GLAM Workbench
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Trove newspapers: data dashboard¶

Trove's collection of digitised newspapers is always changing – new articles and newspapers are being added by the NLA, while Trove users are busy correcting OCRd text and adding tags and comments. The search you run today might produce different results than the same query did a month ago, a year ago, or ten years ago. Researchers need to understand how these changes affect the queries they make, the results they find, and the arguments they construct. This dashboard helps researchers understand the context of their queries by presenting a snapshot of Trove's digitised newspapers, based on weekly data harvests. It shows Trove's current make up from a number of angles, as well as highlighting recent changes. It is updated every Sunday. To explore past changes, see the dashboard archive.

  • Total articles and user activity
  • Total articles by publication year
  • Total articles by publication year and state
  • Article categories
  • Newspaper titles
  • Total articles by publication state
  • Significant events
Last updated: Sunday, 24 March 2024

Total articles and user activity¶

Latest data harvest 24 March 2024
First data harvest 24 April 2022
Total harvests 101
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_activity.csv

As of 24 March 2024 there are 248,025,644 digitised newspaper articles in Trove.

  Current total Change since 17 Mar 2024 Change since 25 Feb 2024 Change since 24 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
All articles 248,025,644 251,310 1,438,863 13,513,554 100.00%
Articles with corrections 15,546,479 16,091 65,945 1,690,940 6.27%
Articles with tags 4,894,967 826 4,513 491,973 1.97%
Articles with comments 277,660 213 895 38,969 0.11%

Total articles by publication year¶

Latest data harvest 24 March 2024
First data harvest 19 April 2022
Total harvests 97
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_year.csv

This chart shows the total number of digitised newspaper articles by year of publication. The distribution will change over time as digitisation priorities shift and more newspapers are added. This chart is useful in understanding how digitisation priorities and copyright restraints have shaped the total newspaper corpus.


Total articles by publication year and state¶

Latest data harvest 24 March 2024
First data harvest 19 April 2022
Total harvests 97
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_year_and_state.csv

This interactive chart helps you explore the distribution of articles by both publication year and state. Click on a state in the bar chart or legend to filter the results by year. Click anywhere in the background of the chart to reset. This enables you to compare digitisation patterns in different states and see how they contribute to the whole corpus.

Total articles added since 17 Mar 2024 by publication year and state

This chart shows the total number of digitised newspaper articles added since the previous harvest by year and place of publication. It's useful in seeing how search results from particular time periods and locations might be affected by current digitisation priorities.

Total articles added since 19 Apr 2022 by publication year and state

This chart shows the total number of digitised newspaper articles added since the first harvest by year and place of publication. It's useful in seeing how search results from particular time periods or locations might be affected by recent digitisation priorities.


Article categories¶

Latest data harvest 24 March 2024
First data harvest 20 April 2022
Total harvests 102
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_category.csv
  Current total Change since 17 Mar 2024 Change since 25 Feb 2024 Change since 20 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
Advertising 46,505,170 40,480 262,162 3,003,463 18.750%
Article 171,934,838 171,103 979,526 9,142,378 69.321%
Arts And Culture 4,553 0 3 1,183 0.002%
Classified Advertisements And Notices 1,646 0 3 223 0.001%
Commerce And Business 5,691 0 12 2,695 0.002%
Detailed Lists, Results, Guides 27,586,770 37,777 189,243 1,334,809 11.123%
Display Advertisement 501 0 1 37 0.000%
Editorial 17,944 0 3 4,537 0.007%
Family Notices 2,013,171 1,972 8,015 78,368 0.812%
Humour 35,335 101 147 7,827 0.014%
Law, Courts, And Crime 13,582 27 53 4,119 0.005%
Letters 14,317 6 28 2,307 0.006%
Literature 37,627 2 6 2,665 0.015%
News 15,790 11 30 5,372 0.006%
Obituaries 15,944 7 43 4,811 0.006%
Official Appointments And Notices 1,280 0 8 215 0.001%
Puzzles 51,331 0 0 11,399 0.021%
Reviews 3,260 0 4 1,279 0.001%
Shipping Notices 3,210 0 1 1,405 0.001%
Sport And Games 20,401 0 2 5,861 0.008%
Weather 17,083 0 1 7,726 0.007%

Newspaper titles¶

Latest data harvest 24 March 2024
First data harvest 20 April 2022
Total harvests 99
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_newspaper.csv

As of 24 March 2024 there are 1,804 different newspapers in Trove.

Total newspapers 1,804
Earliest publication date 05 March 1803
Latest publication date 19 December 2022

Newspapers by state of publication¶

This chart shows the place of publication of newspaper titles in Trove.

