Showing posts with label Virginia James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia James. Show all posts

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Expert Q&A :: Getting even more from Trove

For our Expert Q&A Thursday, November 15 we had Virginia James and Mark Raadgever from the Trove team join us and answer questions on how to get even more from Trove. Thanks again to Virginia and Mark for giving us all their time and insights. We look forward to having the Trove team back again soon.

Please find the transcript of the Q&A and links below.

Don't forget our Expert Q&As happen every Thursday night on the Inside History Magazine facebook page.

When: NSW - ACT - VIC - TAS: 8:30-9:30pm AEDT | QLD: 7:30-8:30pm | WA: 5:30-6:30pm | NT: 7:00-8:00pm | SA: 8:00-9:00pm

As of November 2012 there are 316,919,556 pages consisting of 77,907,016 articles available to search in just the old newspapers on Trove alone! Please find the transcript of the Q&A and links.

Summary of links from the Q&A:

Check out photos and add your own :: Trove: Australia in Pictures on Flickr

=====================================================

Transcript of Expert Q&A - Getting even more from Trove:

Our Expert Q&A with Virginia James and Mark Raadgever from the Trove team starts in 15 minutes at 8:30pm AEDT. Topic: Getting even more from Trove. Please ask your questions in a comment below and Virginia or Mark will answer in a following comment.

Comment: IHM: Welcome everyone, the Q&A is now open. Thanks for joining us tonight Virginia and Mark. Please ask your questions.

Q. From Christine: Hi there, my research turned up a story, reported in an article in a WA newspaper, called 'peeps at people' the story was about a Gallipoli soldier who eventually ended up as a guide at Galipolii, having had a bad time, prisoner of war etc, I would really like to know who he was.
A. Virginia: @Christine, Wow, what a fascinating story. I take it no names were mentioned.
Q (b): From Christine: there is a photo in Bart Ziinos book of the Irwin family on a pilgrimage to Gallipoli showing them doing a grave rubbing, cannot find the image in Trove or eleswhere, ideas?
A. Virginia: @Christine, Hmmm... difficult one. If the image hasn't been contributed separately to Trove apart from the book you won't be able to find it in Trove. So it may not exist as a digitised image on its own. Even if it is, it may have a different title from the caption in the book so it might be in Trove but need different search terms to find it.

Q. From Alexandra: Hi there...I would like to get more involved in the Trove community...I think I understand what the text corrections are about ...but what are the images and the lists? Also is it possible to set up an automated search in Trove - a bit like Google?
A. Mark: @Alexandra In answer to your three questions 1) Images are photographs (or scans) that are added by individuals to the Trove: Australia in Pictures Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/pictureaustralia_ppe/), images uploaded to this group appear in Trove after about 2 weeks, as long as they meet certain requirements. 2) Lists are a list of items found in Trove that a user has collated to make it easier for people to find items that are related, for example http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=9823 is a list of newspaper articles about Harold Williams the singer. These can be created by anyone, and are particularly useful for sharing relevant items with other people. 3) You can't set up an automated search in the same way that Google does, however you can subscribe to an RSS feed that notifies you when any new items are added to Trove which match your search. The link to this appears at the bottom of your search results. This feed can be set to just results in a specific zone, or for results across all zones.
A. Alexandra: Mark - thank you so much - that's great news....I forgot to say thank you to both of you and the whole NLA team ....Trove is so fantastic ...I bore people witless raving about it....
A. Alexandra: Oooh and I've just discovered your Trove search box which I've just put on my blog...that's useful too...thanks.
A. IHM: The search box is on our blog as well, Alexandra. Here's the link for everyone else: Add a Trove search box to your website :: http://www.nla.gov.au/media/trove/add-trove-to-your-website.html
A. Chris: I have it also, and every now and then someone tells me how handy it is.

Q. From Rosemary: Often multiple lines of an article (eg those in the Family Notices) are missed in the OCR process - is there any way that the OCR can be redone or is the only option to manually correct the entries ourselves? 
A. Virginia: @Rosemary, Unfortunately no. We don't have the resources available to send items back for re-scanning so that's why we love our volunteer text correctors so much!
A. Rosemary: The association of the text with the correct line on the page is generally very good but I have seen some where it is completely unrelated - I have to find the entry by looking for the name of interest. Fortunately not common and I can live with that given all the interesting facts I'm learning about my families.
A. Mark: @Rosemary The information on the lines is based on the output of the OCR engine, which provides each line and word on the page a set of co-ordinates (like a map), if there is an error in the information supplied by the OCR engine, then this may result in the images not quite matching up. Also, if the match is a 'fuzzy' match, these are often not highlighted in either the article text or the article image, you can use your browser 'find' feature to find the items in the text. Also, if a user has changed the text without respecting the original lines (this is permissible if there are not enough lines in the OCR text compared to the original article, however the start of the lines should match where the line is highlighted on the page), this disassociation can also occur. However, the exact reason for any specific article is difficult to say without viewing the article itself

Q. From Fiona: Hi I adore Trove - it's a fabulous resource for researching my family tree. I'm wondering why there isn't much post WW2? Thanks
A. Virginia: @Fiona, that would be because we can only digitise up to 1954 because of copyright issues so that's only 9 years post WWII to digitise.

Q. From Chris: Hi, I'm an avid user of Trove but I need some guidance that you might be able to help with. When I google a name, I can just write it as 'john goopy' + Queensland and for the most part, that's what I will get ...with Mr. Goopy and J Goopy but not much else. When I do this with Trove, I get all manner of Goopys... the bane of my life, don't laugh Cass... How can I get more direct reposnes?
A. Chris: Or responses :-)
A. Mark: @Chris: to reduce the number of results you get in Trove, you may wish to do a phrase search - put the search terms in quote marks (e.g. "John Goopy") to find only those results where the two words appear one after the other, otherwise, you may like to try a 'near' search with an honorific (e.g. Mr) to find only those results which mention a Mr Goopy - for example "Mr Goopy"~2, will find all articles where Mr and Goopy appear within 2 words of each other... You may also need to use the fulltext: syntax to drop some of the less relevant results - see http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=fulltext%3A%28%22mr+john+goopy%22~2%29 for an example
A. Chris: Thank you, a simple change to what I have been trying certainly helps. Wish I'd asked before. Love OCR... it's often more interesting than the initial reports, even more than my typos. It's good that we have so many correcting though, something I do each time I search, even if it's only a few lines. Thank you for your time.
A. Virginia: @Chris, LOL, I think you might be the first person to say the OCR is sometimes more interesting than the original! And thank you so much for your corrections! Every single one counts!
A. Rosemary: I often get a laugh too from the incorrect OCR - things like the "thin" son instead of the "third" son; lots of interested variations on "passed" in "passed away" too that you would never think of.
A. Mark: @Rosemary I can probably believe almost anything from what I've seen in the OCR!

