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, 5 May 2024

Total articles and user activity¶

Latest data harvest 05 May 2024
First data harvest 24 April 2022
Total harvests 107
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_activity.csv

As of 05 May 2024 there are 248,506,723 digitised newspaper articles in Trove.

  Current total Change since 28 Apr 2024 Change since 07 Apr 2024 Change since 24 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
All articles 248,506,723 32,515 167,763 13,994,633 100.00%
Articles with corrections 15,643,809 16,005 63,623 1,788,270 6.30%
Articles with tags 4,923,419 24,602 26,819 520,425 1.98%
Articles with comments 280,823 1,999 2,645 42,132 0.11%

Total articles by publication year¶

Latest data harvest 05 May 2024
First data harvest 19 April 2022
Total harvests 103
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 05 May 2024
First data harvest 19 April 2022
Total harvests 103
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 28 Apr 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 05 May 2024
First data harvest 20 April 2022
Total harvests 108
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_category.csv
  Current total Change since 28 Apr 2024 Change since 07 Apr 2024 Change since 20 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
Advertising 46,614,889 11,539 62,773 3,113,182 18.758%
Article 172,237,419 17,592 91,836 9,444,959 69.309%
Arts And Culture 4,577 15 24 1,207 0.002%
Classified Advertisements And Notices 1,653 7 7 230 0.001%
Commerce And Business 5,721 23 23 2,725 0.002%
Detailed Lists, Results, Guides 27,651,112 2,897 11,415 1,399,151 11.127%
Display Advertisement 504 0 3 40 0.000%
Editorial 17,994 39 43 4,587 0.007%
Family Notices 2,017,946 761 2,057 83,143 0.812%
Humour 35,907 278 471 8,399 0.014%
Law, Courts, And Crime 13,805 174 180 4,342 0.006%
Letters 14,454 106 122 2,444 0.006%
Literature 37,667 29 38 2,705 0.015%
News 16,000 175 187 5,582 0.006%
Obituaries 16,121 128 147 4,988 0.006%
Official Appointments And Notices 1,287 7 7 222 0.001%
Puzzles 51,344 13 13 11,412 0.021%
Reviews 3,293 26 32 1,312 0.001%
Shipping Notices 3,220 7 7 1,415 0.001%
Sport And Games 20,461 58 59 5,921 0.008%
Weather 17,178 94 95 7,821 0.007%

Newspaper titles¶

Latest data harvest 05 May 2024
First data harvest 20 April 2022
Total harvests 105
Data https://github.com/wragge/trove-newspaper-totals/blob/master/data/total_articles_by_newspaper.csv

As of 05 May 2024 there are 1,806 different newspapers in Trove.

Total newspapers 1,806
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 28 Apr 2024 Change since 07 Apr 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 560 0 1 45 29.15%
Northern Territory 8 0 0 0 0.42%
Queensland 107 0 0 3 5.57%
South Australia 161 0 0 7 8.38%
Tasmania 115 0 0 0 5.99%
Victoria 443 0 1 36 23.06%
Western Australia 381 0 0 31 19.83%

Newspapers added since 28 Apr 2024

  • No newspapers added in this period.

Newspapers added since 07 Apr 2024

title_id title state total link
1880 The Braidwood News and Southern Goldfields General Advertiser (NSW : 1864) New South Wales 1772.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1880
1885 The Ararat and Mount Pleasant Creek Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1861 - 1873) Victoria 31285.000000 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1885

Changes in the number of articles from newspapers since 28 Apr 2024

title_id title change in articles link
566 The Grenville Standard (Linton, Vic. : 1897 - 1908; 1910 - 1918) 3,146 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title566
1813 The Pastoral Times (South Deniliquin, NSW : 1866 - 1912; 1921 - 1923; 1926 - 1931; 1941 - 1950) 3,738 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1813
1884 The Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1857 - 1861) 3,413 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1884
1885 The Ararat and Mount Pleasant Creek Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1861 - 1873) 15,398 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1885
1891 Hills and Valley Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA : 1984 - 2011) 6,820 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1891

Changes in the number of articles from newspapers since 07 Apr 2024

title_id title change in articles link
566 The Grenville Standard (Linton, Vic. : 1897 - 1908; 1910 - 1918) 8,331 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title566
587 The Nathalia Herald and Picola, Narioka, Kotupna and Moira Advertiser (Vic. : 1884 - 1918) 7,813 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title587
1191 The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956) 1 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1191
1813 The Pastoral Times (South Deniliquin, NSW : 1866 - 1912; 1921 - 1923; 1926 - 1931; 1941 - 1950) 58,088 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1813
1882 Moruya Examiner (NSW : 1881 - 1896) 7,370 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1882
1884 The Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (Vic. : 1857 - 1861) 8,477 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1884
1891 Hills and Valley Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA : 1984 - 2011) 44,626 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1891

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 28 Apr 2024 Change since 07 Apr 2024 Change since 19 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
ACT 3,296,997 0 0 0 1.327%
International 854,022 0 0 2,842 0.344%
National 657,326 0 0 204,582 0.265%
New South Wales 87,894,494 3,738 67,230 4,994,821 35.369%
Northern Territory 409,433 0 0 0 0.165%
Queensland 41,131,526 0 0 41,590 16.551%
South Australia 25,328,270 6,820 44,626 765,415 10.192%
Tasmania 15,850,246 0 0 74 6.378%
Victoria 47,708,108 21,957 55,907 7,445,213 19.198%
Western Australia 25,369,631 0 0 679,829 10.209%

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

  Current total Change since 28 Apr 2024 Change since 07 Apr 2024 Change since 19 Apr 2022 Percentage of total
ACT 3,296,997 0 0 0 1.327%
International 854,022 0 0 0 0.344%
National 663,996 0 0 211,837 0.267%
New South Wales 87,894,494 3,738 67,230 5,960,837 35.369%
Northern Territory 409,433 0 0 0 0.165%
Queensland 41,131,526 0 0 41,590 16.551%
South Australia 25,328,270 6,820 44,626 767,491 10.192%
Tasmania 15,850,246 0 0 74 6.378%
Victoria 47,708,108 21,957 55,907 6,165,053 19.198%
Western Australia 25,369,631 0 0 1,000,269 10.209%

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.