Changes in the number of newspapers by state of publication¶

  Current total Change since 17 Mar 2024 Change since 25 Feb 2024 Change since 20 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
ACT 8 0 0 0 0.42%
International 13 0 0 0 0.68%
National 9 0 0 4 0.47%
New South Wales 559 1 6 44 29.18%
Northern Territory 8 0 0 0 0.42%
Queensland 107 0 0 3 5.58%
South Australia 161 1 1 7 8.40%
Tasmania 115 0 0 0 6.00%
Victoria 442 2 2 35 23.07%
Western Australia 381 0 0 31 19.89%

Newspapers added since 17 Mar 2024

title_id title state total link
1883 The Mount Ararat Advertiser (Vic. : 1857) Victoria 17.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1883
1884 The Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1857 - 1861) Victoria 337.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1884

Newspapers added since 25 Feb 2024

title_id title state total link
1872 Braidwood News and Goldfields General Advertiser (NSW : 1862) New South Wales 698.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1872
1881 Braidwood Observer and Miner's Advocate (NSW : 1859 - 1862) New South Wales 3660.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1881
1882 Moruya Examiner (NSW : 1881 - 1896) New South Wales 10595.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1882
1883 The Mount Ararat Advertiser (Vic. : 1857) Victoria 17.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1883
1884 The Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1857 - 1861) Victoria 337.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1884
1891 Hills and Valley Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA : 1984 - 2011) South Australia 24502.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1891
1892 The Sunny Corner Silver Press and Miners' Advocate (Mitchell, NSW : 1886) New South Wales 42.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1892
1893 The Captain's Flat Mining Record (NSW : 1898) New South Wales 999.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1893
1894 Hill End and Tambaroora Times and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1871 - 1875) New South Wales 99.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1894

Changes in the number of articles from newspapers since 17 Mar 2024

title_id title change in articles link
1191 The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956) 215,483 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1191
1813 The Pastoral Times (South Deniliquin, NSW : 1866 - 1950) 9,426 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1813
1881 Braidwood Observer and Miner's Advocate (NSW : 1859 - 1862) 3,634 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1881
1882 Moruya Examiner (NSW : 1881 - 1896) 6,453 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1882
1891 Hills and Valley Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA : 1984 - 2011) 15,960 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1891

Changes in the number of articles from newspapers since 25 Feb 2024

title_id title change in articles link
370 Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1986; 1992 - 2002) 2,966 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title370
485 The Braidwood Review and District Advocate (NSW : 1914 - 1954) 30 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title485
729 The Temora Telegraph and Mining Advocate (NSW : 1880) 3 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title729
1191 The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956) 942,229 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1191
1813 The Pastoral Times (South Deniliquin, NSW : 1866 - 1950) 132,334 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1813
1852 Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW : 1941 - 1955) 320,352 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1852

Total articles by publication state¶

Data about the number of articles by publication place (state) is available both from the main result API using the state facet, and from the newspaper API. As noted under Significant events, these totals don't always agree. I've included both below, so you can compare.

Number of articles by state of publication (via result API)¶

Number of articles by state of publication (via newspaper API)¶

Changes in the number of articles by state of publication (via result API)¶

  Current total Change since 17 Mar 2024 Change since 25 Feb 2024 Change since 19 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
ACT 3,296,997 0 0 0 1.329%
International 854,022 0 0 2,842 0.344%
National 657,326 0 0 204,582 0.265%
New South Wales 87,804,763 19,513 468,812 4,905,090 35.401%
Northern Territory 409,433 0 0 0 0.165%
Queensland 41,131,526 0 0 41,590 16.584%
South Australia 25,276,234 15,960 27,468 713,379 10.191%
Tasmania 15,850,246 0 0 74 6.391%
Victoria 47,368,796 215,837 942,583 7,105,901 19.098%
Western Australia 25,369,631 0 0 679,829 10.229%

Changes in the number of articles by state of publication (via newspaper API)¶

  Current total Change since 17 Mar 2024 Change since 25 Feb 2024 Change since 19 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
ACT 3,296,997 0 0 0 1.329%
International 854,022 0 0 0 0.344%
National 663,996 0 0 211,837 0.268%
New South Wales 87,804,763 23,655 468,812 5,871,106 35.401%
Northern Territory 409,433 0 0 0 0.165%
Queensland 41,131,526 0 0 41,590 16.584%
South Australia 25,276,234 24,502 27,468 715,455 10.191%
Tasmania 15,850,246 0 0 74 6.391%
Victoria 47,368,796 215,837 942,583 5,825,741 19.098%
Western Australia 25,369,631 0 0 1,000,269 10.229%

Significant events¶

While the changes documented here generally reflect the addition of new articles and newspapers, the total numbers can also be affected by system configuration and optimisation events, such as rebuilding the index. It's difficult to highlight these sorts of anomalies in the charts above, but where I notice them I'll add a note here.

31 May 2022 – reindex?¶

Between the harvests on 29 May and 5 June 2022 there was a dramatic change in the distribution of articles by state (using the state facet). The number of articles from NSW decreased by 939,065, and the number of articles from Victoria increased by 961,387. There were also some smaller changes affecting other states. There was a scheduled maintenance window on 31 May, which makes me think that these reflect changes in the underlying search index, rather than the actual number of articles. Further evidence for this is the fact that the number of articles per state calculated by using the newspaper API endpoint were out-of-sync with the article totals until the end of May. Since then, both sets of article totals have remained in sync. So, in short, the number of articles returned by the state facet between 19 April 2022 (when my harvests started) and 31 May 2022 can't be trusted.


Created by Tim Sherratt for the GLAM Workbench. Support this project by becoming a GitHub sponsor.