Q. From Michelle: Is there a possibility of correcting text in a block (like in the Text box) rather than lines separately?
A. Mark: @Michelle This is not something that we intend to introduce at this point in time. The text corrections are completed line-by-line as each line of text is linked to a specific location on the image, and it is not currently possible for us to match these locations with a basic text block rather than the line-by-line system.
A. Mark: This is what allows us to highlight the search results both in the article text and in the original newspaper image
A. Michelle: Thanks @Mark- was just a bit of wishful thinking.

Q. From IHM: Virginia, is there a way to search specifically for images in a newspaper?
A. Virginia: Sure is! Using the Advanced search screen (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/search?adv=y) you have the option to search in captions only, and to restrict your search to illustrated articles only. The restriction on this is that advertising does not have the illustrations identifed, so this can't be used to find display advertising. You may also use the 'illustrated' facet to restrict your results to illustrated articles, then select a type of illustration.

Q. From Alexandra: Mark/Virginia - how do you choose which newspapers to digitise next?
A. Mark: @Alexandra This process is actually completed by the Newspapers Digitisation Program team (who do an excellent job with the complexities of the digitisation), in consultation with state and territory libraries - more information can be found on the ANDP website at http://www.nla.gov.au/content/selection-policy

Q. From Alison: Do they have plans to collate all the Digger photos under a single catalogue item to make for easier searching. I know newspapers in Brisbane and other port cities often did one page or 2 page spreads of Expeditionary Forces prior to embarkation, using studio portraits, with captions underneath cropped photos just showing the men's faces. I did some text corrections to some Brisbane issues last year, but having trouble now doing an all states search for them for someone else.
A. Virginia: @Alison's question: No, no we don't, but... *big smile* We'd love to have someone create a list of the Digger photos that would make it a single searchable item. So, Alison, there's a challenge for you!

Q. From Kathy: When I ask for an email to be sent to me when a page is finished being digitised, the time frame given is up to 1 month. Does this need to be revised at all? I am sure I've been waiting longer for notification for some pages.
A. Mark: @Kathy One month is a 'normal' timeframe if the batch that contains the article passes the final quality check, then this should normally be completed within 28 days, if the batch fails the quality check then it can take a lot longer (up to 28 days every time it is resubmitted, the most I've seen is a batch that had to be resubmitted 5 times). If the batch fails the check after you submit your email address, then you will receive notification when the page is available, if it passes, you will get notification that the specific article is available.

Comment: Chloe: I haven't got a specific question but I'm reading through the comments, learning new things from all the other questions. Thanks!
A. Mark: @Chloe Glad to hear that you're getting some tips and ideas from the questions.
A. Virginia: @Chloe, not ignoring you! Are you still getting good stuff from this? If you have any questions you'd like us to answer that you don't want to raise here, just shoot us a message via the Contact Us form.

Q. From Virginia: So... just wondering... does anyone use the rest of Trove? I think the other zones are feeling neglected. ;)
A. Virginia: I only ask because we often have pictures of service men and various ships that may interest family historians.
A. Alexandra: Oh no, don't you worry Virginia, I use Trove for finding books at the public library where I work..we love it...it's the tool we use the most after our own catalogue I think it is fair to say....and I recommend it to all our patrons...I particularly love it for images too...
A. Alexandra: If I have any problems it's usually with the archived websites....I click on the links but I never seem to get anywhere with them...I'm not a very experienced user obviously....
A. IHM: We're always pointing people to books & libraries via Trove and don't tell anyone but we use Trove to search other libraries catalogues instead of their systems... And of course there's all the pictures we find on Trove as well!
A. Wendy: I always do a 'complete' search first cause you never know what else is there :) I also redo the same search occassionaly to catch new stuff ... found a beautiful photo just last week of my great grandfather with convict leg irons he found on a skeleton , the photo is held by Tas State library . It wasn't there the time before , so has been added recently. My maiden name is Frerk, so that make things easier ;)
A. Mark: @Alexandra The archived websites can be a bit interesting to use, the are a snapshot of the website at a particular point in time, so many of the links on the pages will be broken. If you have a specific problem, please use the contact us form so that we can provide more specific results.

Q. From Carmel: I heard the other day where some have tried to fix the text and completely changed the story so their ancestor does not sound bad! this does not change the facts at all but corrections are checked before being authorised is this correct? I never thought of this and think the idea funny, luckily the original article cannot be changed anyway. I usually read the original and only revert to the ocr if I am having trouble reading it as well.
A. Virginia: @Carmel, Ack! If you see this sort of thing you should contact us via the contact us form and we'll look into it! We've been pretty lucky with not much 'vandalism' and yes it's true the original can't be changed, but still!
A. Virginia: But no, we do not check the text before the corrections are authorised.
A. Mark: In addition to Virginia's comment, the corrections are available immediately that the user clicks 'save', and they are normally searchable within the hour. However, to help protect against that type of behaviour, the original OCR text always remains searchable (Trove searches the original OCR and the most recent update)
A. Carmel: have not come across it myself but someone did remark that some had tried. Why get in the way of a good story and I would be recorrecting if it was one of mine.
A. Mark: @Carmel There have been a few occurrences where similar things have happened, though not in the way you've mentioned, so it does happen.

