Plan

Electronic Information Resources Strategies and Action Plan 2001-2002 - report on progress

Replaced by: 2002-2003

A copy of this document is available in pdf format for printing.

Introduction

This paper documents the National Library's proposed strategies and actions in relation to Australian and overseas electronic information resources for the period 2001-2002.

The National Library of Australia's stated direction goal within its Directions for 2000-2002 is that "all Australians at their place of choice have direct, seamless access to print and electronic sources of information". The National Library is committed to undertake actions that progress this goal.

The term "electronic information resources" in this paper is taken to mean:

  • Digital copies of existing formats such as print, manuscripts, maps and pictorial items.
  • Born digital formats such as electronic journals and web sites.
  • Metadata describing the above electronic resources and resources in other formats.

The National Library’s role in relation to electronic resources includes:

  • Collecting, preserving and making available Australian and other information resources in a wide range of formats, in accordance with the provisions of the National Library Act 1960.
  • Provision of services to support the Australian library system in areas such as resource discovery (bibliographic and metadata services) and directory services.
  • Contribution to international developments in library and information services in areas such as the development and promulgation of standards.

Detailed implementation programs support the strategies and associated actions outlined in this paper. Where more detailed information is available on the National Library’s web site, the relevant web address is noted.

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Electronic Information Resources - Trends

In the short to medium term, it is expected that the following broad trends in the information services environment will influence access to electronic information resources:

  • Search engines will provide more efficient Internet search capabilities, allowing users to locate required information more easily and with greater precision. Many information sites will remain out of sight of search engines (the "deep web") and other mechanisms will evolve to locate this information.
  • Documents made available through the web will be better indexed, as search engines are made metadata-aware.
  • New layers of middleware such as improved authentication software will emerge, supporting activities such as e-commerce and other services requiring high levels of security.
  • Issues of intellectual property rights on the web will become increasingly important and will be addressed through technological solutions.
  • Web users will increasingly access information resources without intermediation by libraries or librarians.
  • Portals as interfaces to information will be developed by a range of organisations, providing users with easy access to a defined range of useful electronic information intended to meet individual requirements.
  • Commercialisation of the web will continue, particularly in relation to business activities on the web. Conversely, there will continue to be an expectation by information users that many services will be free or charged at low cost.
  • Collaboration will assume more strategic importance as a way of achieving similar goals across different sectors, and traditional information service providers will group in new and innovative ways.

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Policy Considerations

The National Library’s strategies on electronic information resources take account of the above trends and will continue to be influenced by the Commonwealth Government’s policies on online information access and the information economy. The experience and expectations of advisory groups and users of the National Library’s services will also continue to influence developments in access to electronic information resources.

A key policy issue underpinning the National Library’s strategies and actions on electronic information resources is the need to provide access to a range of information resources regardless of format. This involves providing access to a coherent collection of material including both electronic and traditional information resources. The UK eLib Electronic Libraries program has coined the term "hybrid library" to cover services that unite the functions of the traditional library with those of electronic, digital or virtual library services.

Further information on the National Library’s thinking on the issue of integrated access and hybrid library concepts is available in the paper The Challenge of Integrated Access : the Hybrid Library System of the Future.1

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Electronic Resources - Strategies and Actions

The following strategies and actions for electronic information resources are grouped in the categories: collecting; preservation; access to electronic information resources; and, support for sharing electronic information resources.

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Collecting

The National Library’s key objective in terms of its collecting role is:

"To ensure that a comprehensive record of Australian history and creative endeavour, and a selected record of universal human knowledge is collected and cared for".

The volume of electronic information resources being made available through the Internet is beyond the ability of any one library to collect and preserve. Therefore, the National Library will continue to work with libraries, publishers and other relevant organisations to ensure that important documentary heritage resources continue to be available for use through a system of distributed archives of electronic resources that are permanently accessible to the public.

The National Library has established the PANDORA Archive service to capture selected Australian electronic information resources. The National Library is committed to providing ongoing access to the resources within the PANDORA Archive in the same way as it has traditionally provided ongoing access to Australian information resources in print and other formats.

