Trove API Console

Explore the workings of the Trove API (v3)

On 21 February 2025, the National Library of Australia revoked my Trove API key. This means that this API console, which has operated since 2014, will no longer function. If this has an impact on your work or research, you might like to mention it to the NLA.

Version 3 of the API was made available in July 2023. For more information about the changes made in version 3 see the official release notes. I've also created a summary of breaking changes for users wanting to update their code from version 2 to version 3.

Examples

Click on any of the examples below to open them in this console, then modify them to suit. If you want to use them in your own code you'll need to get an API key and add the key to your request either using the key parameter, or setting X-API-KEY in the request headers.

See the Trove API v3 documentation for a full list of available parameters and detailed information on constructing queries.

For more examples, tools, and hacks using the Trove API see the GLAM Workbench.

See the Trove API v3 status page to check for problems.

Basic search

Search all categories

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=all&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`all`	possible values are 'all', 'newspaper', 'magazine', 'image', 'research', 'book', 'diary', 'music', 'people', 'list'
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'

Search in multiple categories

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=book,newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`book,newspaper`	separate multiple categorys with commas
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'

Search in a single category

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'

Change the results format

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'

Change the number of results

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&n=100

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'
`n`	number of results	`100`	possible values are 0 to 100 (default is 20)

Change the sort order

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&sortby=dateasc

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'
`sortby`	order of results	`dateasc`	possible values are 'relevance' (default), 'dateasc', 'datedesc'

Get the full metadata for each record

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&reclevel=full

parameter	parameter note	value
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`reclevel`	request additional article metadata	`full`

Adding reclevel=full adds a number of additional fields to the article metadata, the actual fields added depends on the category. In newspapers and gazettes it adds illustrated, wordCount, correctionCount, tagCount, commentCount, listCount, trovePageUrl, and pdf (which is a link to a PDF of the whole page on which the article is published). In works it adds tagCount, commentCount, and listCount.

Include extra information in each record

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&include=tags&include=comments

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'
`include`	include extra information	`tags`	possible values include 'tags', 'comments', and 'lists'; repeat parameter for multiple values
`include`	include extra information	`comments`	possible values include 'tags', 'comments', and 'lists'; repeat parameter for multiple values

The accepted values for the include parameter differ across categorys, but some values, like 'tags' and 'comments', are consistent. Other examples are included below.

Harvesting a complete result set

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&bulkHarvest=true&s=*

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in	`newspaper`	you can only harvest from one category at a time, so this must be set to a single category such as 'newspaper'
`encoding`	format of results	`json`	possible values are 'xml' (default) or 'json'
`bulkHarvest`	setting this to 'true' ensures that results will stay in the same order when you request subsequent pages; without it results might be duplicated or missing	`true`
`s`	supply a resumption token to get the next page of results	`*`	use '*' for the first request, then replace with the value of `nextStart` for subsequent results

Three parameters are important when harvesting a complete result set: category must be set to a single category, bulkHarvest set to 'true', and s must be updated after each request with the value of nextStart. Note that the nextStart value will only appear if there is another page of results to download, so you can use it in your loop as a check to see if you've finished.

Searching newspapers or gazettes

Limit results by article category

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-category=Article

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-category`	category to include	`Article`	see Trove help documentation, or use the `category` facet for full list of possible values

This parameter can be used multiple times, however, this will behave like an AND query and only those articles in all of the specified categories will be returned. So adding &l-category=Article&l-category=Advertising will return zero results, as no articles are in both the 'Article' and 'Advertising' categories.

Limit results by place of publication

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-state=Victoria

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-state`	place in which articles were published	`Victoria`	possible values are 'ACT', 'International', 'National', 'New South Wales', 'Northern Territory', 'Queensland', 'South Australia', 'Tasmania', 'Victoria'

This parameter can be used multiple times. Unlike the category facet, this will behave like an OR query, returning articles published in any of the specified places. So adding &l-state=Victoria&l-state=ACT will return articles published in either Victoria or the ACT.

Limit results by decade

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-decade=192

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-decade`	limit to articles from this decade	`192`	192 includes the years 1920 to 1929

Limit results by year

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-decade=192&l-year=1924

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-decade`	limit to articles from this decade	`192`
`l-year`	limit to articles from this year (`l-decade` must also be set)	`1924`	limit the results to articles from 1924, the `l-decade` parameter must be set to 192

Limit results by month

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-decade=192&l-year=1924&l-month=3

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-decade`	limit to articles from this decade	`192`
`l-year`	limit to articles from this year (`l-decade` must also be set)	`1924`	limit the results to articles from 1924
`l-month`	limit to articles from this month (`l-decade` and `l-year` must also be set)	`3`	limit the results to articles from March 1924, possible values are numbers from 1 to 12

Find articles on a specific page of a newspaper

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=firstpageseq:1&category=newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`firstpageseq:1`	use the `firstpageseq` index in the query to specify a page number, `firstpageseq:1` will find articles on page 1
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Find newspaper articles within a specific date range

