Survey of publishers of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications
Background to survey
The National Library intends working in partnership with publishers, State libraries and others to develop a national strategy for managing Australian digital publications. An increasing proportion of Australias cultural heritage and information is created, distributed and stored in digital form. However, there is a danger that, unless consideration is given to proper management, the benefits of digital technologies will be limited to the short term and much of our heritage in digital form will be lost.
The purpose of this survey is to collect information from publishers of Australian digital publications which will assist libraries in managing these resources. For the purpose of this survey, this will essentially cover CD-ROMs and floppy disks.
CD audio, DAT and video will not be considered at this stage.
Information gathered in this survey will be used as background to a by-invitation consultative meeting to be held later in the year. The aim of this meeting, at which the National and State libraries and the publishing sector will be represented, is to continue the process of developing a national strategy for digital library resources.
A summary of the results of this survey are available.
1. For approximately how long do you expect the majority of your products to be commercially available?
- CD-ROMs: 0-2 yrs, 3-5 yrs, 6-10 yrs, >10 yrs
- Floppy disks: 0-2 yrs, 3-5 yrs, 6-10 yrs, >10 yrs
- Comments
2. For how long do you expect the information content of your products to be accessible (ie even if the title is no longer readily available, would it be technically feasible to read the information)?
- CD-ROMs: 0-5 yrs, 6-20 yrs, >20 yrs, not sure
- Floppy disks: 0-5 yrs, 6-20 yrs, >20 yrs, not sure
- Comments
3. Have you produced any products that are likely to be affected by the year 2000 issue?
4. Are you planning to migrate the information content of any of your products to any other format?
- Internet
- Printed form
- Other (please specify)
5. Do you believe it is desirable for the information content of your
products to be preserved long-term
(ie >5years)?
If the answer is no, please comment.
6. Do you wish/intend to take responsibility for providing long-term access to the information content which you publish?
Please comment
7.1 Do you believe libraries are the appropriate bodies to assume responsibility for providing long-term access to your products?
7.2 If the answer to 7.1 is no, who do you think should assume responsibility?
8. What do you consider to be the main challenges which libraries will face in preserving the information content of your products?
- obsolescence of hardware
- obsolescence of software
- copying restrictions
- security devices
- other (please specify)
- comments
9. In order to preserve access to the information content of your products, it may be necessary to migrate the information to a new system. How might you be able to assist legal deposit libraries to do this?
- publishing to standards
- aiming for backwards compatibility
- not hard coding possible variations such as the location of disk drives and other devices
- other (please specify)
10.1. Would you be interested in assisting legal deposit libraries to preserve access to your products?
10.2. If yes, what assurances would you need to protect your interests?
11. What other parties might be able to assist in preserving access to your products and how might they be able to do this?
- software providers
- manufacturers
- stockshop footage libraries
- image banks
- other content providers
- other (please specify)
12. What information do you regularly provide in the packaging and labelling of your products?
- hardware platform
- processor speed
- RAM hard disk space
- CD-ROM drive speed
- type of monitor
- resolution sound card (+ version number)
- operating system (+ version number)
- other software (+ version number)
- software drivers (+ version number)
- minimum requirements for operation
- recommended requirements for operation
- whether software is supplied
- whether software is not supplied
- hybrid discs
- multi-platform discs
- year of manufacture
- copyright warning
- licensing conditions
- other (please specify)
For further information contact:
Charu Sood
National
Initiatives and Collaboration Branch
National Library of Australia
phone 61 2 6262 1571
fax 61 2 6273 4535
This page created 12 November 1997
Go to the summary of results of this survey
Go to the National Consultative Meeting Page
Go to National Initiatives and Collaboration (NIAC) page
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