At this stage, legal deposit is not available for electronic information resources under Commonwealth legislation. Therefore, permission has to be obtained to undertake the archiving of web-based electronic information resources within the PANDORA Archive. The National Library will continue to seek legal deposit coverage for electronic information resources in order to improve its coverage of these resources and to achieve greater efficiencies in electronic archiving and access.

Noting the trend towards electronic only publishing by government agencies, the National Library will continue to influence these agencies to adopt emerging web publishing standards in order to facilitate ongoing access to government information.

Specifically, the National Library will adopt the following strategies and actions in collecting electronic information resources:

STRATEGY

ACTIONS

PROGRESS DURING 2001-2002

1. Ensure that the most significant Australian electronic resources are collected/archived with a view to long-term preservation by:

Apply the following three-tier collecting model to online resources:

  • NLA-Archived
    (This terminology refers to Australian electronic resources that are collected in accordance with the PANDORA selection guidelines, archived and preserved indefinitely).
  • Distributed Archive
    (This terminology refers to Australian electronic resources archived by other organisations - eg. state libraries, university libraries, publishers - under arrangements with the National Library. The National Library will negotiate archival arrangements with these organisations to ensure long-term access and will aim to have these electronic resources recorded on the National Bibliographic Database).
  • Linked through Web addresses
    (This terminology refers to both Australian and overseas material described in the National Library's catalogue. These resources will not be preserved by the National Library and are only made available via links for as long as they remain Web-accessible).

This is an ongoing activity.

 
  • Investigate options for taking regular snapshots of the entire Australian Internet domain, taking into account the storage and access issues.

In 2001 the Library engaged a consultant to investigate and advise it about issues and options for taking regular snapshots of the Australian Internet domain.  As a result, the technical, legal and financial environments were mapped and a risk analysis undertaken.  Two options were identified: undertake a snapshot independently; or collaborate with another organisation, such as the Internet Archive.  Due to cost considerations and the large number of issues to be resolved, the Library decided not to proceed further at this stage, but will continue to monitor international developments in this area.

 
  • Work towards the extension of legal deposit for the collecting of Australian electronic information resources.

The Library is working with ScreenSound Australia and the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts towards revision of the Copyright Act 1968 to include provisions for legal deposit of electronic and audio-visual materials.  A proposal for industry comment is being prepared and is expected to be distributed by late 2002.

 
  • In anticipation of the extension of Commonwealth legal deposit legislation to information in electronic form, work with publishers to develop agreed terms of deposit and access.

During 2001-02, the Library has worked with the Australian Publishers’ Association to develop a Code of Practice for Providing Long-term Access to Australian Commercial Publications in Online Form.  The Code recognises the shared interests of the parties in safeguarding Australian published culture in electronic form and represents a commitment to work together to achieve this. The Code is now in draft form and will be tested with a major publisher before being presented to the APA Board for acceptance in 2003.

2. Ensure overseas electronic resources are collected in accordance with the current Collection Development Policy to meet information needs of researchers.

  • Continue to review the availability of new overseas electronic information resources and their relevance to the Collection Development Policy.

A major acquisition negotiated during 2001-02 was the EBSCO Academic Search Premier service which will give the Library access to 3,200 full text serial titles and will strengthen the Library’s serial holdings in many areas particularly relevant to the Collection Development Policy.

 
  • Acquire overseas electronic journals in place of print journals where this approach is more cost-effective.

The possibility of replacing overseas print journals with the electronic title is routinely considered as part of the overseas collection development activity.  The Library’s subscription to Ebsco’s Academic Search Premier service, available from financial year July 2002, will be used as the basis of developing an approach to assessing the cost-effectiveness of electronic access in place of print.

3. Apply and encourage practices to ensure persistence of access to Australian electronic resources

(Persistence of access refers to ensuring the integrity and long-term availability of online resources. This will involve strategies to deal with archiving, preservation, persistent identification and ready accessibility over time).

Ensure persistence of access to:

  • digital objects managed within the PANDORA archive ; and,
  • digital objects created by the National Library.

