Selection Committee on On-Line Australian Publications - Work Plan

1. Purpose of the Committee/Terms of Reference

The purpose of the Committee is to bring together, from areas of the Library on which on-line publications will have an impact, key staff o actively engage in the selection of on-line Australian publications for national preservation. This will enable practical experience in dealing with on-line publications to be developed.

As a result of this activity, it is anticipated that:

  • guidelines for selection for national preservation will be developed
  • guidelines for selection for preservation by the National Library will be developed
  • procedures for managing Australian on-line publications for which the NLA accepts preservation responsibility will be developed
  • titles for which the Library should provide bibliographic access will be identified. For instance, there may be some publications which the Library would not wish to preserve but to which it would want to provide access, eg, by cataloguing onto ABN
  • impact of selection of particular titles on operational areas of the Library will be assessed. This will include impact on Acquisitions, Cataloguing, Information Services, Preservation and Systems. There are likely to be many factors which will contribute to the impact on operational areas. Some examples include: resources such as computer storage space and staff required to do the work, levels of skill needed, adequacy of existing procedures, access considerations
  • recommendations for action by operational areas will be made.

2. Membership of the Committee

The membership of the committee has been determined and is as follows:

Other members of staff will be invited to attend individual meetings when it is considered that their expertise could be useful to topics under discussion.

It is important that the Committee draws upon all of the available expertise in the Library and that all staff with expertise and information on the topic feel able to contribute to it. The Committee will discuss how best to achieve this at an early meeting.

3. A Name for the Committee

The committee will be known as the Selection Committee on On-line Australian Publications. The acronym is SCOAP (pronounced 'scope') which has an appropriate connotation, in that we are deciding upon the scope of selection for preservation of the national on-line documentary heritage.

4. Life of the Committee

It is intended that the Committee will progressively eliminate the need for itself by working towards the integration of the work arising from its recommendations into operational work areas.

It is proposed that after the first six months a review of progress and an assessment of the work yet be done should be undertaken to determine whether the Committee should continue.

5. Reporting

Short progress reports will be made to CDMC each month and more detailed reports will be made to CDMC as required. Line supervisors will be consulted and advised as matters that have potential to affect their sections arise.

6. Frequency of Meetings

It is proposed that, at least initially, the Committee should meet once per fortnight for up to two hours. Once the work is under way, Committee members will be able to assess whether this is adequate.

7. Advertise the Work of the Committee

Internal:

As the Committee needs to draw on the expertise of staff Library wide, it is important that all staff know of its existence and how they can contribute any relevant information. For instance, while surfing the Internet, members of staff may discover Australian titles of interest that could be reported to the Committee. A short article will be provided for the Staff bulletin and a message will be sent out to staff by email.

External:

Since the work of the Committee involves determining selection guidelines for national preservation, cooperation with other collecting institutions will quickly become an issue. Other libraries are likely to be interested in the fact that the National Library is actively considering the issue and may wish to contribute to the discussion. Cliff Law has already made contact about this aspect and has offered the assistance of the DNC Office. Publicity on the DNC listserver is proposed and a short article for Gateways has already been written.

8. Organisation of the Work of the Committee

In organising the work of the Committee, one or more of the following approaches could be adopted:

  • consider various categories of publication, for instance, Conference proceedings, home pages
  • explore different sites, for instance, University sites, Government sites, National associations, event based sites (eg sporting events, festivals, elections), overseas sites (eg Australian studies centres).
  • assess individual items. It is possible that some items will not comfortably into either of the first two approaches and will need to be considered on their own. This may be the case where it is the first example of a genre or where it is a major item such as a database.

The Committee may wish to experiment with all three approaches.

The first meeting is likely to be largely devoted to sorting out some procedural and administrative matters. At this and subsequent meetings, a category, site or item will be chosen for consideration at the following meeting. The choice would be made from a range of suggestions from Committee members and any suggestions that may have been submitted from other Library staff.

In the week after each meeting, the convenor will research the chosen category, site or item in order to provide a range of specific examples for exploration by the Committee at the next meeting. URLs will be distributed by email to Committee members who will have one week until the next meeting to personally assess the material.

A framework for the assessment of each category, site or item will be drawn up by the convenor. This will be rudimentary at first, but will develop as the Committee becomes more aware of the factors that need to be considered.

It is hoped that each meeting will result in recommendations for action in relation to the subject of discussion and these will be recorded and passed on to the operational areas involved.

As this is a learning exercise for all concerned, it is expected that some early decisions may need to be revised in the light of later experience. Feedback from operational areas will be encouraged.

9. Other Issues to Consider

APAIS may be interested in some of the material selected for preservation and bibliographic access. In the print environment, to be included in APAIS, the item must be held by the Library. How will this be handled in the on-line environment?

It is anticipated that, for some of the recommendations that the Committee is likely to make, there will be no existing procedures or staff designated to carry them out. Negotiation with producers and other collecting institutions for preservation of specific items is an example.

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