It’s time for a radical overhaul", The Conversation, 23 December 2022.

Comments

One thing that people can do to prepare for a possible Trove shutdown is to be sure to cite the metadata and full text of newspaper obituaries and other notices, not just the links. That way if the link fails in future, the pertinent information will still be available. (Australian newspapers prior to 1955 are generally out of copyright.)

For an example of one way of doing this, see the two Trove references on the profile Elliott-19728.

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Thank you for the example, Jim, I will definitely be more vigilant in the future.

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Thank you Susan!

Another article, by Jenna Price:

"National Library's Trove is worth fighting for", The Canberra Times, 30 December 2022.

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"National Library of Australia’s free digital archives may be forced to close without funding", The Guardian, 6 January 2023.

Quotes two differing statements by Arts Minister Tony Burke.

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Tony Burke is not my friend

Does Tony have any connection with the Arts? His role as Minister for Industrial Relations in Australia looks very shallow to me.

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There is now a petition for Trove to be fully funded here:

https://www.change.org/p/fully-fund-trove

At present it has 770 signatories. I'm sure WikiTreers can increase that number!

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The petition linked just above now has 1640 signatures, so it's getting steady support.

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Amazingly, the petition now has over 24,000 signatures! If anyone reading this who hasn't done so already would like to sign it, that would be great.

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Another article:

"Trove in trouble: why does it cost money to keep the resource online?", Cosmos, 25 January 2023.

The change.org petition now has over 27,000 signatures, and the parliamentary EN4745 one has 2837.

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It is important to sign the parliamentary petition as the House of Representatives will not accept a Change.org petition.

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Petitions/House_of_Representatives_Petitions/Frequently_asked_questions#Aboutpetitions-5-panel

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Politicians have their ear to the ground, and some of them take note of unofficial petitions. Greens Senator and Arts Spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young has already done so in this case.

Danielle is right that it's important to sign the parliamentary petition, but both the petitions have value.

Answer 1

It would be very sad if Trove, the National Library of Australia's digital resource, was allowed to degrade because of lack of funding

There is now an official Parliament House petition to save Trove which was organised by Deb Squires from the East Gippsland Family History Group 

If you are Australian, please consider signing.

Dear Members and Fellow Groups,
As you are likely aware from previous correspondence, the funding for TROVE is seriously under threat. Can you imagine doing any research in Australia without TROVE? I can’t.
I know some of you have already forwarded letters to the Minister Tony Bourke and others regarding this however, may I please make one last request.
Earlier in the month petitions were circulating (and still are) however the parliamentary website advises that unless a petition is generated through their own site it is not acceptable as a petition in Parliament. Several weeks ago I applied for a petition and it has only just been approved by the petitions committee and it will only be open for signatures for FOUR WEEKS.
I am asking all members (and anyone you would like to forward this email to who isn’t a member – the more the better) to click on this link NOW
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN4745
and click the sign this petition box. It will take you less than thirty seconds to complete and you will receive an email from parliament house to confirm your signature.
There are two other petitions for the same purpose on the site and if you are so inclined --- sign them as well.
We need TROVE and it simply cannot be allowed that funding for it ceases.
Cheers
Debbie.
Debbie Squires
President
East Gippsland Family History Group Inc.
a: 21 Morgan Street, Bairnsdale Vic 3875
e: president@egfhg.org.au w: www.egfhg.org.au
Founded 1979

Comments

Thank you for drawing attention to this formal petition, Anne!

The closing date for signatures on EN4745 is 22 February 2023 at 11:59 pm AEDT.

I looked at the privacy conditions. They seem safe:

When you sign a petition, we ask for your name and a verifiable email address. We will not publish your information online, but your name will be included in the final petition presented to the House of Representatives.

Your email address will be used to verify your intent to sign a petition. We also use your email address to make sure you haven’t signed the petition already, and that you’re a real person (and not a bot). We will not use your email address for any other purpose, and will not disclose it without your consent.

I follow Anne in encouraging people to sign.

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Thanks Anne for sharing the link to save Trove. I have signed and shared it with my parents.

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Anne, if you haven't (or someone else has not), this link should also be posted to the Australia project's discord (if discord allows such links).

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Done and to the google mail group too - thank you

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Thanks Anne for sharing this information. My husband and I have signed and I have forwarded the information to everyone on my email contact list.

Answer 2

Hi Jim, thanks for the heads up. Sounds like we'll all need to alert our local members!

Answer 3

Just sent a message to my local federal member.

Who I think is a useless politician, his predecessor was helpful (same party and in opposition) this politician just has a whole list of political rhetoric and does NOTHING but criticise the other party.

I sent a message anyway.

Any reduction in Trove's service would be CATASTROPHIC to me!

Comments

Send them physical letters via snail mail, written on coconuts, or dead fish (dried ones still smell, especially on warm to hot days - and it is summer  ).

They are bound by law* to keep all correspondence for x amount of time (where x is a value I cannot remember, but might be as long as seven (7) years), and coconuts are not the easiest of "letters" to store - and take up a lot of space. 
I remember such tactics being talked about, and to some point used, back a few decades ago regards the Sunshine Coast motorway - to get the tolls removed.

.

(*At least they used to be.)

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Just in case this is a serious suggestion, Melanie, see Australia Post's Dangerous and prohibited goods and packaging guide (PDF):

D3.9 – Physically offensive articles

Australia Post prohibits in all services any article that will become, or may reasonably be expected to become, physically offensive during the ordinary course of carriage.

Let's campaign by all means, but not shoot ourselves in the foot! I suspect an organised approach will develop if necessary, as it did when this last happened seven years ago. 

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Dried fish are edible.  See kippers.  See also "Bombay Duck".  
(Doesn't mean you want to have a room full of them during summer.)

.

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I actually like Bombay Duck, with dhal, over Basmati rice.

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We did get the tolls removed!

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Sorry to disappoint Melanie, but they don't need to keep the physical correspondence anymore - most government departments/agencies just scan incoming correspondence these days. They can bin the original once scanned. So emails & letters are treated the same once digital.

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Thank you for the clarification Mark.

I was amused by the concept of sending a smelly fish to my local representatives.
 I did not have any smelly plan. I support my local left leaning State representative and my right leaning Federal rep.

Later addition: Do the same rules about preserving correspondence for 7 years still apply?

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Steve - for the Australian Government they're routinely required to be retained for 3 years, but they can be scanned etc & originals disposed of as a normal administrative practice sooner than that.

Exception requiring permanent retention (but not necessarily as original documents) is major policy issues driving legislative change etc, which this probably isn't.

Answer 4

- Sad news , indeed , Jim - -

 - the six Colonial State Libraries, also help in scanning, ? so will their activities be scaled back likewise, Jim ? - cheers

Comments

Thanks John. As you point out, there is a coalition of partners, not just the NLA. We should watch for developments: I don't think Trove will be allowed to die without a struggle being mounted to save it.

Answer 5

That will be a tragedy, I always refer to Trove. I have been able to pick up history about my family no-one knew. Especially when as a young lawyer Dame Roma Mitchell former Governor of South Australia, represented my Grandmother in her divorce. Will get on and write to local and federal member.

Comments

 Roma Alma Flinders Mitchell AC DBE CVO (1913-2000).

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I also have numerous stories of WW1 and 2 members of family written on Trove.  It'll be a shame to lose Trove. I am going write to Tony Pasin federal member for Barker in South Australia.

Answer 6

My Federal representative, Andrew Hastie, is a fan of preserving history. I will write to him.

I am sure he will be concerned.

Answer 7

I sent off an email to Nick Champion Federal member for Taylor in South Australia, also Tony Pasin my Federal member for Barker, this morning. I hope I get a reply in the New year at least.

Answer 8

 - And now , Richard Neville is on to it =

@RNevilleSLNSW Trove's funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It's time for a radical overhaul theconversation.com/troves-funding… via @ConversationEDU

Answer 9

Is there some way that Ales can run a script to identify all the Trove references that aren't referenced correctly.  Then we can all attack that over the next 6 months to ensure they are correctly referenced before any pull of that website?

Comments

You can do this yourself with WikiTree Plus text search. There can be two domains for links to Trove: nla.gov.au and trove.nla.gov.au. So you may need two different searches. Here are the URLs. You should replace XYZ-123 in each case with your WikiTree ID.

https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=Domain%3Dnla_gov_au+Manager%3DXYZ-123

https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=Domain%3Dtrove_nla_gov_au+Manager%3DXYZ-123

Note that the full stops in the domains are replaced by underscores. You need to click the Get Profiles button on the resulting pages.

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Deborah, I missed part of your question sorry: "that aren't referenced correctly". I don't think it's possible to automate that. The two links I gave identify all profiles potentially referencing Trove managed by the WikiTree member with the given XYZ-123 ID, who could then look through them and decide where further details should be added.

I think this would be a good activity on general grounds. But I hope that Trove will be saved, and doing this will not be not crucial.

Answer 10

My email was sent on to Michelle Rowland Hon Member for Parliament, Minister for Communications under whose portfolio National Library and Trove falls

Answer 11

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-03/funding-for-trove-announced-by-federal-government/102177488

Comments

Thanks for the link, Bret! This seems to be a good outcome.