Book Viewer

Many of the books found on Trove can be previewed or viewed entirely online. The Trove Book Viewer is a fantastic tool that allows users to view and navigate digitised books held at the National Library of Australia.  

Select 'Read' in the Trove record, then 'View at Trove Digital Library' to open it in the viewer.

Note: There may be additional freely accessible online versions of the item. This might include a link to Hathi Trust or the Open Library, which are free sources of online full text. If a preview of the item exists in Google Books it will also be linked here.


Viewer controls

The Trove viewer controls allow you to zoom, rotate and navigate your search result.

Located in the left and right-hand sides of the viewer, the controls include –

  One-page view: View one page at a time 

  Two-page view: View two pages at a time  

  Thumbnail view: View all pages in the book

Zoom in    or out   Zoom in and out of the page

Flip left   or right   : Turn to the previous or next page

  Show full screen: View the page in full screen mode. Select again to return to viewer mode

  Rotate Page: Rotate the page 90 degrees clockwise 

  View page in more detail: View the page in the image viewer. Learn more about the image viewer

Page slider: Select and drag to a specific page

Screenshot of Trove Book viewer page slider


Use the sidebar tools to find out more information on your Trove search result in addition to various options and functions for accessing it.  

  Details 

Get information about the item you are viewing. You can find information such as title, creator and the location of the physical copy at the National Library of Australia.

  Copyright 

View the copyright status of the item, including an explanation of this status. Many items in the Trove Digital Library collection are still in copyright. This information is a guide only; the item you are viewing may be subject to additional agreements relating to use and reproduction. More specific information regarding copyright can be found on Trove’s Copyright and Re-use page

  Contents 

View a table of contents with links to specific pages and chapters in the book. This option is only available for items with electronically translated text (see Text below).

  Search 

Search for keywords within a book. This option is only available for items with electronically translated text (see Text below).

  Text 

View the electronically translated text of the document (if available). The text is electronically generated so it may contain some errors. These items in the Trove Digital Library collections can be text corrected.  

  Cite 

View citations in a number of standard styles. You can copy and paste the citation that best suits your needs. Note: Citations are automatically generated and may require some modification.

Learn more about citing sources found on Trove

  Download 

Download digital copies in available formats. Check copyright status.

Learn more about downloading

  Buy 

Order a copy of the image. You can order standard or higher resolution images. All copy orders are referred to the National Library’s Copies Direct service. If an item is in copyright you may require permission from the copyright holder to obtain a copy.

Learn more about getting copies

  Toggle View 

Display or hide the sidebar information pane. 


View electronic publications

Born-digital edeposit items can be viewed online through Trove with some access conditions and restrictions.

To view these items:

  1. Select the 'Read' button in the Trove record.  
  2. Select the 'Access Through NED' link (Note: Other links may direct you away from Trove to services not provided or supported by the National Library of Australia).
  3. If there are no restrictions from the depositor, this will open the viewer.
  4. If there are restrictions, you be directed to the item's collection page. This page lists 'Access Conditions' for the item that were set by the depositor.
  5. If available, you may have the option to open the book viewer by selecting 'Launch viewer in restricted mode.'

To identify edeposit items while in e-book and pdf viewers, look for the Call Number 'edeposit collection' under Details.