Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee Symposium on Australian
Electronic Publishing 30 May 1996, Sydney Development of Guidelines for the
Management of Material in Electronic Format
Keith Parrott, Convenor Towards Federation 2001 Preservation of
Australian Digital Information Working Party
Electronic publications epitomise the problems of the long term
preservation and access to digital objects. They are easily lost, can become
corrupted, inadvertently deleted, become inaccessible through changes in
technology and even deliberately updated or moved. Electronic publications
utilise multi-media and may even provide an interactive environment for the
reader. To develop a solution to address the problems of long term preservation
and access is one of the major challenges of the '90s.
Another facet of electronic publications is the role of the creator, the
editor, the publisher and distributor. With the Internet, these roles can very
easily be taken on by an individual working outside of normal publishing
circles. For this reason, the role of preservation and access has to be
recognised as the initial responsibility of the creator of an electronic
publication. This is a fundamental issue for cultural, collecting institutions
as they will have limited opportunities to influence the products and standards
selected to create digital objects and to influence the initial strategies for
their management, preservation and access. It is the nature of digital objects
that they can become inaccessible or lost in a very short time after their
creation.
The Towards Federation 2001 (TF2001) Preservation
of Australian Digital Information (PADI) Working Party was established to
develop guidelines for the management of material in electronic format,
building on work already done by the Australian Archives and the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services
(ACLIS). In May 1996, the Working Party includes representatives from the
Australian Archives, ACLIS, the National Preservation Office, the National Library of Australia, the
National Museum of Australia (NMA), the
National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), and Australian Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
An early focus of the PADI Working Party has been the work of the
United States Task Force on the Archiving
of Digital Information established by the
Research Libraries Group (RLG)
and the Commission on Preservation and
Access. The PADI Working Party made a formal submission to the US Task
Force and had a major impact on subsequent discussion and the recommendations
to appear in their final report. Issues raised by the PADI Working Party that
have had an impact include:
- the importance of the selection of objects for preservation
- recognition that different types of digital objects are likely to
require different preservation/management strategies
- acknowledgment of the blurring of roles in object creation and the
difficulties that arise from a preservation perspective
- acknowledgment of international activities and the provision of a US
liaison point
- clarification that the creator has an initial preservation
responsibility; not the primary preservation responsibility
- inclusion of a recommendation that preservation issues should be
considered at system design stage.
In the production of its draft report in May 1995 the US Task Force
recognised that the basic preservation strategy for digital objects is one of
migration rather than refreshing. The concept of migration as a fundamental
preservation strategy was reinforced in the Australian context through the
activity of the National Preservation Office and its workshop held in December
1995.
Using funding from the Australian
Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) Electronic Publishing Working Group, the
PADI Working Party engaged consultants Sanger and Associates to assist it in
the development of a framework for guidelines for the management of material in
electronic format. This work has involved the development of a draft study
framework, analysis of the work of the Australian Archives and ACLIS, an
analysis of the US Task Force report on the Archiving of Digital Information, a
review of the European Commission's ELDEP document, the development of a
working draft of a procedures and practices survey for the preservation of
digital information, and a survey of preservation practices across 212 cultural
institutions.
The initial analysis of responses for the survey of preservation
practices reveal that:
- Total surveys dispatched: 212
- Total received: 47 which equates to 22.2%
- Total Surveys Received by Sector:
| SECTOR |
# RETURNED |
% BY SECTOR |
|
|
|
| Archives |
10 |
21.3 |
| Galleries |
3 |
6.4 |
| Libraries |
19 |
40.4 |
| Museums |
8 |
17.0 |
| Other |
7 |
14.9 |
| Total |
47 |
100.0 |
While the response was not overwhelming the distribution of returns
across the various sectors should provide enough data to from the basis for an
interesting analysis. What we would like to know is, at a very basic level, how
many of the respondents who indicate that they are prepared to take on a role
in the long term preservation of digital information appear to be in a position
to take on that role now, or at least in the near future? Are there any
indications from the survey of differences between sectors? What is the
correlation between organisations producing digital objects and those prepared
to look after it?
The main output of the consultancy is to be a framework for the
development of guidelines for the management of electronic information. The
guidelines need to be useful, and have a practical orientation, and be relevant
to an audience that includes all the cultural institutions and beyond. As I
have implied, it is essential that the guidelines are relevant to those who are
creating digital objects, such as electronic publications, who are outside the
direct influence of the traditional publishing stream. To have an impact the
guidelines need to take account of the varied nature of digital objects,
emerging standards and technological developments. The guidelines need to be
meaningful to a wide audience who have a varied appreciation of technical and
cultural issues.
The sort of issues that will form the basis of the framework are:
- identification of objects for preservation
- classification of digital objects into preservation categories
- metadata
- management strategies including migration
- retention and disposal strategies
- cost models.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasise the importance of this work.
The long term preservation and access to digital objects is an issue that has
not been satisfactorily resolved anywhere in the world. Australia is at the
forefront of research and policy development in this area and it is time to
establish guidance that has practical application that can be tested in real,
live situations.
The electronic publication is an ideal vehicle to use in the evaluation
of preservation and access strategies. If we can solve the preservation
requirements for electronic publications I am sure we would be a long way to
solving the preservation of digital objects in general. The Towards Federation
2001 Preservation of Australian Digital Information Working Party will look to
build on the work of the current consultancy with the specific intention of
identifying a live project to test and evaluate potential principles against.
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