Australian Historical Association Conference – Digital History Stream and Trove Workshop

About the Event

The Australian Historical Association (AHA) Annual Conference hosted by Flinders University will be held on 1 – 4 July 2024. The ARDC, in collaboration with the AHA, is making up to four conference bursaries available for Higher Degree Research students and Early Career Researchers to participate in the conference’s Digital History stream. The Understanding Trove Workshop is also supported by the ARDC.

Understanding Trove Workshop (Adelaide)

Monday 1 July, from 2:00pm – 4:30pm at the Flinders University City Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide

Presented by Dr Tim Sherratt and sponsored by ARDC

The development of Trove by the National Library of Australia has changed the practice of history in Australia, but how well do we understand the data available from Trove and its possibilities for research?

This free workshop, drawing on the newly-published Trove Data Guide, will provide a critical introduction to Trove as source for digital research. Topics will include:

• categories, collections, works, and versions – disentangling the structure of Trove
• the digitised newspaper corpus – what’s there, what’s missing, what changes
• simple image hacks for time-pressed researchers
• accessing and using data from digitised resources

The workshop has been timed to align with the Australian Historical Association’s 2024 conference (2-4 July), but is open to all. Conference registration is not required to attend. 

Numbers are limited so reserve your place!

About the Digital History Stream

The ARDC is pleased to sponsor this stream through the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, which is developing digital infrastructure for historical research.

The AHA conference’s focus on home truths invites questions about the relationship between ‘truth’ and the growing range of digital tools and methods we use to explore historical data. How do we draw understanding from massive online collections? How do we communicate uncertainty and context through data visualisation? How do we document and share the methodologies we use for recording and analysing data?

This stream will explore the possibilies and pitfalls of digital history. We welcome a broad range of proposals that examine the use of computational methods in the organisation, analysis, and visualisation of historical data. In this developing field, it is important to share approaches and insights, and proposals might touch on a wide variety of topics, including:

• digital mapping
• database design and development
• use of GLAM collecons as data
• digital tools for historical analysis and visualisation
• sources of historical data
• transcription of historical documents using digital tools and platforms
• linking and annotating datasets
• development of digital skills in history research and teaching
• publication and preservation of digital research outputs.