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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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