Building Trove’s collection of newspapers
Trove’s newspaper collection continues to grow every day. Trove Partners collaborate with Trove to digitise their collections and make them available online to all Australians. We spoke with 2 of our Trove Partners about their experience working with Trove to digitise some of their local newspapers.
Merri-bek Libraries
Merri-bek (formerly Moreland City Libraries) approached Trove to digitise a couple of different titles, some of which are now available, and more are still being added. They began to digitise the Brunswick and Coburg Leader as part of the State Library of Victoria’s project to digitise Victorian newspapers from World War 2. All issues of the Brunswick and Coburg Leader are now available online. The final two years of the paper were added to Trove in 2024. Merri-bek Libraries collaborated with the Coburg Historical Society to continue digitising the newspaper from the State Library of Victoria’s master microfilm copy.
Trove and Merri-bek Libraries discussed the process, organised a quote and decided on how many newspaper and gazette pages to work on. Once these details were confirmed the newspaper digitisation process began.
Zoe Velonis, Library Coordinator Resources and Technology at Merri-bek Libraries, shared with us her experience of working with Trove.
‘The Trove team were very helpful with guiding us through the process and making this record of our local history available to an audience much wider than we would be able to through local resources. We completed digitising the Brunswick and Coburg Leader and are now in the process of digitising more local titles, the Brunswick and Coburg Gazette and Courier and have also been able to involve the Brunswick Community History Group in the project. It’s been a fabulous team effort and we couldn’t have achieved it without the skill and expertise of the Trove digitising team!’
Newspapers don’t get released on Trove all in one go. Most of the time, newspapers are released a few years of the paper at a time with the aim to eventually have the whole newspaper available online. Other local Victorian newspaper titles starting to be released on Trove thanks to Merri-bek Libraries include:
- Brunswick and Coburg Courier (1933–1934)
- The Brunswick and Coburg Gazette (1928–1932)
State Library of South Australia
We are also working with the State Library of South Australia to make regional South Australian newspapers available online. The State Library of South Australia has funded an annual Community Newspaper Digitisation Project since 2022. Through this project they have worked with Trove to digitise and make available online select newspapers through partnerships with regional and local history groups, National Trust branches, church groups and individuals.
Working with Trove, the State Library of South Australia has made South Australian local history available to the Australian public and has contributed to building our national collection of online newspapers.
We spoke with Kimberley Dye, Team Leader Digitisation & Digital Preservation at the State Library of South Australia to ask about their experience digitising these newspapers with Trove.
‘Our collaboration with Trove has been an incredibly enriching experience for our community newspaper digitisation projects. The support and resources provided by Trove have significantly enhanced our ability to preserve and share our state’s local history. This partnership has streamlined our digitisation process and brought our community closer by making these valuable newspapers easily accessible to everyone. We are truly grateful for the positive impact this collaboration has had on our project and our community.’
Recently digitised newspapers that the State Library of South Australia worked with Trove to make available are:
- The South-East Kingston Leader (1977–1987)
- The Orroroo Enterprise and Great Northern Advertiser (1892–1904)
- Port Lincoln Times (1987–1988)
- The People's Weekly (1890–1926)
- The Standard (1966 – 1967)
And there’s more to come.
Digitisation is one of the services available to all contributing Trove Partners. We quote and estimate the work, arrange the logistics to transport and prepare the material, digitise and return the material and make digitised content discoverable on Trove. Learn more about digitisation for Trove Partners.
If you’re interested in becoming a Trove Partner or if you’re already a Partner and interested in learning more about digitisation, reach out to Trove Partner Support.