National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 70 | August 2004


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Archiving Web Resources
Issues for Cultural Heritage Institutions

National Library of Australia, 9-11 November 2004

From 9-11 November 2004, the National Library will be holding a seminal conference, Archiving Web Resources: Issues for Cultural Heritage Institutions. The purpose of the conference is to explore how key digital archiving and preservation issues are being addressed by institutions charged with a responsibility for collecting digital heritage, to highlight important projects and to identify areas requiring further research.

The program is available at the conference website at <www.nla.gov.au/webarchiving>.  A number of speakers from overseas institutions have agreed to participate, including the Library of Congress, the Research Libraries Group (RLG), the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the national libraries of Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands, the British Library, the national archives of Canada and the United Kingdom, and Cornell and Leiden universities. In addition, a number of distinguished Australian speakers are included in the program. 

Delegates to the conference will hear about the work of the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) established in 2003. The aim of the IIPC is to provide a collaborative mechanism for national libraries to develop tools and standards to support digital archiving and preservation.  Caroline Weigandt, Deputy Managing Director of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, will speak about the IIPC, whose Steering Committee will meet in at the National Library during the conference week.  

Laura Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress, will talk about the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). NDIIPP is a major collaborative project which involves institutions from the private and public sectors in the United States. It seeks to provide a national focus on important policy, standards and technical components necessary to preserve digital content at the national level, and is supported by Congress with a funding allocation of US$100 million. 

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) is another leader in the digital archiving field. The national librarian, Dr Wim van Drimmelen, will talk about their collaboration with IBM to develop a digital information archiving system that is central to their e-Depot strategy. He will also cover their current research program to address permanent access solutions.

These and many other interesting presentations are in store for delegates. This conference on web archiving is the first of its kind to be held in Australia. It is part of the National Library of Australia’s contribution to the work plan of the IFLA[1] CDNL[2] Alliance for Bibliographic Standards, an international national libraries group working together on standards issues relating to information management and access.The conference acknowledges the importance of international collaboration and information sharing in the challenging area of digital archiving and preservation. The National Library is confident that the conference will be stimulating and informative and encourages early registration, as the maximum number of registrations that can be accepted is 300.  

An Information Day will be held in conjunction with the conference on 12 November, at which specific digital archiving tools and approaches will be demonstrated. The program is available at <www.nla.gov.au/webarchiving/informationday.html>, and registration is done through the Conference registration page as given above.

Contact:  Pam Gatenby, Assistant Director General, Collections Management Division, National Library of Australia (pgatenby@nla.gov.au

[1] International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
[2] Conference of Directors of National Libraries

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