In April 2000 the Library engaged a consultant to examine and report on existing standards and processes for persistent identifiers.  The report of the consultant was released in June 2001.  It included guidelines that the Library could adopt for formulating and assigning persistent identifiers to Web resources collected by the Library for archiving, and those created in the digitisation program.  These guidelines have since been implemented.  In addition, the Library has implemented a system for resolving the Persistent Identifiers it assigns.  Under the auspices of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) and in collaboration with the State Library of Tasmania, the Library has given preliminary consideration to developing a national scheme of persistent identification, tentatively called the Australian Digital Resource Identifier.  In addition, the Library is considering its relationship with the DOI Service that the Copyright Agency Ltd will launch in November 2002

 
  •  Promulgate and promote standards and best practice guidelines. Eg. application of persistent identifiers.

In March 2001, the Library released a statement, Managing Web Resources for Persistent Access to promote the use of standards and best practice when publishing on the Internet. This is a companion to Safeguarding Australia’s Web Resources : guidelines for creators and publishers published in 2000.  In addition, in 2002 the Library published Guidelines for the Creation of Content for Resource Discovery Metadata

A Digital Rights Management Workshop held in Sydney on 10 April 2002 encouraged cooperation between the Library, the Copyright Agency Ltd and DW Thorpe with the aim of providing a single coherent service for the allocation of ISBNs, ISSNs, ISMNs and DOIs.  Subsequently the Library and CAL confirmed their interest in establishing such a service.

4. Continue to collaborate with the Commonwealth Government and other relevant Australian organisations in relation to the collecting and managing Australian electronic information resources.

  • Formalise collecting and archiving agreements with the State libraries.

All State and Territory libraries have now agreed to contribute to the development of the National Collection of Australian Online Publications (PANDORA Archive).  Some partners are actively participating while others are in various stages of staff training and incorporating the work into ongoing activities.  In consultation with partner libraries, the National Library has formulated a template for Selection Guidelines for the National Collection of Australian Online Publications to enable each agency to indicate the scope of its collecting intentions.

 
  • Work with National Archives of Australia to influence government agencies to adopt best practice approaches to publishing and managing electronic resources for ongoing access.

The National Library continues to work closely with the National Archives of Australia in this area.  A joint seminar, under the auspices of the National Office for the Information Economy, was held in July 2002.  The NLA and NAA together presented information to Commonwealth government agencies about  their complementary roles in preserving long term access to government information and best practice guidelines in the form of a brochure that publishers can implement to meet their obligations in this area.

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Preservation

The National Library’s key objective in terms of its preservation role is:

"To preserve and maintain all Australian and significant non-Australian library materials to ensure they are available for current and future use".

The National Library’s major objectives are: to preserve those Australian electronic information resources which meet the criteria for collection and preservation as part of Australia’s documentary heritage; and, to assist other collecting organisations to preserve those electronic resources for which they take responsibility.

Electronic information resources may be very transitory or may be maintained online for long periods. The National Library will collect both types of resources. The National Library will preserve significant Australian electronic information resources for which it has taken the decision to collect and preserve as part of Australia’s documentary heritage. The resources that will not be preserved but for which only a link is made in the online public access catalogue will be accessible for as long as they continue to exist. .

Specifically, the National Library will adopt the following strategies in preserving selected electronic information resources:

STRATEGY

ACTIONS

PROGRESS DURING 2001-2002

1. Apply appropriate preservation strategies to the National Library’s own collections of electronic resources for long-term access.

  • Identify at-risk digital object types and file formats
  • Test and critically review media transfer, migration, emulation, data recovery and other methods of maintaining access across technology changes.
  • Develop a preservation policy and action plan for the National Library’s electronic collections, and begin taking action to preserve at-risk file types.

During 2001-2002 the National Library endorsed a Digital Preservation Policy which indicates the directions it intends to take in preserving its own digital collections, and in collaborating with others. 

The Library also put in place an Action Plan to implement the Policy.  Action taken during 2001-02 includes identification of at-risk file formats, and testing of strategies including media transfer, migration, emulation and data recovery.  These tasks will require further action in  2002-03.

2. Provide leadership to Australian libraries and other relevant organisations in developing policies and techniques for preserving electronic resources, and participate in international forums to develop electronic preservation standards.

