Searching Trove

Trove is a search engine from the National Library of Australia.

Trove provides access to a significant range of resources. It complements the Library catalogue and may give you a greater range of historical resources.

This tutorial will show you how to search Trove to find background information from the Books & Libraries and the People & Organisation categories

Why is finding background information useful?

How to use this tutorial

Let's get started!

How to access Trove

We are starting at the A-Z Database list.

• Click T
• Click Trove
• Enter your username and password
• You are now at the Basic Search screen in Trove

*Note: The A-Z Database list is found on the UOW Library homepage.

Click Advanced Search and select Books & Libraries from the drop down menu. Why?

Searching Trove

Here is an example topic:

"Nurses who served in the First World War"

We want nurses and "first world war" to be the main subject of the items we find.

Lets replicate the search in the image below:

1. Click on the image to enlarge it
2. Enter the search as shown

• look at how the search words have been entered
• enter AND between search words
• use double quotation marks for the phrase "world war one"

3. Click Search icon

Search Tips Explained

Search Results

Trove searches for a range of resources sorted into Categories

Books are a great resource for background information.

Look at your search results.

Let's see if we can change our search to find a more relevant range of books for our example topic on nurses in the first world war.

Refining a search Part 1

Book records provide a description of the item.

Click on the image below and look for:

• Book description (Author, Title, Publisher, Date)
• Tags (Find our more on this topic) Why are Tags useful?

What phrase(s) from Tags (More about this subject) could be used to find books about nursing care during war?

Check answer

Let's change our original search by incorporating a Tag (Subject description).  This will help to focus our search.

Refining a Search, Part 2

1. Click Show Advanced Search

2. Open the image below and replicate our new search.

3. Click Search

Tips: Tags are Subjects. Enter the phrase exactly as shown into Subject box (include punctuation).

Search Tips Explained

Accessing books online

Many of the books we find in Trove will be held in libraries across Australia.

However, some may be available to read online.

1. Look at options available under Refine your Results.

2. Click Free access

3. Follow the link provided to read the book online.

You may be able to read the whole book online; in some cases only a section will be provided.

Additional tips for finding books:

1. check UOW Library Catalogue
2. review options under Borrowing from other Libraries

Note: these links will open in a new window.

Trove Category - People and Organisations

The People and Organisations category includes information from a variety of sources including Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Encyclopedia of Australian Science, Australian Women's Register.

This is an example of an entry for a person found in this category.

Click on this link to see the full record in Trove for Emma McCarthy.

What information is provided?

Check answer

How can this information help you to know more about a person or topic?

 Check answer

Feedback

Thank you for completing this Library tutorial.

So that we can evaluate and improve our tutorials, we would appreciate if you could provide anonymous feedback.

Get more help with historical research

Need more help with historical research?

See:

Finding Historical Information Guide

Trove Search Help

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