Q. From Tony: Hi Guys, when I use the advanced search or a basic search and then the qualifiers on the left side I often want to limit my search to articles 100-1000 words and <1000 words. This requires two searches or one without limiting article length and full of unwanted items. Is there any way to incorporate a search button for both?
A. Virginia: @Tony, give me a sec to digest that one. So you basically want to limit to results that are between 100 to 1000 words and then results less than 1000 words? Isn't that the same thing?
A. Virginia: Oh! Sorry, did you mean greater than 1000 words?
A. Virginia: @Tony, yes, it's possible but it's probably best if you contact us via the contact us form http://librariesaustraliaref.nla.gov.au/reft100.aspx?pmi=UGSBky1Wle for us to answer that one.
A. Tony: Hi. No that was 100-1000 and over 1000 words... so that would be >1000. Apoloies
A. Tony: Thats Apologies
A. Virginia: @Tony, actually that's what I came round to and there is a way, but we can best answer it if you put in a query via the Contact Us form.
A. Tony: I then use my search parameter in Trove tools to data mine a set series of articles. So having two seperate searches of the same topic is a little disorganised
A. Tony: BTW Cass, I submitted my PhD last Thursday...sitting here working on the oral defence for next Thursday.
A. Virginia: @Tony, do you mean you're using the Trove API?
A. Tony: Thanks for the reply Virginia. I will contact you via query page. I have used Trove's API but I now use Wragge Trove Tools

Q. From IHM: Mark. Is it better to sort by relevance or by date? 
A. Mark: Inside History Magazine - In almost all circumstances it is better to sort by relevance rather than by date. The main reason for this is that Trove, by default, does a 'fuzzy' search, which will introduce non-exact matches into your search results. Also, when looking at newspapers, the article category does influence the considered relevance of an article. The combination of these two means that when sorting by date, the most relevant results may not be visible due to the non-exact matches and advertising matches pushing them out of the way. Where sorting by date is best is when you are specifically looking for the earliest or latest mention of an item. Sorting by date can also be useful if you are using the fulltext: or text: syntax to turn off the fuzzy searching. If you are looking for results in a specific date range, then the best option is to use the date facet or the date search on the advanced search screen rather than trying to sort by date.
A. Tony: And Mark, Trove searches on every word..subject to OCR quality, while many others like Papers Past only search on headlines. Cudos
A. Mark: @Tony very, very true

Comment: Martyn: The ability to text search newspapers has opened up such a wonderfully rich resource. Thank you so much to all concerned!

Q. From Michelle: I have used a lot of digitised newspapers online from other countries and Trove is by far the most skillful research tool on offer in Australia. It is changing the way we present history and the best thing is- it is free. What do we have to look forward to over the next few years from Trove?
A. Virginia: @ Martyn and Michelle, Thank you so much for your comments! As for the future... we'll always be adding content, including more newspapers and hopefully improving things like Lists and things in the newspapers zone and generally tackling all the enhancements people have asked for!
A. IHM: Here's the link for new newspaper titles coming soon in case anyone wants it :: http://www.nla.gov.au/content/new-titles-coming 

Comment: Carmel: I really like the facility where new articles that have not been checked can be ordered to be notified when it is available, only problem is I was sent two pages last week and I cannot remember who I was researching! need to keep a log
A. Mark: @Carmel that is always a risk with those notifications, we actually do have a suggestion in on how to improve it...either email the user immediately to say they've requested notification, with the article details (title, newspaper, page, issue date)
A. Mark: or to try and include more information in the notification email.
A. Carmel: I know Trove has bought many of my ancestors to life, there are things in papers that I would not have found if not for Trove unless I had at least one more lifetime to sit and read every paper from start to end.
A. Mark: @Carmel That is one of the things we believe Trove has been most useful for, as it does allow that access which was not previously available

Q. From IHM: Virginia / Mark: What’s the most exciting thing happening in digital history for you?
A. Mark: Inside History Magazine - In terms of digital history, I think that the most exciting thing that is happening in this field is that it is become much more mainstream, and people are starting to realise that you can do historical research using the online tools, and that these online tools provide significantly more ability to find and analyse the resources that are available than traditional methods do
A. Virginia: For me... in terms of digital history is how Trove is inspiring researchers. We'll soon be presenting a Trove seminar featuring speakers for whom Trove has inspired their research, such as Science in the Australian Women's Weekly and others!

Q. From Alexandra: Just googled Wragge Trove Tools...and I think that's the rest of the night gone for me....why didn't I know about this? I was going to ask about APIs Virginia/Mark...are there any others out there??
A. Virginia: @Alexandra, APIs? Sure! Powerhouse Museum has one, Europeana, the NAA are building one...
A. Virginia: Sorry, that was a short answer, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head at 9:30pm.
A. Alexandra: Thanks for that...sometimes I feel so very ignorant....
A. IHM: Here's the link to Wragge's [Tim Sherritt] Trove tools :: http://discontents.com.au and the transcript to our Q&A with him :: http://ow.ly/fj9Mm | Wragge also wrote a story for us in our Issue 12 about his toolkit and there's follow up coming early in 2013!
A. Virginia: @Alexandra, Don't feel that way, the digital world moves faster than we can keep up sometimes!
A. IHM: Ignorant, not at all Alexandra - we have these Q&As so we all learn! Also look at the State Records NSW API :: http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/
A. Carmel: We are all ignorant in many areas but if we do not ask the right questions will remain ignorant. As they say there is not such thing as a stupid question as if we do not know the answer we need to ask the questions. I guess in a way the ignorant are the ones who do not want to know the answers.
A. Tony: So true Virginia. When I started my thesis I was using microfische to access regional newspapers to confirm details...now I sit at home, structure a search and presto. The expectation for empirical evidence in PhDs will skyrocket due to the digital explosion

Q. From Wendy: What is API ?
A. Virginia: @Wendy, it stands for Application Programming Interface and just basically means a way of machine talking to machine.

Q. From Alexandra: So really Virginia when someone comes into the public library where I work and wants to donate photos the best thing would be to suggest that they upload them to Trove - as long as they own the copyright of course, yes?
A. Alexandra: And I'm talkiing about photos with historical significance of course...not just photos of my guinea pig.
A. Virginia: @Alexandra, Absolutely! What we suggest is that they scan them into digital format and then create a Flickr account if they haven't already got one and then upload the images with good titles and descriptions and tags to our Trove: Australia in Pictures group on Flickr.
A. IHM: Here's more info on the Trove: Australia in Pictures group :: http://ow.ly/fjaBO | And the group itself :: http://ow.ly/fjaM9 | Thanks again Virginia and Mark!

