Finding and using data

The University of Adelaide Library cares for a range of specialised archives and historical collections, many of which are accessible online.

Digitised collections are showcased online at Adelaide Connect. On this site you can explore the history of the University through digitised archival records, museum objects, personal papers, cultural & scientific artefacts, photographs, rare books and visual art.

You can also find some digitised material, theses, journal articles and other research outputs, through Adelaide Research and Scholarship, and you can search and browse the University of Adelaide Archives online. The Library is also home to Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, which can be browsed online, or searched through Library Search.

University of Adelaide collections have also been made available online through the Daisy Bates Digital Archive, and Ausstage, The Australian Live Performance Database.

The University Library subscribes to a number of databases that provide access to a wide range of discipline specific digital collections and archives. Institutional access through the Library to databases such as Gale, Proquest and Adam Matthew Digital enable Humanities researchers to access a selection of curated content from archives across the world. Other sources such as Newsbank and Informit provide access to global and Australian contemporary news and policy sources. 

While the scope of content provided through these databases is vast, researchers should keep in mind that digitised collections are not representative of all archives available. As a majority of archives remain undigitised, researchers should consider this limitation when utilising the digital databases and collections that are available through the library.

Trove is an online discovery tool and library database maintained by the National Library of Australia, connecting users and researchers to the digital collections across Australia, including libraries, museums, galleries, government and community organisations. Trove provides access to more than 6 billion digital items, including 160 million newspapers articles from nearly 1000 different publications.

Data from Trove is computationally accessible through the Trove Application Programming Interface (API), which provides data in a machine-readable form. Researchers and other non-commercial users can create a free account to apply for an API key. 

Using the Trove API, researchers can harvest Trove data to export records, capture datasets for analysis and create tools, visualisations and applications. Trove provides a technical guide of the API to assist researchers, and case studies exhibiting how the API has been successfully utilised.

Trove also allows bulk download of two research relevant resources, the Australian Government Gazettes (1832 – 1968) and Australian Aborigines Advocate (1908 – 1928), without an API key.

Figshare is the official data, research, and digital object repository for the University of Adelaide. Institutional access to Figshare is available to all current staff and HDR students, with unlimited local storage. Figshare allows users to upload files in any format to store, share and manage data safely and efficiently.

Data published through Figshare makes research outputs freely available and citeable for other researchers and assists in growing a researcher’s profile. A DOI (digital object identifier) is applied to data published on Figshare, giving researchers a permanent and stable identifier to track the impact and reach of their research. As well as being a source of research data, figshare is an important way to ensure the findability, accessibility and longevity of your digital outputs. Learn more about publishing in the University of Adelaide figshare repository at Publish Your Research Data. 

All content published publicly on Figshare is able to be downloaded in bulk or mined without a login. Using the Figshare API, researchers can mine data from all published data to create collections and build applications. 

Case studies provide examples of how Figshare open data can be utilised by various researchers.

The Australian Data Archive is a national service for the collection, preservation and publication digital social science research data, through which researchers have access over 12,000 files.

Hosted through the Dataverse platform, researchers can access data sets free of charge (unless specified otherwise). Limited online analysis can be completed within the platform, or researchers can download datasets for external analysis.

A sample of the most popular data sets in the archive is available and provide examples of how data from the archive is being used in research. Australian Data Archive also manages appropriate access to sensitive data. 

Supported by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), web portal and data discovery service Research Data Australia enables researchers to locate and access research data from Australian research organisations, government agencies, and cultural institutions, much of which is accessible for reuse and analysis. 

The portal returns over 34,000 results for Humanities and Social Sciences data and the Cultures and Communities themed collection provides an overview of relevant datasets and initiatives from organisations around Australia. Research Data Australia also features tools and services for researchers organising their data, and enabling alternative research pathways.

The University of Adelaide figshare repository is harvested to Research Data Australia, helping make our community’s data more discoverable. In late 2020, 278 University of Adelaide data records could be found thorough Research Data Australia, covering 945 subject areas.

ARDC provides Australian researchers, covering topics such as working with research software and research data. The ARDC also supports the Nectar Research Cloud, providing cloud computing infrastructure for researchers to store, access, and run data remotely, removing the need to purchase or host hardware. More information on Nectar is available via ITDS.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is Australia’s primary institute for the ethical study and preservation of the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Institute provides online access to digitised art and object collections and databases, including the MURA collection catalogue, which allows researchers to search for manuscript, books, serials, photographic, and audio-visual materials. Researchers can also search for images using the photographic collection. AIATSIS datasets, including the AUSTLANG information around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, which is free to access and download.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that AIATSIS collection material may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons.