Simply seeding search engines

Debbie Campbell, Director, Coordination Support Branch, National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, Canberra, ACT 2600. Email: dcampbel@nla.gov.au

Keywords

Search engines; OAIster; National Library of Australia; persistence

Abstract

Although the National Library of Australia has an ongoing programme of digitisation to increase the accessibility of its collections, raising awareness of the existence of the digital versions of these collections requires a programme of activity in its own right. One tool that may be used is a Web search engine such as Google, or a specialised engine such as OAIster. Search engines can be seeded with reliable resource locators for digital objects based on URLs or Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). However, the locators must be persistent. The persistence of unique digital identifiers encourages ongoing citability, thereby increasing awareness and use of digital objects. This paper describes how the National Library is attempting to ensure the ongoing use of its “digital collections” of books, journals, maps, pictures, photographs, manuscripts and music.