Comment: IHM: Thanks again to Virginia and Mark for joining us tonight! That was an excellent Q&A, as they always are with Trove! We’ll publish the questions, answers and links from tonight’s session in a blog post very soon.
A. Alexandra: Thanks guys...really enjoyed it!
A. Mark: Thanks all, it is always a pleasure to answer the questions - if you have any further questions, please use our contact form - http://trove.nla.gov.au/contact
A. Virginia: Thanks! We do love doing these sessions.
A. Wendy: Thank you every one , love these sessions
A. Michelle: I know the session is over but just think back a few years ago those of you who were researching- trolling through newspapers in hardcopy or on film spending hours looking for snippets then compare our research today where we can do such sophisticated searches in our PJs in front of the TV or on our devices coming home in the train. I can remember spending days searching the SMH for references to the 1867 flood at Windsor for mybook and can now do the same, with heaps more results in mere seconds
A. Katrina: Well, I've been using Trove for a couple of years, and I didn't understand any of the above!
A. IHM: Trove, crowdsourcing & digital history - it's changing the way we research and write history, and so much for the better Michelle. I'd like to read that book of yours one day. Let us know if you have any follow up questions Katrina but we'll have Trove back again soon!

Next Week: Who's joining us for next Thursday's Expert Q&A? Vicki Dawson & Rosemary Kopittke from findmypast.com.au Aust & NZ. Find out how to get the most from findmypast

When: NSW-ACT-VIC-TAS: 8:30-9:30pm AEDT | QLD: 7:30-8:30pm | WA: 5:30-6:30pm | NT: 7:00-8:00pm | SA: 8:00-9:00pm.

See you next Thursday, November 22 for more on findmypast.

=====================================================

Read the previous Expert Q&A transcripts:
[1]  Thursday, July 26 :: How to get the best from Trove Australia
[2]  Thursday, August 16 :: How to get the best from BDM Certificates
[3]  Thursday, August 23 :: Getting the most from NAA
[4]  Thursday, August 30 :: Interpreting photographs for family history
[5]  Thursday, September 6 :: How to get the best from Ancestry.com.au
[6]  Thursday, September 13 :: Using Trove for research
[7]  Thursday, September 20 :: Today's toolkit for the digital historian
[8]  Thursday, September 27 :: Preserving your artefacts with NAA
[9]  Thursday, October 4 :: Studying and doing research at UNE
[10]  Thursday, October 11 :: How to research war graves and Anzac ancestors
[11]  Thursday, October 25 :: What's new at Ancestry.com.au
[12]  Thursday, November 1 :: How to research cemeteries in Sydney & NSW
[13] Thursday, Nov 8 :: Australian War Memorial - Lost Diggers
[14] Thursday, Nov 15 :: Getting even more from Trove
[15] Thursday, Nov 22 :: Getting the most from findmypast AU & NZ
[16] Thursday, Nov 29 :: Using NAA defence records
[19] Thursday, Dec 20 :: What's new at Ancestry.com.au



                      Read more Trove tips  in our Issue 12: Oct-Sep edition.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Friday, September 21, 2012

Expert Q&A :: Using Trove for research

Trove is good, very good. Virginia James and Mark Raadgever from Trove joined us on Thursday, 13th September to answer questions on using Trove for family history research.

Don't forget our Expert Q&As happen every Thursday night on the Inside History Magazine facebook page.

When: 8:30-9:30pm EST | WA: 6:30-7:30pm WST | SA - NT: 8:00-9:00pm CST | Weekly on a Thursday night

As of 13 September 2012 there are 7,420,297 pages consisting of 72,750,378 articles available to search in just the old newspapers on Trove alone! Please find the transcript of the Q&A and links.

Top tips from Virginia and Mark:

  • Mark: My top tip for anyone using Trove (particularly newspapers) is not to discount the content of newspaper Advertising. Not only do some articles appear in there due to errors in processing, but there may also be other information that is useful. Another useful tip is to use the 'near' search and honorifics if searching for names that are also common words - e.g. "mr john black"~2 - this reduces the 'false positives' you get with these names, particularly if you only have a surname
  • Virginia: I like to start general and then start narrowing from there using facets unless I know exactly what I'm looking for. Searching newspapers is different to searching all of Trove, so I guess using the fulltext:searchterm is the most useful tip. What I mean by fulltext:searchterm is when you're in the search box in newspapers, if you type fulltext:McIntyre it will try to search for exactly McIntyre.

Summary of links from the Trove Expert Q&A:
=====================================================

Transcript of Expert Q&A - Using Trove for family history research:

Comment: Carmel: Lol and it has been down the lat 24 hours, we were just saying how life can be soooo hard without it!
A. IHM: So true, you really miss it don't you Carmel Reynen - I know we have :)
A. IHM: Trove is working hard to get back online - go to http://dr.nla.gov.au for updates but Virginia & Mark are here at 8:30pm to answer your questions.
A. Carmel: I am guessing someone is tearing their hair out trying to get it up on line. I must say however I would not know near as much about my ancestors and families without Trove. I was not aware of many of the papers that do exist and I have found some wonderful stories. I found a biography about one ancestor living in Fitzroy with things I would not have known about otherwise (even if it did bring on more questions) and then there were family living in Arthurs Creek and people writing stories about tours of the area and talking to my g grandfather then describing the farm they all lived on. It was almost like reading a Jane Austen novel only my ancestors were the characters. Pure Gold
A. Mark: We have an update on the outage - see http://dr.nla.gov.au
A. Carmel: as frustrating it is for all of us that Trove is down, but hey those Techs would be frantic! we are just spoilt
A. Virginia: So glad you guys are being patient with us! It's so frustrating for us too when we can't give you precise answers or exact URLs for you to click on.
A. IHM: We're a civilised, polite bunch here Virginia :)

Comment: Lisa: Just love TROVE,I'm also a TAFE teacher and used it this week to teach my students some searching and filtering techniques. They are a mature class and were just enthralled - the web address was quickly noted for future use . . . Some new converts I think. :)
A. Virginia: @Lisa, That's fantastic! The education sector is one we're trying to reach out to more so it would be good to get feedback on how we could do that better!

