I have recently attended meetings of the Advisory Committee for the PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked DOcumentary Resources of Australia) Project, and the Task Force on the Preservation of Digital Formats, on which I serve as the CAUL representative.
PANDORA
PANDORA is a project of the National Library and has been funded by the AVCC's Electronic Publishing Working Group (on which Earle Gow, Edward Lim and I have represented CAUL in recent years). The AVCC group gave $100,000 to the NLA to establish the PANDORA Project in mid-1996 with the following aims:
The PANDORA Project Team has produced three documents which outline the conceptual framework for a permanent digital archive of Australian online information:
Operational Details
Of the more than 2,000 online publications evaluated since PANDORA began, 208 (10%) have been selected for preservation in the archive. In many cases, this was because a print version already exists. Other titles did not meet the selection guidelines noted above.
All scholarly publications have been included - ie. those of an authoritative research value. In particular, the electronic publications funded by the AVCC Electronic Publishing Working Group have been included, even if they currently have a print equivalent.
Publishers have been enthusiastic, in the main, when approached to have their titles included in the PANDORA Archive. However, this is mainly because new publishers have been involved, and they are not charging for their publications, so the issue of commercial publications has not caused any difficulty at this stage. New publishers tend to see the PANDORA Archive as a sign of recognition of their work. Established publishers may be far less interested, particularly without appropriate recompense.
The capture and archiving of online publications is a resource-intensive activity, and the PANDORA project suggests that such effort is likely to be at least three times as costly as the acquisition of printed publications.
Issue of standards
Permanent naming
The issue of permanent, or persistent, naming in the networked environment is important but, at this stage, unresolved. URLs are the most commonly used identifiers, and they have been successful in serving as links between physical artefacts and the content of the Web and in providing links between objects in the Web. However, URLs are not really names but instructions on how to access an object, and they include such things as host name and file name which are frequently impermanent. This presents considerable difficulty to users and is a particular problem for institutions attempting to provide assured permanent access to digital documents.
As one solution to this problem, the National Library has established a Persistent Uniform Resource Locator (PURL) resolver service, which involves redirection as a means of achieving permanence. Instead of pointing directly to an Internet document, a PURL points to an intermediate resolver service, and once it is allocated to an Internet document, it remains constant even if the document is moved to another location or another server. It is similar to a 'SEE' reference in a library catalogue. The National Library has established the PURL resolver service as an interim solution until standards for permanent naming are more fully established.
Contact for more information: http://purl.nla.gov.au/
Overseas developments
A range of overseas developments in the area of electronic archiving
are worth noting:
Formed in May 1995 between fifteen of the leading research libraries of the US, including the Library of Congress. Donald Waters (one of the two co-chairs of the Task Force on Digital Archiving) has recently been appointed as Director of the DLF.
The goal of DLF is to:
establish the conditions necessary for the creation, maintenance, expansion,
and preservation of a distributed collection of digital materials accessible
to scholars and the wider public.
2 British and American Initiatives
a The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is funding various programs of study in conjunction with the UK National Preservation Office, including an investigation of the preservation research needs of universities and research funders, and an inquiry into the three main methods of digital preservation - technology preservation, technology emulation, and information migration.
b RLG, which has long been active in preservation programs, is collaborating with the UK National Preservation Office on a conference at the University of Warwick in late September 1998. The main topic will be 'Guidelines for Preservation Digitizing'.
c Digital preservation has now been added to CNI's program of activities for 1997-98. CNI is working with various organisations, including ARL and the Commission on Library and Information Resources, to identify high priority targets for preservation and to develop strategies to address these needs.
d The Committee of Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Task Force on preservation and digital technology is focusing especially on the digital conversion of traditional collections.
For more information on the PANDORA project, please refer to: http://www.nla.gov.au/pandora/
Task Force on the Preservation of Digital Formats
This newly established body has three main aims:
Maggie Jones (National Library)
Derek Whitehead (CASL)
Karl Schmude (CAUL)
And three representatives of the publishing community:
Ron Harper, President of the APA
Peter Dart, Information Services Director at Penguin Books
Michael Webster, who is also the convenor of the Copyright Committee
of the APA and a Director of CAL
At the inaugural meeting on 2 April, the group decided to prepare a number of short background papers for its next meeting in June - on a number of topics, including the possible role of university libraries in electronic preservation.
Priority Areas for the Future
Three main areas seem to be emerging:
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