National Consultative Meeting on the Management of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications

Report of the First National Consultative Meeting on the Management of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications

National Library of Australia, 27-28 October 1997

Introduction

The first National Consultative Meeting on the management of Australian physical-format digital publications was held at the National Library of Australia, 27-28 October 1997. It brought together representatives of the publishers and content providers of Australian publications on CD-ROMs and floppy disks, and representatives of the National and State Libraries.

The purpose of the meeting was to seek agreement on key principles and an understanding of responsibilities related to the provision of long-term access to digital publications in physical-formats. It was acknowledged early in the day that to ensure continued access to information originally published in this form, long and short-term strategies must soon be agreed upon and implemented.

Through a series of presentations and group discussions, issues including legal and voluntary deposit, copyright, access, licensing, collection development, cataloguing, and preservation paths were grappled with.

Following the discussion with publishers and content providers, the library representatives met for a second day to formalise the outcomes of the discussions into a plan of action for libraries. The aim of this action plan is to progress the development of strategies for the long-term preservation of access to significant Australian publications.

* Note on the term 'physical-format'
There is as yet no universally accepted terminology to describe the category of publication discussed at this meeting. We have used the term ‘physical-format’ - other terms sometimes used to describe this category of publication include ‘hand-held’, ‘physically tangible’ and ‘portable’. All are potentially misleading but essentially cover CD-ROMs and floppy disks.

Surveys

Information from surveys conducted in the months prior to the meeting provided a basis for the discussions. Three surveys were conducted:

Presentations Made at the Meeting

Related and Background Papers

For further information contact:

Charu Sood
National Library of Australia
Telephone: +61 (0)2 62621571
Facsimile: +61 (0)2 62734535
E-mail: csood@nla.gov.au


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Last updated 16 October 1998
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