  • Share information and tools found to be helpful, such as information on preservation of specific formats.

This is an ongoing activity

 
  • Contribute to the development of an international standard for a set of preservation metadata for electronic resources, working with the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata.

The work of the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata reached an advanced stage during 2001-02, during which draft reports on the two broad kinds of preservation metadata prescribed by the Open Archival Information Systems Reference Model were produced. (These address Content Information – the data object and the information needed to present it; and Preservation Description Information – the other information needed in order to manage the preservation of a digital object.)

 

The National Library released a series of best practice guidelines in 2001-02 (see Collecting, Strategy 3, above, for links).

The Library will regularly review their usefulness and currency.  The RLG/OCLC Working Group on Attributes of a Reliable Digital Archive prepared a number of well-reviewed draft reports for public comment. 

It is expected that there will be some ongoing work required to finalise and promote the use of this report during 2002-03.

The Digital Issues Group of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries was instrumental in preparing a resolution on preservation of digital heritage adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 2001. 

 
  • Continue to support the development of the PADI subject gateway and encourage distributed contribution of relevant information resources.

The Library’s main means of sharing information on digital preservation issues remains the PADI subject gateway and its associated discussion list padiforum-l.  During 2001-02, the PADI gateway was enhanced by a project to safeguard access to the most significant resources listed (through the Safekeeping Project ); negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK-based Digital Preservation Coalition for sharing of resources, and addition of a page on digital preservation management

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Access to Electronic Resources

To ensure that the Library provides effective and open access to its own collections, and to information sources elsewhere".

Within the National Library, a service model is being developed for the Library’s online public access catalogue to be the local hybrid library. The National Library intends to maintain a holistic view of its resources through its catalogue. In addition, the National Library intends to provide users with access to more detailed subject or format-based listings and to links to remote resources. The aim of this model is to provide users with seamless views of the information resources available to them.

The National Library is responding to user expectation of increased access to digital content, regardless of the user’s location, through:

  • Ongoing digitisation of Australian collection items in a variety of formats – print, pictorial, map, manuscript and sound recording.
  • Licensing of electronic data sets to provide direct access to electronic journals and other information that is commercially available.
  • Provision of links in the online public access catalogue to Internet resources that meet the collecting guidelines outlined in the Collection Development Policy.
  • Development of services such as PictureAustralia that provide convenient aggregated search access to digital content held in a variety of Australian libraries and other organisations.

Digitisation of parts of the National Library’s Australian collections commenced in 1995. Since that time, there has been a steady increase in the availability of digitised pictorial works, maps, manuscripts and printed works. The National Library has also cooperated with RMIT Publishing and the Copyright Agency Limited to provide a commercially available service based on digital images of a wide range of journal articles indexed in the Australian Public Affairs Information Index (APAIS) and the Australasian Medical Index (AMI). At this stage, the demand for increased access to digitised content is being addressed through an expanded digitisation program. Related issues such as the feasibility of offering digitisation-on-demand services are also being investigated.

The National Library has traditionally maintained a record of Australia’s publishing output. In recent years this has been in the form of a subset of the National Bibliographic Database – the record of library materials held in Australian libraries. In future, electronic information resources will be considered as part of the national publishing output with strategies devised to enable integrated searching across Australian information resources in all formats.

In keeping with its role as set out in the National Library Act 1960, the National Library will continue to offer a core set of services free of charge. This is consistent with the trend of free access to a large amount of the information content available via the Internet. More value-added services (such as access to Kinetica) have traditionally been charged for in order to recover a proportion of their costs. This will continue to be the case but, wherever possible, free or subsidised access will be provided.

Specifically, the National Library will adopt the following strategies in accessing electronic resources:

STRATEGY

ACTIONS

 

1. Provide integrated access to print and electronic resources and collections, items and parts of collections through continued development of the National Library online public access catalogue and information portal.

  • Redevelop the National Library’s current web service in order to integrate the service with the National Library online public access catalogue and the National Bibliographic Database.

The Web Site Restructure project has commenced.  Initial scoping documents have been prepared and were reviewed by the Web Site Committee in May 2002.  The project will aim to introduce a “One Search” capability allowing users to search across the catalogue and other services on the web site.

