Searching for booksMark Strizic, Searching for books at the State Library of Victoria, January 1967, nla.obj-140508667

How do you search the catalogue for Australian literature?

Quick search

Use the Catalogue standard search  to find titles, authors or subjects. 

  • If you get too many results, use the Narrow search options (at the right of the page) to display only the items you’re interested in
  • If you need to widen your search, click on subject headings in an item’s Catalogue record to find other material related to that subject.

Browse

Although you can’t browse the Library’s shelves in person, you can use the Catalogue to browse by title, author, subject or Dewey number.

To search for general works about Australian literature, select the Browse alphabetically tab, then subjects.

Some search suggestions:

You can also use the name of an author for a subject search; this will find items concerning the author, such as biographies or reviews. Examples are:

Are there any online resources for Australian literature?

There are a number of free websites and subscription databases containing online material, some full-text, for Australian literature works, biographies and criticism. Key items are:

  • AustLit: the resource for Australian literature - a key resource for information about Australian writers and writing covering the 1780s to the present. It is available to registered users of the National Library of Australia, Australian State Libraries and the Northern Territory Library.  AustLit is also freely available to staff and students of all Australian schools. See the AustLit help page when using the database for the first time.