Preserving Access to Web Publications

Margaret E Phillips, Manager - Australian Electronic Unit, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA. Phone +61 6 262 1140 Fax+61 6 257 1703 mphillips@nla.gov.au

Debbie Campbell, Research Officer, PANDORA Project, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA. Phone +61 6 262 1673 Fax+61 6 257 1703 dcampbell@nla.gov.au

Keywords

preservation, access, libraries, online publishing, electronic archive

Abstract

The preservation and provision of long term access to online electronic publishing is generating considerable discussion. The National Library of Australia's PANDORA project has been set up to develop policies and procedures for ensuring long term access to significant Australian materials mounted on the Web.

Introduction

The Web has proved to be a very attractive medium for publishing. However, the difficulties of finding appropriate information on the Web and then of ensuring its long term accessibility has created problems for libraries. Practices that work for books do not always translate directly to online materials. The preservation and provision of long term access to electronic publishing is generating considerable discussion [HREF1]. The National Library of Australia's PANDORA project has been set up to develop policies and procedures for ensuring long term access to significant Australian materials [HREF2] mounted on the Web.

Web publications are not like printed books!

Some things make them better than printed books. This has made them very attractive to produce and use, and has, in part, accounted for their exponential rate of growth on the Web. Some things make web publications worse than printed books - often difficult to find in the first place then difficult to guarantee their long-term survival. See the Table that follows for a discussion of some of these points.

The solution - an 'archive' of Australian online publications

Major Australian research libraries are very concerned that information be preserved and made accessible to future generations. The transitory nature of information published on the Web is a cause for concern. With electronic publishing only a few years old, the time is right to commence an 'archive' of electronic publications which will document these historic developments for future generations. The National Library of Australia has established its PANDORA project aimed at Preserving and Accessing Networked DOcumentary Resources of Australia. [HREF3]

The PANDORA archive

The National Library of Australia has established the PANDORA project to:

• identify and catalogue significant Australian online publications using established guidelines [HREF4]
• arrange with the owners of these publications to capture a copy of their publication for safe keeping in the National Library's electronic archive
• make the information available to users in line with fair dealing provisions, while taking into account the publisher's commercial interests
• update the information in the archive on an ongoing and systematic basis, while maintaining date stamped previous 'editions'.
• migrate information in the archive to new formats as current technology ages

Some other benefits

There are wider ramifications of the PANDORA project. Associated developments include:

• contributing to discussions on extending copyright and legal deposit to online publications;
• implementing a system of permanent naming for Australian publications to overcome the location problems associated with change of service provider;
• implementing a system of describing documents based on the Dublin Core attributes, to make online searching for information more efficient;
• cooperating with other Australian libraries to ensure that there is no duplication of archived materials.

Conclusion

Considerable progress has already been made, and we are looking forward to continuing to cooperate with the owners of online information to make the PANDORA archive a valuable library resources for Australia.

Table

Some advantages and disadvantages of web publications

Advantages

Disadvantages

hypertext links enable speedy jumps between different parts of the same publication or even into entirely different publications web publications can incorporate multimedia - sound, images, video - almost as easily as plain text browsing or keyword searching can (sometimes!) be very effective - material covering a wide range of topics can be found on the Web any one can publish on the Web, as long as they have access to an Internet provider (some people might think this was a disadvantage) web publishing has immediacy - there need be almost no time delay from preparation of the manuscript till publication as a corollary, Web publishing is very current - information is added almost as soon as it happens web publications are not housed in any one location - you can browse the Web wherever you have an online computer. web publications are available very easily to a very wide audience, and as Web access expands, the audience continues to grow>. it is possible to find a large amount of any topic by searching or by following links from one publication to another. the availability of Web publications has enabled libraries to easily provide access to the general public, and on a grander scale than is possible with print based materials. web publications are mostly available without charge - at least, they are at the moment.

there are no standardised ways of finding information about new publications. they are not covered by legal deposit legislation - this legislation has ensured that all Australian printed publications are deposited for posterity in at least one major library you can't hold them in your hands, and quickly browse their contents - it might take many pages of scrolling, or jumping from URL to URL to find out what the online document is about. current online search strategies are not very selective - they can pick up much more information than you really wanted, and do not always closely interpret your request they can change their home address without warning - and if you call at their old address they may not have left a forwarding address. if the publisher's address changes, hypertext links to the previous site cease to be active - 'link rot' means that parts of the publication can just get lost online publications are 'virtual' - they can disappear completely if their owner ceases to maintain his site, or for some other reason they are deleted. they are not all enclosed within one set of covers like a book - some Web publications range over a range of sites using hypertext links information on any site can be relatively easily changed at any time - the information you found once before might be completely changed in the current online version.

Hypertext references

HREF1

http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/paep.html - National Strategy for Provision of Access to Australian Electronic Publications: A National Library of Australia Position Paper

HREF2

http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/mphillips3.html - Ensuring Long Term Access to Online Australian Publications: National Library of Australia Initiatives

HREF3

http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/plan/pandora.html - Preserving & Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia (PANDORA) Project

HREF4

http://www.nla.gov.au/1/scoap/scoapgui.html - Selection Committee on Online Australian Publications (SCOAP): Guidelines for the Selection of Online Australian Publications Intended for Preservation by the National Library

Copyright

National Library of Australia ©, 1997. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.

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