Comment: IHM: Welcome everyone, thanks for joining us tonight. Try to keep your questions concise and focused on Trove, that will help Virginia and Mark to answer as many as possible in the hour that we have. They’ve also kindly agreed to answer any questions asked but not answered tonight here tomorrow.
A. Virginia: Hi all!
A. Carmel: hello
A. Helen: Good evening :)
A. Mark: (BTW, Hi all)

Q. Firstly thank you so much for Trove. My question that the red underlining is not dark enough for myself or older people, it would be great if you could darken the references. Thank you?
A. Mark: @Betty Thanks for your feedback on the underlining - We consulted with a number of users (including both older and vision impaired users) before finalising on that as being the best option from what was suggested. The limitations of the software mean that at the moment there is not much we can do. We will note this as a suggestion to be re-examined at some point. You may also find that by changing the zoom of the newspaper page it may become clearer where words are underlined. You can also use the browser 'find' button to find where the word appears in the text on the left, then click on the line that the word is in to jump the page to that point.

Q. Is there any way of contacting people who have tagged something, I usually put my initials and the family name I am researching, if someone else is looking for that same family how can we find them?
A. Julie: @Carmel Reynen Top question re contacting people who've tagged family history articles. Would be great to contact people researching the same family.
A. Mark: @Carmel & @Julie - at the moment we don't provide people with the ability to see who has added a specific tag to the article. You may be able to find this out by checking the profiles of people who have corrected the text to see if they've added the tag. Otherwise, you can post a comment asking people researching that family to contact you (I'd recommend setting up a free email account because you may get a bit of spam). Otherwise, you can try posting in the forums (http://trove.nla.gov.au/forum) asking people who are interested to contact you.
Q(b). IHM: Thanks Virginia James, can users raise development suggestions like Carmel Reynen & Julie Boxsells direct with the Trove team? How would they raise the suggestions?
A. Virginia: Great question Ben! We love getting suggestions for improvements! The best way is to send them through the contact us form. That way we never lose them and we can also let people know if it's a suggestion already on the list. I know it looks like we might not be doing anything with the suggestions, but believe me we have a long list of enhancements that we want to tackle when we have resources available. Right now our biggest improvement on the go is to make the Help and About pages better, hopefully including a search function so people can search for answers to the questions they need help with! And by 'questions' I mean the sorts of questions like 'How do I search for an exact name?' or 'How do I find theses on a specific topic', or 'How do I change my password.'
A. IHM: Thanks Virginia, here's the contact form link for everyone :: http://trove.nla.gov.au/contact
A. Mark: The mockups that I've seen for the help pages are looking good!
A. Tanya: Love the idea of using questions to answer questions. They will help you before you even realise you've been helped!
A. Virginia: @Tanya, Well, we're hoping the new help functionality will be able to answer the questions before people have to ask us for the answers! We often get repeats of the same sorts of questions so we want to be able to provide the answers more easily for people!

Q. Is there a way on Trove to select a paper straight up rather than going through the growing list to find the publication you want to search?
A. Mark: @Chez Leggatt - If you are asking about the advanced search page, the you can use the browser 'find' function to search for the newspaper (this will find it in the list). Otherwise, you can select the 'view all titles' link from the Trove newspapers homepage, find the newspaper in this list, then select the 'Search only this title' box that appears underneath the search box in the top right-hand corner of the page. You can bookmark this newspaper page so you can simply return to that page rather than going through the homepages.
A. Chez: Hmmm Mark...I will test out if that will do what I am looking for once you are up and operational again..thankyou!! I ♥ Trove btw!!

Q. I can't seem to access death notices for Northern Star Lismore.
A. Mark: @Esma - have you tried browsing through the pages of the newspaper or checking in the advertising section? You may also be able to find them by searching for 'death' in addition to your other search terms.
Q(b). Esma: Are Campbelltown or Camden NSW newspapers being added to Trove?
A. Mark: There have been a couple of questions about whether newspapers from particular areas are available. As the NLA site is currently down we can't link to our list, but a copy of it can be found at http://www.gouldgenealogy.com/2012/07/update-on-troves-historical-australian-newspaper-digitisation-program/ . If titles you are interested in are not on this list, please suggest them at http://librariesaustraliaref.nla.gov.au/reft100.aspx?key=TrNDP

Q. From Hillary Lowden: What is the schedule for materials from the Bendigo Advertiser to be loaded on Trove?
A. Virginia: To answer Hillary's question, we're happy to say the Bendigo Advertiser is starting to com online as we speak (well, once we're back up that is!) and it will progressively have more available online in coming months. The process takes awhile unfortunately.

Q. I am also interested in Avoca, Ampitheatre Maryborough area not sure what was available there but are there plans for there.
A. Mark: There have been a couple of questions about whether newspapers from particular areas are available. As the NLA site is currently down we can't link to our list, but a copy of it can be found at http://www.gouldgenealogy.com/2012/07/update-on-troves-historical-australian-newspaper-digitisation-program/ . If titles you are interested in are not on this list, please suggest them at http://librariesaustraliaref.nla.gov.au/reft100.aspx?key=TrNDP

Q. My question (apart from one already lodged) is:
The other night I was correcting, and there was a loud bang, a flash of light and dust everywhere. When I picked myself up, I realised I had just been passed by the wonderful Friends of Penrith Library. As they seemed to be travelling faster than the speed of sound, I suspect there was more than just one person peddling at the same time. If I register a historical society for a few people who just want to try/aren't game to register themselves, can more than one person use the same user-name at the same time?
A. Virginia: @Linda, To answer your first question about how many people are actually registered to correct text, we have a total of 70,000 users registered but only 3,761 are actively correcting text.
A: Linda: Seventy thousand. I am in awe! Even almost four thousand actively correcting is a fair-sized miracle. Thank You!
A. Virginia: @Linda, and to answer your second question... at the same time? Hmmm... I'm not sure! Mark might know that one better but I would imagine it would cause difficulties!
A. Mark: @Linda - I'm not sure about having multiple users logged in on one account simultaneously, it may work, but I haven't experimented with that yet.
A. Mark: @Linda if you want to experiment and let us know, that would be great :-)
A. Linda: Hi Mark, Had just begged my beloved for his computer, and was about to experiment (I admit I have registered one society identity, but not tried), and Tove is, unfortunately, still down. I shall get back to you once it has settled into its normal very reliable state. :)
A. Mark: @Linda - when you've done some experimenting let us know
A. Virginia: @Linda, I agree with Mark! It would be useful for us to know if it's possible so we can let other groups know if they ask us!