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=date:[1942-10-31T00:00:00Z TO 1942-11-30T00:00:00Z]&category=newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`date:[1942-10-31T00:00:00Z TO 1942-11-30T00:00:00Z]`	use the `date` index to specify a date range; the first date in the range is not included in the query, so this example searches for articles from November 1942
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Find newspaper articles from a particular day

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=date:[1942-11-01T00:00:00Z TO 1942-11-02T00:00:00Z]&category=newspaper&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge date:[1942-11-01T00:00:00Z TO 1942-11-02T00:00:00Z]`	use the `date` index to specify a date range; the first date in the range is not included in the query, so this example searches for articles from 2 November 1942
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Limit to articles with illustrations

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-illustrated=true

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-illustrated`	limit to articles with illustrations	`true`	accepted values are 'true' or 'false'

Limit to articles with photographs

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-illustrated=true&l-illustrationType=Photo

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-illustrated`	limit to articles with illustrations	`true`	accepted values are 'true' or 'false'
`l-illustrationType`	limit to articles with this type of illustration	`Photo`	the `l-illustrated` facet must be set to 'true'; common values include 'Photo', 'Cartoon', 'Map', and 'Illustration', set `facet` to 'illustrationType' to see all possible values

This parameter can be used multiple times, however, this will behave like an AND query and only those articles with all of the specified illustration types will be returned.

Filter articles by number of words

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-wordCount=<100 Words

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-wordCount`	filter by number of words in the article	`<100 Words`	accepted values are '<100 Words', '100 - 1000 Words', or '1000+ Words'

Limit to articles with tags (or comments)

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge has:tags&category=newspaper&encoding=json&include=tags

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge has:tags`	add `has:tags` to limit to articles with tags; `has:comments` will similarly limit to articles with comments
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`		`tags`	you need to specifically `include` tags to see the tag values; change to 'comments' to include any comments

Get the OCRd text for each article

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=newspaper&encoding=json&include=articletext

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`	add additional information to the record	`articletext`	this adds the full OCRd text to the record, other possible values are 'tags', 'comments'

The OCRd text is return as HTML, so depending on you use you might need to strip the tags out.

Get the number of articles in each category

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=%00&category=newspaper&encoding=json&facet=category&n=0

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`%00`	'%00' is an empty search, so will return everything
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`n`		`0`	we don't need results, just the facets, so we can set `n` to 0
`facet`	include facet data	`category`	break down results by category; see the Trove API documentation for a full list of facets

Get the number of articles per year in a decade

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=%00&category=newspaper&encoding=json&l-decade=192&facet=year&n=0

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`%00`	'%00' is an empty search, so will return everything
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`newspaper`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`n`	number of results	`0`	we don't need results, just the facets, so we can set `n` to 0
`l-decade`	set the decade	`192`	needs to be set to find the totals by year
`facet`	include facet data	`year`	break down results by year in the given decade; see the Trove API documentation for a full list of facets

For more examples using the year facet see Visualise Trove newspaper searches over time in the GLAM Workbench.

Searching other categories

Limit to works with a particular format

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather&category=book&encoding=json&l-format=Thesis

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`book`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-format`	format or type of work	`Thesis`	see the Trove help documentation for a list of formats

This parameter can be used multiple times, however, this will behave like an AND query and only those articles in all of the specified formats will be returned.

Exclude works with a particular format

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather NOT format:Book &category=image&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather NOT format:Book`	by adding `NOT format:Book` to the query we should filter out books
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`image`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

You can use the format index in both the query and as a facet, that means you can say that you don't want works with particular formats. This is handy for filtering out noise.

Limit to works created within a particular date range

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather date:[* TO 1900]&category=book&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather date:[* TO 1900]`	using the `date` index you can specify a range of years; use '*' to indicate the earliest or latest possible dates, this example will return all works published in 1900 or before
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`book`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Limit to works with a thumbnail image

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather imageInd:thumbnail &category=image&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather imageInd:thumbnail`	set `imageInd` to 'thumbnail' to limit results to works that include a thumbnail link
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`image`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

The actual thumbnail link is included in the identifier field with a linktype of 'thumbnail'. To ensure you get all the possible values for identifier you can also add &include=links to your query.

Include metadata from all versions of a work

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=wragge&category=image&encoding=json&include=workversions

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`wragge`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`image`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`	format of results	`workversions`	include the metadata for each individual version of this work

The way that versions are grouped as works in Trove can be quite confusing. The work level metadata is generally quite consistent, but it can leave out useful metadata that's attached to an individual version. The version metadata is richer, but is also less consistent, so you have to be prepared for some trial and error if you want to extract information from it.

Find works with full text

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather fullTextInd:y&category=magazine&encoding=json&include=workversions

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather fullTextInd:y`	set `fullTextInd` to 'y' to return only articles with full text
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`magazine`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`		`workversions`	the full text is buried down in the version-level metadata, so you need to add this parameter if you want to actually get to it

The fullTextInd index seems quite misleading as it includes articles from commercial databases where only a truncated sample of the full text is actually available, and electronic legal deposit works where access to the text is restricted. It would seem better to combine this indicator with a search for "nla.obj" or nuc:ANL:DL to try and limit to resources digitised by the NLA and partners.

