Summary of Information Obtained from the National Survey of Publishers of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications

The purpose of this survey was to collect information from publishers of Australian digital publications which will assist libraries in managing these resources. This survey essentially covered CD-ROMs and floppy disks. CD audio, DAT and video were not considered at this stage. Information gathered in this survey was used as background to a consultative meeting intended to further the development of a national strategy for digital library resources.

Surveys were sent to 270 publishers selected from The Directory of Australian CD-ROMs and The Australian Multimedia Catalogue. The questionnaire was designed to discover publishers' intentions about period of availability of the publication, the descriptive information provided with the product, the long-term availability of the information content of the product and the archival intention of the publishers. The following results are based on the 43 surveys that were completed and returned.

  1. Expected Commercial Availability of Products
  2. Expected Accessibility of the Information Content of Products
  3. Plans for Migrating the Information Content of Physical-Format Products to Other Formats
  4. Desirability of Preserving the Information Content of Products for Long-Term
  5. Responsibility for Providing Long-Term Access to the Information Content of Physical-Format Publications
  6. Challenges Posed by the Task of Preservation
  7. Assisting Legal Deposit Libraries to Preserve Access to the Information Content of Products
  8. Other Parties that May Assist in Preserving Access to Your Products
  9. Information Regularly Provided in the Packaging and Labelling of Products

1. Expected Commercial Availability of Products

56% of respondents expected their CD-ROM products to be available for less than 5 years; 85% expected their floppy disk products to be available for less than 5 years. This is a relatively short commercial life span of these products.

Expected Commercial
Availability
CD-ROM
Products
Floppy Disk
Products
0-2 years 8 (20%) 4 (31%)
3-5 years 15 (36%) 7 (54%)
6-10 years 14 (34%) 1 (8%)
>10 years 4 (10%) 1 (8%)

Comments

Comments were of two main types:

2. Expected Accessibility of the Information Content of Products

The lifespan of the information content is reported to be much longer, although it is important to note that 78% of the respondents did not expect the content to be available after 20 years.

Expected Accessibility CD-ROM
Products
Floppy Disk
Products
0-5 years 5 (12%) 9 (53%)
6-20 years 21 (50%) 5 (29%)
>20 years 10 (24%) 0 (0%)
not sure/did not answer 6 (14%) 3 (18%)

3. Plans for Migrating the Information Content of Physical-Format Products to Other Formats

88% of publishers planned to migrate information to the Internet. 19% planned to migrate information to paper. Some respondents indicated that their products are released on both electronic media and paper, or have already been migrated from print format. Some respondents intended migrating to more than one format.

Alternative Format Number of Respondents
Planning to Migrate
Internet 38 (88%)
Printed form 8 (19%)
Other 4 (9%)
No/did not answer 4 (9%)

4. Desirability of Preserving the Information Content of Products for Long-Term (ie > 5 years)

35 respondents (81%) desired long term preservation. Comments indicated that this would depend on the content. Some respondents felt that a lot of what they published is transient information that requires updating annually and is only of interest when current.

5. Responsibility for Providing Long-Term Access to the Information Content of Physical-Format Publications

37% of respondents indicated an intention to provide long-term access to the information content on their products (length of time not specified). 86% thought libraries were the appropriate body to assume this responsibility.

Responsibility of Publisher? Responsibility of Library?
Yes 16 (37%) 37 (86%)
No 25 (58%) 5 (12%)
Not sure/did not answer 2 (5%) 1 (2%)

Comments

6. Challenges Posed by the Task of Preservation

Most respondents saw hardware and software obsolescence as the major challenges facing those tasked to preserve access to the information.

Challenge to Preservation Number of Respondents Identifying
this as a Challenge
Obsolescence of hardware 34 (79%)
Obsolescence of software 28 (65%)
Copying restrictions 10 (23%)
Security devices 7 (16%)
Other challenges 7(16%)
Did not answer 2 (5%)

Comments

Issues raised in comments included:

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