The Trove Metadata Manager Project: Modernising the ANBD for Future Library Sector Needs and Beyond our Sector

The Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) is Australia’s database for bibliographic metadata and library holdings. Originally designed for certain libraries across Australia, the ANBD has been operating in its current state for approximately 20 years, in which the Libraries Australia service offering was absorbed into the Trove Collaborative Services in 2020. The number of contributors to the ANBD has also increased since the mid-2000s, which the underlying infrastructure was not designed for. As the National Library of Australia seeks to expand the Trove partnership member base to also include museums, galleries, and archives to establish Trove as Australia’s sovereign cultural resource, significant work was identified to modernise the underlying infrastructure which support the ANBD to not only modernise it for Australian libraries, but to also expand to include galleries, museums, and archive institutions.

Author Bio

Brad commenced working within the Library and Information Sector in 2018 and spent the next 4 years working within Libraries Tasmania and in secondary school libraries in Launceston. Over this time, he focused on collection description and developed an interest around library systems and unique consortia arrangements (such as the Tasmanian Automated Library Information System). Additionally, he spent a short period of time coordinating Libraries Tasmania COVID-19 response in 2022 as the Tasmanian borders reopened to the world. Folling this, Brad moved to Canberra to work in Defence on coordinating and delivering ICT support services to volunteers and youth in the Australian Army Cadets across Australia and Norfolk Island, whilst also providing strategic input into major ICT modernisation projects for the three cadet organisations. In 2023, Brad returned to the Library and Information Sector, working within the Trove Data and Platforms team at the National Library of Australia to support the Trove and Libraries Australia systems. In 2023, he commenced the role of Product Owner for the Trove Metadata Manager project, a major undertaking to modernise the underlying infrastructure which supports the Australian National Bibliographic Database.