Limit to articles from a specific digitised journal (using facets)

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather&category=magazine&encoding=json&l-title=The bulletin

parameter	parameter note	value
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`magazine`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-title`	limit to this journal title	`The bulletin`

There's no controlled list of journal titles to use with this facet, so you probably need to get the values from the web interface.

Limit to articles from a specific digitised journal (using identifiers)

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=weather "https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-68375465"&category=magazine&encoding=json&l-format=Article

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`weather "https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-68375465"`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`magazine`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-format`	limit to this format	`Article`	limit the results to articles so we don't get the records for the periodicals themselves

An alternative to using the title facet is to include the identifier of the parent journal in the q parameter. This is how the Trove Digitised Journals app works.

Find out of copyright or openly licensed photographs

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?q=rights:Free&category=image&encoding=json&include=workversions

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	the search query (optional)	`rights:Free`	see the Trove help documentation for a full list of possible values for `rights`
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`image`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`l-format`	format of work	`Photo`
`include`		`workversions`	the rights statements are attached to versions, so to see them you need to ask for the full versions data

This facet only works with records where the copyright status is specified in the record. Some out-of-copyright photographs might be missing from results because their status has not been identified. A search for photos created before 1955 using date[* TO 1954] might find additional out-of-copyright images.

Get facets

Facets break the result set into sections and can provide a useful overview. Note that there are limits on the number of facets returned, so they might not include the whole result set.

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?category=all&facet=decade&n=0&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`all`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`facet`	facet to return	`decade`
`n`	number of results	`0`	We just want facets, not the list of results.

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result?category=all&facet=partnerNuc&n=0&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`category`	category(ies) to search in (required)	`all`
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`facet`	facet to return	`partnerNuc`
`n`	number of results	`0`	We just want facets, not the list of results.

Contributors are identified by NUC identifiers.

Get individual records

Article or work identifiers are supplied as part of the url rather than as a query parameter. For example, https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/41697877 returns the details of the article with the identifier 41697877.

Get a newspaper or gazette article

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/41697877?encoding=json&reclevel=full&include=articletext,tags,comments

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`reclevel`	amount of detail in record	`full`
`include`	include extra information	`articletext,tags,comments`	include the OCRd text, as well as any tags or comments, in the record

Get a work record

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/work/1144040?encoding=json&reclevel=full&include=workversions,tags,comments

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`reclevel`	amount of detail in record	`full`
`include`	include extra information	`workversions,tags,comments`	include metadata from all grouped versions, as well as any tags or comments

Get a list

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/list/43805?encoding=json&reclevel=full&include=listitems

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`reclevel`	amount of detail in record	`full`
`include`	include extra information	`listitems`	include details of all items in the list

You only get the brief record version for each of the list items, so to get extra information, such as OCRd text for a newspaper article, you'll have to request each article individually. Also, the list items are not paginated, so if you have a long list this will return a lot of data.

Get newspaper and gazette titles

There's a bug in the API so that a request for newspaper titles also returns the gazette titles. See the GLAM Workbench for a workaround.

Get a list of all newspaper titles

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/titles?encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Get a list of all gazette titles

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/gazette/titles?encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Get a list of newspapers from a particular state

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/titles?encoding=json&state=vic

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`state`	limit to this state	`vic`	possible values are 'nsw', 'act', 'qld', 'tas', 'sa', 'nt', 'wa', 'vic', 'national'

Get the number of issues per year for a particular newspaper

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/title/35?encoding=json&include=years

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`		`years`	list the years available on Trove, with the number of issues per year

The newspaper identifier is included in the url as indicated. This example will return details of the Sydney Morning Herald which has an identifier of '35'.

Get details of newspaper issues within a date range

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/newspaper/title/35?encoding=json&include=years&range=18420101-18421231

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`include`		`years`	this needs to be included to retrieve the full issue information
`range`	date range of issues to return	`18420101-18421231`	dates are in YYYYMMDD format; this example will return details of all issues of the Sydney Morning Herald published in 1842

The issue details include a publication date and a url which redirects to the first page of the issue.

Get magazine and newsletter titles

Although this endpoint is included in the technical documention, as of 23 May 2023 it was returning no results. Hopefully it'll start working soon!

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/magazine/titles?encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Get Trove contributors

Organisations can be nested under other organisations (as children), this makes the data structure a bit complex.

Get a list of organisations contributing data to Trove

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/contributor?q=&encoding=json

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`q`	search query (optional)		leave blank for everything
`encoding`	format of results	`json`

Get full details of an organisation contributing to Trove

https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/contributor/ANL?encoding=json&reclevel=full

parameter	parameter note	value	value note
`encoding`	format of results	`json`
`reclevel`	amount of detail to return	`full`

The organisation's identifier is included in the url as indicated. This example retrieves details for the National Library of Australia, whose identifier is 'ANL'.