 
  • Link manuscript finding aids with the online public access catalogue using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to provide better access to the National Library’s manuscript collection.

Work has commenced and is due for completion in 2003-04.  This project is intended to meet both Access and Resource Sharing objectives.  It will involve several tasks, including integration of the catalogue with finding aids, derivation of RAAM from Kinetica, conversion of finding aids to EAD, and development of a delivery framework using EAD.

 
  • Develop and maintain subject guides (such as the Federation Gateway) that provide integrated access to print and electronic resources on a given topic or theme.

This work is ongoing.  Mura Gadi: a guide to Manuscript, Pictorial and Oral History materials relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the National Library of Australia was released online, providing integrated access to print and electronic resources.

2. Extend the availability of digitised information content (including digitised National Library collections and access to other electronic resources).

  • Undertake an expanded program of collection digitisation in accordance with the National Library of Australia Digitisation Policy 2000-2004
  • Increase the range of directly accessible electronic journals through licensing of Australian and overseas datasets.
  • Undertake an ongoing program of online publications and exhibitions as part of the National Library’s public program activities.

The digitisation program is ongoing.

In May 2002 the Library decided to replace the Blue Angel Technologies Metastar Enterprise software, and allocated funds for this purpose for 2002-03. The TeraText system has been chosen and is being implemented.

A project to deliver digitised sheet music, maps, audio materials and manuscripts commenced in April 2002.

From July 2002, the Library will subscribe to the EBSCO Academic Search Premier service which will provide access to 3,200 full text serial titles.

Online exhibitions and publications are being developed on a regular basis.

3. Collaborate with other organisations on the development of delivery systems (such as portal technologies and rights management systems) that enable users to have improved access to electronic resources.

Participate in the development of:

The AARLIN project has been extended for a period of three years through a Systemic Infrastructure grant.  The Library will continue to provide assistance to the project as required.

The development of processes for data linking from the AUSTLIT database was completed in 2001 and has been implemented.

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Support for Sharing Electronic Information Resources

The National Library’s key objective in terms of support for the Australian library system is:

"To ensure that Australians, wherever they live or work, have access to information resources in Australia and overseas".

The National Library will continue to support the provision of services and systems, developed collaboratively, which provide access to print and electronic information resources held in the collections of Australian libraries. Australia is fortunate in having a number of important national resource sharing services already in place: the National Bibliographic Database, the Australian Libraries Gateway (including the Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory) and the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. In addition, Australia has a well-established tradition of library cooperation manifested in a national interlibrary loan network that is now based on open standards. Technologies are in place to enable the delivery of electronic information resources from remote library collections using document delivery services such as Ariel.

The Kinetica service aggregates bibliographic information available in Australia. The National Library considers that there is an ongoing role for aggregated searching of print and electronic information resources. The National Library is committed to developing services to share metadata describing electronic information resources and seeks the support of Australian libraries and other organisations to achieve this.

There is a clear advantage in minimising the need to create more than one record describing an electronic resource (metadata record) where the one record can be repurposed or shared in many different products (eg. National Bibliographic Database, National Library online public access catalogue, PictureAustralia, Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts and other libraries’ catalogues). This principle follows the successful reuse of bibliographic records through services such as the Australian Bibliographic Network and Kinetica. The reuse of records for different products lowers the overall costs of Australian libraries and is a key plank of national resource sharing within the Australian library sector.

There is a continuing need for the development and implementation of technical standards that support key functionality such as cross-database searching, operation of directory products, cooperative document delivery, and authentication of users. The National Library will continue to collaborate with others in the interests of developing necessary standards in emerging areas of electronic information resource discovery and delivery.

Specifically, the National Library will adopt the following strategies in support of sharing electronic information resources in Australia:

STRATEGY

ACTIONS

 

1. Extend the concept of resource sharing among Australian libraries to include electronic resources, by undertaking a range of activities which facilitate the use of nationally operated bibliographic and metadata services for the description, discovery and delivery of electronic information resources.