Q. What would be your TOP research/search tip for genealogists using Trove? (One each) :)
A. IHM: lol, that's our question Helen Leggatt - good one though :)
A. Mark: @Helen - My own top tip for anyone using Trove (particularly newspapers) is not to discount the content of newspaper Advertising. Not only do some articles appear in there due to errors in processing, but there may also be other information that is useful. Another useful tip is to use the 'near' search and honorifics if searching for names that are also common words - e.g. "mr john black"~2 - this reduces the 'false positives' you get with these names, particularly if you only have a surname
A. Virginia: @Helen, I'm a bit different to Mark... I like to start general and then start narrowing from there using facets unless I know exactly what I'm looking for. Searching newspapers is different to searching all of Trove, so I guess using the fulltext:searchterm is the most useful tip.
Q(b). IHM: Hi Virginia James, can you explain fulltext:searchterm a little more
A. Virginia: BTW, what I mean by fulltext:searchterm is when you're in the search box in newspapers, if you type fulltext:McIntyre it will try to search for exactly McIntyre. (Mark can elaborate if I'm slightly off on that one. He's the newspaper expert.) :)
A. Chloe: Hi all! I just tuned in and would like to second what Mark just said about looking in the Advertising section. I have been looking there lately and there is heaps of potentially useful info as well as lots of curiosities. I enjoy the latter!

Q. is there any programs to get papers that have never been microfilmed? Also with all the fuss of newspapers going digital these days does anyone know what will happen to these in the future?
A. Virginia: @ Carmel, I'm not personally aware of any programs to keep or archive papers that haven't been microfilmed, but Ben got a question from someone who has kept some papers from a certain period that was wondering if they'd be of interest to Trove. I'd love to be able to provide the exact link but if you do a search for 'donating' or 'donation' on the NLA website when it's back up you can find information on donating materials to the NLA. I'm sure the State Libraries would also be interested in collecting old issues of newspapers.
Q(b). From Noreen Malone: In the 1991 Floods I kept our local Daily Newspaper for about 2wks would these be of any interest to Trove?
A. Virginia: Thanks Ben, that's the one! I hope Noreen sees this and is able to contact the NLA or State library about donating the issues!
A. Mark: @Carmel - with the microfilming of newspapers that are not currently available on microfilm, ANPlan, which involves all the State Libraries, as well as the National Library, is managing this process. It is possible to digitise from the hardcopy of newpapers, but this is a more expensive process. With newspapers going digital, that is more a question for the Web Archiving team...
A. IHM: Wanted! Australia's missing newspapers. What's in your shed or under the bed? Old newspapers tell the stories of their times, through ads, photos, obituaries, classifieds. Contact National Library of Australia: http://www.nla.gov.au/anplan/about/collect.html
A. Virginia: @Carmel, I think Mark and I have interpreted your question in different ways, which is a good thing, because I was thinking about what would happen to the digitised copies as well and was hoping a digital master would be kept!

Q. From Dyonne Adams: What is the schedule for materials from the New England regional newspapers to be loaded on Trove?
A. Mark: @Dyonne Adams - Unfortunately we can't provide a schedule for materials for New England (or any specific region) newspapers to be loaded into Trove. The digitisation process does take time, and unfortunately we can only digitise a certain number of newspapers each year. If the titles are on the list of selected titles, then they should be in Trove by June, if not, then they first need to be prioritised etc. If you can organise funding for the title/s to be digitised then they will get done quicker!
A. Dyonne: Inside History Magazine, thanks for asking the question re New England newspapers...do you happen to know what they mean by organising funding?
A. IHM: You're welcome Dyonne Adams, anytime :) Funding was discussed in our 1st Q&A with Trove - see http://ow.ly/dGlsZ - and some societies etc have started seeking donations to fund the digitisation and load of their local newspapers to Trove. There's also more at http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/get_involved, when the NLA sites are back up. Also, Linda Barraclough is in the process of raising funds so she may be able to help :)
A. Dyonne: oh excellent, i'll look tomorrow when the site is up and running...Again, thanks :)

Q. Mark I am with the Ballarat and District Genealogical Society and we have gained funds to have some of our historic newspapers digitised, which are already up on line. We had someone contact us about having their papers done. Who should I direct him to?
A. Mark: @Carmel - There are a couple of links on the page to suggest a title that they should read first. They should probably contact their State Library to discuss the options, and they can also use the Trove contact form - http://trove.nla.gov.au/contact - which we will forward to the relevant people.

