Digital archiving in the 21st century

Bibliographic description :
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA. Digital archiving in the 21 st century. National archives of Australia, September 2006. Text accessible : http://www.caara.org.au/Publications/DigitalArchiving21C.pdf

Dublin Core
Tiltle : Digital archiving in the 21st century
Creator :National archives of Australia
Subject :
Description :
Publisher : National archives of Australia
Contributor :
Date : 2006-09
Type : Text
Format : PDF
Identifier :http://www.caara.org.au/Publications/DigitalArchiving21C.pdf

Source :
Language : En
Relation :
Coverage :
Rights : © Commonwealth of Australia 2006

"In the 21st century the overwhelming majority of newly created information is digital. The digital collections of collecting institutions such as archives, libraries and museums consist of either digitised or ‘born digital’ content (see the definitions in Attachment 3, ‘The business of archives’). The belief that digital objects can be managed with the same methodologies developed over the years for physical objects is misconstrued. While digital objects are easier to copy, transfer and re-package, they present new risks and challenges, and are not inherently easier to preserve, or give access to, over the long term.
Digital objects are difficult to preserve and manage over the long term. Users expect access to collection content to be delivered online and are inclined to ignore collections that are not available online in digital form. Without urgent coordinated action across the cultural collecting domain, Australian cultural content is at risk of either not surviving and/or being marginalised. Designing and implementing regimes for selecting, creating, acquiring, describing and delivering access to digital collections requires a complete reinvention of systems, approaches and practices in collecting institutions." [extract]

Digital Archiving_ Developing Policy and Best Practice Guidelines at the National Library of Australia

Bibliographic description :
GATENBY, Pam. Digital Archiving_ Developing Policy and Best Practice Guidelines at the National Library of Australia. International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), January 2000. Text accessible : http://www.icsti.org/2000workshop/gatenby.html

Dublin Core
Tiltle : Digital Archiving_ Developing Policy and Best Practice Guidelines at the National Library of Australia.
Creator :GATENBY, Pam
Subject : National Library of Australia, digital archiving, archiving process
Description :This policy statement indicates the directions the National Library of Australia intends to take in preserving its own digital collections, and in collaborating with others to enable the preservation of other digital information resources likely to be of value to NLA users
Publisher : International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI)
Contributor :
Date : 2000-01
Type : Text
Format : HTML
Identifier : http://www.icsti.org/2000workshop/gatenby.html
Source :
Language : En
Relation :
Coverage :
Rights :

"The Library's overall approach to managing the archiving and preservation of digital publications and to providing access to them, takes place within a broader context and is shaped by a number of considerations. One relates to what we consider to be the fundamental roles and responsibilities of a national library and to the inherent principles and beliefs that underpin these. The principles are those espoused by the International Federation of Library Associations and relate to how national libraries collect, control and provide access to their national documentary heritage. The key principles of relevance here, are:

• The role of national libraries should extend to collecting and preserving the digital publishing output of their country

• Legal deposit should be recognized as applying equally to digital publications to ensure their long-term preservation

• National libraries should issue clear statements or policies outlining their collecting intentions for digital publications

• Digital publications selected for archiving should be included in the national bibliography as are print publications

• National libraries should provide long-term access to digital publications and consider models for integrating access with print publications" [extract]
  

The preservation of digitised collections : an overwiew of recent progress and persistent challenges worlwide

Bibliographic descrcription :
VARLAMOFF, Marie-Thérèse and GOULD Sara. The preservation of digitised collections : an overview of recent progress and persistent challenges worldwide. UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 1999. Text accessible : http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/preservation_1.shtml

Dublin Core
Tiltle : The preservation of digitised collections : an overview of recent progress and persistent challenges worldwide.
Creator : VARLAMOFF, Marie-Thérèse and GOULD Sara
Subject : Digital preservation, digital document, digital material, UNESCO.
Description : " This article attempts to present some of issues surrounding the challenge of digital preservation.
Publisher : UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View
Contributor :
Date : 1999
Type : Text
Format : HTML
Identifier : http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/preservation_1.shtml
Source :
Language : En
Relation :
Coverage :
Rights : © Copyrights 1999- UNESCO

"The emergence of digital technologies in the library and archival worlds has changed many practices in the profession, and in recent years many major libraries have been collecting or producing digital documents: even in developing countries, librarians dream of turning digital, leapfrogging other tried and tested technologies such as microfilming. It cannot be disputed that digital technology has accomplished a great step towards better and easier access to information; the same piece of information can be accessed by several readers simultaneously, regardless of where they are in the world, and far more speedily than previously. The Internet of course allows millions of people around the world to receive the same information at the same time. Distance, frontiers and time limits have all vanished: it could be said that the only requirements for access to information now are language and technical equipment or connections.

The opportunity to browse from one subject to another, from one website to another, and to automate the tedious aspects of seeking information has revolutionised research. Thanks to digitisation, a student can now scan a complete collection of Shakespeare’s dramas in a matter of minutes, something which would have taken days before the advent of digitisation when such a search would have involved laborious page by page research. Libraries also appreciate the space-saving advantages offered by digital collections: the Encyclopedia Britannica, on one or two CD-ROMs, is certainly less cumbersome than the print version, and if correctly handled those CD-ROMs will not need repair or restoration like ordinary paper books which are constantly used and whose pages or bindings tend to tear." [extract]