  • Undertake a proof-of concept project to test the business and technical issues associated with the extension of resource sharing services to include a wider range of electronic information resources. This project will include consideration of centralised versus distributed metadata services, data creation and maintenance, link checking and reporting functions, and the services that may be offered.

Development of a proof of concept was commenced.

Test data was received from the following sources:

 
  • Implement extended resource sharing services to include electronic information resources, based on the findings of the proof-of-concept project.

Ongoing

 
  • Report to the National Bibliographic Database the National Library’s holdings of and links to electronic information resources, ensuring that links are maintained in records with a National Library holdings statement.

Ongoing.

The Library developed a policy statement on cataloguing electronic resources during the year.  All digitised resources from the Library’s collections and all “born digital” publications collections in the National Collections of Australian Electronic Publications are catalogued onto the NBD.  In addition, a holdings statement and link are provided for all electronic journal titles to which the Library subscribes or has access.

 
  • Encourage Kinetica customer libraries to report to the National Bibliographic Database their holdings of electronic information resources and to provide links to these resources by development of a link check service; development of a simple, intuitive web-based data entry form for reporting via Kinetica; and, development of guidelines for reporting and managing holdings for electronic resources.

Ongoing

Kinetica customer libraries have been encouraged to report to the National Bibliographic Database their holdings of electronic information resources and to provide links to these resources.  The inclusion of the Australian Government Publications Guide  increased the coverage of online Commonwealth government publications. A survey has been undertaken to identify means of improving the contribution of records of online Commonwealth government publications.  A simple, intuitive web-based data entry form for reporting via Kinetica was developed and is being used by a number of libraries.  Draft guidelines for reporting and managing holdings for electronic resources have been developed and consultation is occurring through the Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing of Electronic Resources.

2. Make available subsets, in MARC and non-MARC formats, of national bibliographic/metadata services for repurposing to form part of other services tailored to provide a deeper and/or broader level of access to resources in a given format or on a given subject.

Completed.  The development of processes for data linking from the AUSTLIT database was completed in 2001 and has been implemented.

3.Collaborate with a range of library and non-library partners to develop and host information and directory services that include electronic resources. Some examples include the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM), PictureAustralia and subject gateways.

Completed

 

Ongoing.  Work is underway to facilitate the contribution of records from other agencies.

 
  • Continue to provide support for the coordination of Australian subject gateways to facilitate the sharing of expertise and application of common standards.

Two national meetings of subject gateway owners were convened.

The subject gateways web site was augmented to include accessibility guidelines, intellectual property rights, privacy and thesauri information.

Promotional activities are ongoing, and include conference papers and journal articles.

 
  • Increase the number of participating organisations in the PictureAustralia service

During 2001-02 nine new organisations joined PictureAustralia

4. Collaborate with State, Territory and public libraries on consortia acquisition of a selection of full text electronic resources, with the ultimate aim of providing all Australians with access to these resources regardless of location.

  • Provide administrative support to the consortium.
  • Implement a site licensing trial involving the National, State and Territory libraries commencing in April 2001.
  • Work towards the inclusion of public libraries in the consortium from 2002.

A pilot was undertaken, the Consortium reviewed, and products are now in second year negotiation.

Public libraries are now covered by a deed signed in March 2002, including for some states a number of products, with coverage to be extended in 2002

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Additional Information

Additional information on the above strategies and actions may be obtained from the National Library. For information on:

Collecting contact Pam Gatenby (02) 6262-1672

Preservation contact Colin Webb (02) 6262-1662

Access to electronic resources contact Margy Burn (02) 6262-1301

Support for sharing electronic information resources contact Roxanne Missingham (02) 6262-1484

In June 2001 the Library of Congress released an Action Plan for Bibliographic Control of Web Resources . Developments from this Action Plan will be monitored, as a number of the proposed actions will have implications for the National Library of Australia and other libraries.

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References

1 Pearce, Judith and Cathro, Warwick. "The Challenge of Integrated Access : the Hybrid Library System of the Future." A paper presented at the 10th VALA Biennial Conference and Exhibition, Melbourne, Victoria, 16-18 February, 2000. Available: http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/nlasp/article/view/1347.

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