Recently launched - - the Australian Poetry Library

http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/

The Australian Poetry Library is a joint initiative of the University of

Sydney and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Begun in 2004 with a

prototype site developed by leading Australian poet John Tranter, the

project has been funded by a major Linkage Grant from the Australian

Research Council (ARC), CAL and the University of Sydney Library. A team

of researchers from the University of Sydney, led by Professor Elizabeth

Webby and John Tranter, in association with CAL, have developed the

Australian Poetry Library as a permanent and wide-ranging Internet

archive of Australian poetry resources.

This website currently contains over 42,000 poems, representing the work

of more than 170 Australian poets. All the poems are fully searchable, and

may be accessed and read freely on the World Wide Web. Readers wishing

to download and print poems may do so for a small fee, part of which is

returned to the poets via CAL, the Copyright Agency Limited. Teachers,

students and readers of Australian poetry can also create personalised

anthologies, which can be purchased and downloaded. Print on demand

versions will be available from Sydney University Press in the near future.

It is hoped that the APL will encourage teachers to use more Australian

material in their English classes, as well as making Australian poetry much

more available to readers in remote and regional areas and overseas. It will

also help Australian poets, not only by developing new audiences for their

work but by allowing them to receive payment for material still in

copyright, thus solving the major problem associated with making this

material accessible on the Internet.

The Australian Poetry Library (APL) aims to promote a greater

appreciation and understanding of Australian poetry by providing access to

a wide range of poetic texts as well as to critical and contextual material

relating to them, including interviews, photographs and audio/visual

recordings.

Cheers

Ross

ROSS COLEMAN | Director 

Digital and eScholarship Services | University Library                     

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY