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Policy
This document expresses the National Library's policy at the broadest
level. It is anticipated that it will be developed in more detail as a result
of work currently being undertaken at the Library.
- Australian electronic publications are documents resulting from the
act of publishing, in which information is encoded, accessed and made
intelligible and accessible through the use of a computer. Although they are
not subject to current Commonwealth legal deposit legislation, Australian
electronic publications constitute part of the national imprint in its widest
sense, and the Library recognises a responsibility for them as part of its
heritage mandate and in its role in providing access to information.
The Library believes that these publications should be subject to
legal deposit, and has made a
submission to this effect to the Copyright Law Review
Committee. In the interim the Library is encouraging publishers to deposit
electronic publications, and has drafted a policy on
CD-ROMs and other electronic materials received on voluntary deposit.
- To fulfil a useful role in facilitating access to Australian
documents in electronic form, the National Library envisages that it will have
to engage in activities that lead to the discovery or identification of
Australian electronic documents. These activities are expected to take a number
of forms, such as the maintenance of a list of Australian e-journals, and they will be ongoing.
The National Library will seek to establish understandings and agreements with
organisations and institutions (such as the State libraries) to ensure
continuing access to a broad range of works.
- From the range of documents which come to the notice of the
Library, a selection will be made. In selecting such resources, National
Library policy is to apply the same range of selection policies as are
currently applied to other Australian library materials in the collection. That
is, some material is collected comprehensively, some selectively, and some is
not collected.
There is much Australian material in electronic form
for which the Library wishes to establish and maintain a long term access
relationship, either through maintenance in-house, or by formal agreement with
another body. For this material the principles of the Collection Development Policy apply, with some material being
collected comprehensively, and other material collected by sampling only.
Material in electronic form not selected for the above category falls into
two groups:
(a) material in electronic form for which
the Library is interested in a short term access relationship only, for
example, while the information value of the material is current;
(b)
material which does not fall into the Library's area of responsibility for
collecting.
- In controlling such resources, National Library policy is to accept
responsibility for a high level of control for those resources for which the
Library wishes to establish a long term access relationship. The Library will
integrate the control of such resources with that of its print resources, and
provide a direct link to the document. For material in category
(a) above, links from the Library's server may be appropriate with the
server organised into subject categories, and a keyword access provided through
Harvest. For category (b) material the Library will not attempt to exercise
any control. At this early stage, the Library's policy is still in the process
of formation, and is therefore experimental. Options such as traditional
library control procedures and other approaches such as the
OCLC Netfirst project are
being tested.
- National Library policy for the preservation of documents in
electronic form is to attempt to ensure the on-going availability of all
material in the long term access category. As with the identification and
selection of electronic resources, preservation and retention arrangements will
be collaborative, involving creators, producers, and a national network of
archives and collecting agencies. Library policy is to build into its processes
early contact with the creators or producers to ascertain preservation
intentions.
- In the area of standards, National Library policy is to support the
development and use of agreed meta data standards, and best practice in the
description and encoding of electronic resources.
See also [documents to follow]:
- Legal Deposit Policy for Networked Australian Electronic
Publications
- Preservation Policy for Networked Australian Electronic
Publications
- Cataloguing Policy for Networked Australian Electronic Publications
- Access Policy for Networked Australian Electronic Publications
- Meta Data Standards for Networked Australian Electronic
Publications
