AustLit includes:

• citations and, where possible, the full text of creative Australian literature: fiction, drama, poetry, children's and young adult literature, travel writing, autobiography, memoir, biography, essays, Indigenous life stories and oral history
• critical material on Australian literary works, creative writers, and on Australian literature in general
• biographical material about Australian writers and other significant figures in Australian literature
• material about organisations concerned with the development and production of Australian literature and its distribution such as publishers,distributors, literary agencies, magazines, journals and newspapers, writers' groups and the Literature Fund of the Australia Council
• other information relating to Australian creative writers and their works (eg. awards, prizes and literature funding, manuscript information)
• Recognising the evolving nature of literary and cultural studies and AustLit's value to researchers within these areas, the inclusion policy for AustLit material is subject to change over time: the inclusion criteria were widened in 2002 to include more literary non-fiction; new literary forms Oral History and Life Story were added in 2007 as part of the development of the Black Words dataset; Burlesques, Revusicals and other forms were added as part of the Australian Popular Theatre dataset. Retrospective coverage will inevitably be incomplete in these areas.

The following material is given minimal coverage or generally not included in AustLit:

• non-fiction of a non-literary nature by Australian authors - works of an unambiguously political, historical, economic, sociological, practical or scientific nature; textbooks, guidebooks and information books; columns and feature articles in newspapers with social or personal comment or opinion which are primarily journalistic in nature and not distinguished as literary by editorial comment;
• works which focus on the broader areas of Australian studies, culture and language.

AustLit includes:

Works by 'Australian' authors, defined as those:

• born in Australia, e.g. Norman Lindsay
• born in Australia and resident overseas but maintaining links to Australia (expatriate authors), e.g. Jan Ormerod
• born elsewhere but Australian by 'adoption', e.g. Ethel Turner and May Gibbs
• born elsewhere and resident in Australia with intention to remain, e.g. Colin Thompson
• visiting Australia and engaging with Australian subjects or themes, e.g. William Mayne

Works by non-'Australian' authors:

• illustrated by an Australian illustrator where the illustrator had won an award for the work, e.g. Aesop's Fables illustrated by Rodney McRae and Picture books by non-'Australian' authors with a well-known Australian illustrator, e.g. Rymes around the Day illustrated by Jan Ormerod, although compiled by a British author
• where the content, theme or setting is clearly and prominently Australian, e.g.traditional Aboriginal stories or tales involving an Australian bush setting such as Rosalind Kerven's The Tree in the Moon and Other Legends of Plants and Trees and works of non-'Australian' authors who use Australia as a primary location for a work, even when the author has probably never visited this country, e.g. Jules Verne and Bessie Marchant
• that are re-tellings of traditional tales and folk-tales by 'Australian' authors and where these have been given an Australian emphasis or setting, e.g. Fairy Tales for Young Australians by Jan Wade

AustLit indexers and bibliographers gather information on material published in current and retrospective sources; some are indexed comprehensively, others selectively. Sources include:

• printed monographs/books (single volume content, selected and collected works, anthologies);
• printed journals and newspapers;
• film/television/stage adaptations of Australian literary works, sound recordings of books, sound recordings/transcriptions of interviews with creative agents;
• manuscript collections.

AustLit aims to provide access to quality Internet based resources including electronic journals and texts. Sites by and about AustLit authors, Australian organisations and publisher sites that are relevant to Australian literary culture will be included.

While we do not vouch for the constancy or validity of the contents of indexed websites or e-publications, the resources chosen for recording on AustLit are required to conform to the following standards:

• should provide access to accurate information, with current or have retrospective validity
• should allow links from other services;
• should follow accepted privacy and practice guidelines;
• should not breach copyright provisions;
• should not include any potentially defamatory material, inappropriate material or any other legally questionable content;
• has preferably been archived by PANDORA, the electronic archive maintained by the National Library of Australia).

A large number of information sources are indexed comprehensively, while others are indexed selectively. From these sources, and from other research undertaken by AustLit staff, the following types of records are created:

Biographical records, including information relating to:

• names, eg. common writing names, alternative writing names (including pseudonyms), and other names by which the agent is or has been known;
• dates and places of birth and death;
• self-identified heritage details;
• a brief summary of each creative agent's life and literary activities
• references to important secondary resources that supply greater detail on the life and works of the creative agent.

Organisational records, including information relating to:

• names, including name changes over time;
• dates and principal places of organisational activity;
• a brief summary of the organisation's place in and contribution to Australian literature
• references to important secondary resources that supply greater detail on the history of the organisation.

Bibliographical records, containing content analysis of monograph and journal publications, including information relating to:

• full title(s), place of publication, publisher, year of publication, reprints, new editions, revisions;
• variant titles, introductions, prefaces, essays, significant annotations, illustrations, etc;
• subject indexing and setting information to a defined thesaurus;
• translations (from English to another language, as well as works created by Australian creative agents in a language other than English and translated into English);
• tables of content for many anthologies and selected and collected works.

AustLit includes material dating from European settlement in Australia (ca.1788) to the present. Contemporary renditions of pre-1780 literary works will also be included when relevant.

AustLit includes information resources intended for the use of:

• academics and researchers in Australian literature, history and culture;
• students (tertiary and secondary);
• teachers of English and Australian literature;
• creators of Australian literature;
• the general public.