Q. We're nearly at the end & you've given us your top tips. So can you tell us your favourite find on Trove? And if you've looked up your own families.
A. Virginia: I know I have a few favourite finds on Trove, mostly little things I come across when I'm searching for something to Tweet about; they're usually funny or strange stories in the newspapers, or gorgeous photos contributed to our Flickr group.
A. Mark: My favourite find in Trove is something found when working on getting the Digitised Newspapers up and running - a series of articles about monkeys that escaped from a zoo in Brisbane, including a photo in one of them...I believe the title of the article is 'The Truant'...Search for 'escaped monkey' in the Courier Mail, 1933-1934...
A. Carmel: I found a biography of my 3x g grandfather which was such a great find. Also my grandmother was born in Arthurs Creek. A couple of people went there as a holiday and spoke of running into a local and the conversation that followed. this was my great Grandfather, the following day they went to the farm and described the scene. It was like reading a novel and my family were the main characters.
A. Virginia: @Carmel, Wow! That must have been so amazing for you to find!
A. IHM: Love your story Carmel Reynen - that's why we should all travel the paths our ancestors took, you'll never know who or what you'll find :)
A. IHM: Trove: Australia in Picture flickr group :: http://www.flickr.com/groups/pictureaustralia_ppe
A. Carmel: These are treasures I would never have found if it were not for TROVE. actually when I recommend Trove for people, I tell them to google Trove, think of it as a treasure trove as it is full of treasures.
A. Mark: @Carmel - that is a great way to think of it!
A. Virginia: @Carmel, Awesome! That's actually how Trove got it's name... a treasure trove. :)
A. Chez. Thanks that was great..my best find so far...a write up on my Great Great Grandfathers 80th Birthday celebration and then his Obituary a couple of years later with the report of his death too....comments made in these articles gave me an insight into the man....

Comment: IHM: Thanks again to Virginia and Mark for joining us tonight! You can ask questions at http://trove.nla.gov.au/contact and get updates on the system at http://dr.nla.gov.au. Now give them a round of applause :)
A. Linda: Applauding - Thanks Virginia and Mark
A. Virginia: You're most welcome, Ben et al! I think Mark and I get a kick out of these sessions.
A. Mark: You're welcome everyone - I do enjoy these sessions
A. Virginia: Night everyone! Feel free to send any more questions through to us via the contact form and cross fingers we're up tomorrow!

Comment: IHM: We’ll publish the questions, answers and links from tonight’s session in a blog post soon. We’ll be here again next Thursday, 20th September from 8:30 – 9:30pm, with our next expert. Tim Sherratt will be answering questions on today’s toolkit for the digital historian including his Trove tools :: http://discontents.com.au.

 =====================================================

Read the previous Expert Q&A transcripts:
[1]  Thursday, July 26 :: How to get the best from Trove Australia
[2]  Thursday, August 16 :: How to get the best from BDM Certificates
[3]  Thursday, August 23 :: Getting the most from NAA
[4]  Thursday, August 30 :: Interpreting photographs for family history
[5]  Thursday, September 6 :: How to get the best from Ancestry.com.au

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, July 27, 2012

Expert Facebook Q&As :: Trove Australia

Well, that was a hour of history power! Thanks again to Virginia and Mark from Trove Australia! Here is the blog of our second Expert Facebook Q&A including links. We promise to have Trove back for another Q&A soon! Remember, if you have other burning questions you’d like to ask you can use Trove’s contact form here.

Don't forget our Expert Q&As happen every Thursday night on the Inside History Magazine facebook page.

When: 8:30-9:30pm EST | WA: 6:30-7:30pm WST | SA - NT: 8:00-9:00pm CST | Weekly on a Thursday night

Summary of links from the Trove Expert Q&A:
=====================================================

Transcript of Expert Q&A - How to get the best from Trove:

Welcome everyone, thanks for joining us tonight. The rules are simple. Try to keep your questions concise and focused on Trove, that will help Virginia and Mark to answer as many as possible in the hour that we have.

Q. Hi Virginia, I've spoken to quite a few history teachers in NSW who aren't aware of TROVE. They love it when they try it and all swear they're going to share with their senior students. Are there any plans to raise awareness of Trove to teachers?
A. Virginia: ‎@James Definitely! We're actually going to be presenting at the History Teachers conference! We feel the education sector is one area we need to try and engage with more!
A. Virginia: @James, if you have ideas that we could do to engage with the school sector more, please do contact us! We'd love to know how Trove could help schools and teachers more.
A. James: Virginia, maybe do a tag team presentation with National Archives - They have the Vroom site which has themed archive records.... I reckon they're really good for younger students but think Trove could scaffold for senior students
A. Virginia: ‎@James, That's a good idea! We do think Trove is more for senior rather than primary, but need to find good ways of appealing to teachers.
A. James: Hmmm. I think it's just awareness of how powerful a tool it is. If you set up a curriculum linked program question that structure in the need to quote original sources found on Trove in the reponse, teachers would probably see a range of interpretations based on sources. Great way to open a topic on multiple interpretations!
A. Virginia: James I'm going to note that one down James. :)
A. James: It's funny, I just realised that I never log in to Trove even though I use it a lot.
A. Virginia: Tsk, James, you're missing so much. ;) You could correct text without having to enter the captcha, create lists, merge/split records, make public or private comments.
A. James: I do have one because I have corrected quite a few early Sydney Gazette articles in the past....Need to get back in there!
A. Virginia: Go for it James. ;) Dare you to get into the top 5 text correctors. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/hallOfFame

Q. Hi Virginia & Mark. As an industrial-strength Trove user I love the site, but is there any hope of changes to the copyright issues so we can access newspapers post-1954?
A. Virginia: ‎@Lyn... that would be up to the copyright council or the copyright owners. We've received approval from the Canberra Times to go post 1954 but unless we get permission we can't go beyond 1954. :(
A. Mark: Hi Lyn, There is work in progress to get some post-1954 newspaper titles up in Trove. We aren't directly involved in the selection of the newspaper titles for digitisation, however I do know that there are about 7,700 newspaper titles published prior to 1954, so as these are more straightforward to get in they have been the focus (as are the 1914-1918 papers for the state libraries)

Q. I am interested in future plans and the papers that shall be scanned in future. Is there a list somewhere?
A. Mark: Hi Sharon - future titles list at http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/selected_newspapers/Future_Titles.html - this list is updated irregularly, but definitely in June/July each year
A. Mark: selections are made on an annual basis - although sometimes additional titles are added in during the year as specific funding is provided

Q. The Queensland country newspapers have been a wonderful bonus, especially in our area the Nambour Chronicle. Are there any more Queensland provincial city papers to come?
A. Mark: Hi Helen Page - have a look at the list of future titles
A. Helen: just checked the link to coming titles too - great to see the Country Life and Sunday Mail in Queensland list!

Q. Do you know of any plans to digitise the Renmark South Australia Murray Pioneer? It's a treasure of history pertaining to a huge area along the Murray from over a hundred years ago. It claimed a circulation of over 500 miles of river front in the 1920s.
A. Mark: Hi Helen - have a look at the list of future titles, I think there are a couple of more regional titles in there - specifically from renmark
A. Helen: or the MIldura Sunraysia Daily?
A. Mark: Renmark Pioneer is selected for the next year's digitisation, unfortunately we can't provide a date that it will be available. Mildura Sunraysia daily isn't currently selected

Q. HI, I am investigating pilgrimages to Gallipoli 1919-1939, and find that it is hard to pin down actual stories, any hints, please
A. Virginia: ‎@Christine, Hmmm... have you found anything at all so far?
A. Virginia: ‎@Christine, Interesting... I just did a quick search for Gallipoli pilgrimage in Trove and there are over 1500 articles in newspapers http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=gallipoli+pilgrimage did you find those?
A. Lyn: Thanks Mark, we live in hope! @Christine, if you just search Gallipoli Visit in Trove digitised newspapers you will find a few references starting from 1919. Once you have names of people you may be able find any diaries, books etc that are in public institutions.
A. Virginia: ‎Thanks Lyn! :) It's great that we have power users that can help other users! We hope to promote the Forum more so these kinds of questions can be shared and answered by other users. :)
A. IHM: Hi Christine Alexander, try putting keyword Gallipoli into Tim Sherratt's querypic tool that graph's Trove results :: http://wraggelabs.com/shed/querypic/
A. Christine: @Virginia, yes I have but it is so time consuming when you get 2 or 3 thousand hits, but what a fantastic resource, love it
A. Christine: graph thing brilliant, many, many thanks
A. Rhonda: That querypic link is AWESOME! Thanks!

Q. When I tag items, is there a way I can then just visit all the pages I have tagged?
A. Mark: You can visit just the articles you have added a specific tag to by selecting your username in the top right hand corner of a screen, the select the 'tags' tab, and click on the tag that you want to see the articles you've added that tag to.

Q. I tagged about 20 articles with the same name and only one remains. Have they been deleted?
A. Mark: @Lyn - tags shouldn't have 'vanished', could you please put an enquiry with your username & the tag that has gone missing so we can investigate it properly? http://trove.nla.gov.au/contact
27/07/12 update: This issue has been resolved, after Lyn submitted details of the problem via the Trove contact form.

Q. I'm in the process of putting together funding to get a title on there. But is there any way you would open some form of donation site where people can donate towards specific titles?
A. Virginia: ‎@Linda For digitisation of a newspaper title? That's fantastic that you're getting funding together! We've got information on how to do just that here: http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/get_involved/
A. Linda: Hi Virginia, yes, wonderful way to go. We have almost got there, have talked with NLA re exact amount etc. But we have several small runs for towns where I am sure if a site was open, enough people would donate to get those titles up there. Maybe if a starter was lodged to get a title up on a donation site, then people we don't even know about would finish it off.
A. Virginia: ‎@Linda, Oh that's so good you're on the way! I'll mention it to ANDP but you may want to talk more with Wan Wong about things like http://www.pozible.com/ for newspaper digitisation donations. Wan's email is wwong@nla.gov.au
A. Linda: or maybe if Trove put the first ten years of a paper up, and it went on in ten year increments as people donated enough. We will raise the $7,300 to get the 1855-1868 total run of this paper up (don't rely on that figure people, as it is a page count thing), but now we have our teeth into it, we want more!
A. Virginia: ‎@Linda, LOL, that's great! Sorry I can't be more help. Unless you think setting up a pozible yourself could help at all...
A. Virginia: ‎Wow Linda, that's amazing! What a donation! Kudos to you!
A. Linda: @Inside History - would be good if you did a story on someone like us, so people knew you can get papers onto Trove like that. One promise of $2,000 came in as soon as I mentioned the project - person did not realise this was an option.
A. IHM: Hi Linda Barraclough, a great idea! Let's talk on cass@insidehistory.com.au

Q. I am researching locks and weirs on the Murray River. It is a bother that the word lock returns so many hits, but I do advanced search and put all the words together: eg Lock 5 River Murray. Is there a 'smarter' way to search when I have to use combinations and permutations, Like "Number 5 lock, river murray" or 'Murray river lock 5' or Lock number 5 River Murray." It scrambles my brain.
A. Mark: @Helen There is indeed a smarter way to search for the various permutations, Trove has a 'near' search functionality that can be used to catch these - so for 'Murray river lock 5', try putting "murray river lock 5"~5 in the search box - this will find all articles that contain these terms within 5 words of each other - http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=%22Murray+river+lock+5%22%7E5

Q. Is there a way to use 'wildcards' to search? In my family history, with name spelling variations, it would be great to put a * in place of a letter variation?
A. Mark: Helen - unfortunately we don't have this functionality in Trove - if it is the 'last' characters that are changed around you can cut the word off at the last common character and add a * to truncate the word, but we don't have the ability do replace a single character with a wildcard.

Q. Helen: I run the Quested one name study and often get re- quested in search results so can I do a negative search within 5 words?
A. Mark: This should be possible - so I can investigate it properly, can you please put in an enquiry through the contact us form with a sample search / scenario?

Q. IHM: Thanks to everyone for attending, that was a brilliant Q&A. Thanks especially to Virginia and Mark! To finish, what would be your Trove golden rules - to Virginia and Mark?
A. Virginia: Just search... play... try advanced search... look at the help (which we're re-working!!!) and if all else fails, contact us.
A. Mark:
  1. Start simple - Although advanced searches are useful, they also make it easy to over-think the query and miss important results
  2. When searching newspapers, don't forget that newspaper titles change over time, so you may need to look at the title details pages to see which other newspapers you need to look at to capture all of that newspaper
  3. Trove is more than just newspapers - it can also help you find a library that holds that elusive book (or sheet music, or photograph)
  4. http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/newspapers_help#Tips has some helpful tips on how to enhance your newspapers search.
  5. If searching for a name where you only have a surname, try using the near search with a title - e.g. "Mr Black" ~2 - you may be surprised at the results
* Read more about Trove in other posts on this blog:
[1] Graphing Trove - Papers Past newspapers


Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)