Digital continuity: the role of the National Library of Australia.

Digital continuity: the role of the National Library of Australia. My focus is the role of the National Library of Australia inensuring significant Australian resources in online form are collected,archived and available for use in the long-term. I will also raise someissues that are of particular relevance to today's audience. Thefirst stage in ensuring sustainable access to digital resources is toprotect the resources from sudden loss by placing them in a safe place-- a digital archive -- where they can be stored, accessed and managed.It is this first stage that I will concentrate on. An equally importantstage in ensuring on-going access is, of course, carrying outpreservation. ********** A paper presented at Digital Continuity: a Forum for AustralianUniversities, Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology is a university based in a number of campuses in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.In addition to degree programs at Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral levels, the University also operates as a technical college (through its TAFE , 19 November 2001 Manuscript requested January 2002 Background IN AUSTRALIA AS IN MANY OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, THE INTERNETIS NOW an essential mechanism for information access and delivery. Amajor issue for those concerned with long-term access to information isthat many providers of information in digital form do not recognise thedocumentary or cultural value of the information they are producing, orif they do, are not doing anything to protect the information from loss,corruption or erosion. While this might also be the case for information in printed form,a number of circumstances make the concern more urgent in the digitaldomain These include the transient and volatile nature of the digitalmedium, the rapid uptake uptake/up��take/ (up��tak) absorption and incorporation of a substance by living tissue. up��taken. of publishing on the internet, the Internet, the,international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and commercial enterprises breakdown oftraditional publishing controls and conventions, and the sheer volume ofinformation being produced. Highly significant information publishedtoday may well have disappeared tomorrow if action is not taken from thetime it is created to build in safeguards to ensure on-going access. It is therefore pleasing that collecting institutions here andoverseas have taken up the challenge of responding to the imperatives ofdigital continuity, accepting that they have an enduring responsibilityto ensure knowledge from and of the past is available to users of thefuture. Deposit libraries in particular are well placed to carry out anactive role in ensuring continuing access to digital resources. Most arecommitted to the long term and have been legally charged since theirinception to protect the published output of their respectivejurisdictions -- as a consequence, they have developed philosophies andpractices that equip them to move confidently from managing informationin print form to managing digital resources. However, this does not mean that the journey into the digitaldomain is a straightforward one for libraries or for any collectinginstitution. While overall objectives and roles might remainfundamentally the same, new approaches to carrying out traditional rolesare required. New modes of thinking and operating are necessary anddeposit libraries must forge new strategic alliances and partnerships tobe successful in their role. There are many issues on the digital continuity agenda: there arevarious ways of looking at the issues but I think they can be usefullycategorised Adj. 1. categorised - arranged into categoriescategorizedclassified - arranged into classes as: * identifying what is being produced; * deciding what is worth saving; * defining roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders StakeholdersAll parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. ; * protecting resources against loss; and * ensuring on-going access and usability of the resources. Whilst it might be stating the obvious, it is nevertheless worthstressing that the only way to make progress in resolving the issues isto tackle them -- to learn from practical action without beingoverwhelmed o��ver��whelm?tr.v. o��ver��whelmed, o��ver��whelm��ing, o��ver��whelms1. To surge over and submerge; engulf: waves overwhelming the rocky shoreline.2. a. by the complexities. As our experience at the NationalLibrary has shown us, a huge amount can be learnt from making a fairlymodest start. What we are doing So, what are we doing at the National Library of Australia? The Library's role in ensuring on-going access to digitalresources is shaped by our documentary heritage responsibilities forAustraliana generally. Our role is: * To collect, preserve and provide access to significant resources. * To provide infrastructure to support national resource sharing. * To take a leadership role in facilitating cooperation throughdevelopments of standards and procedures, for instance. * To work at the international and national levels to research andtest viable solutions to problems. The Australian context The uptake of the internet in Australia Internet access was first available in Australia to universities via AARNet in 1989. The first commercial dial-up ISPs (Internet Service Providers) appeared in capital cities soon after. By the mid-1990s almost the entire country had a wide choice of dial-up Internet access providers. for dissemination disseminationMedtalk The spread of a pernicious process–eg, CA, acute infection Oncology Metastasis, see there ofinformation has been rapid and wide-ranging. Viewed from a publishingperspective, there is a considerable amount of significant informationbeing issued in online form that is not also published in a moretraditional form and the vast majority of this is available free ofcharge. There is little commercial publishing occurring yet. The big,mainstream publishers in Australia -- like Penguin, McMillan, McGrawHill -- have not yet made the transition to online publishing -- nodoubt for good reasons. But the internet has spurred the emergence of alarge number of newcomers to publishing and new publication models areappearing -- for instance, the Library has collected the onlinepublications of several publishers of Australian fiction who did notexist three years ago. In the government sector, all governments nowhave policies and agendas that give pre-eminence to providinginformation to the public in online form. This includes informationabout services as well as policies and reviews. The uptake of webpublishing Creating a Web site and placing it on the Web server. A Web site is a collection of HTML pages with the home page typically named INDEX.HTML. Web sites are designed using Web authoring software which provides a graphical layout capability or by hand coding in HTML or both. by the academic sector has been mixed and the situation isquite complex. A survey of online publishing in the academic sector carried out bythe Library in late 1999 found that a wide range of people with diverseroles were involved in issuing information on university servers. Threebroad categories of publications were identified: * Official, administrative publications such as handbooks,calendars and promotional material, typically published on the officialuniversity website under the control of the web manager; * curriculum materials, examination papers, lecture notes, whichappear variously on official websites, library servers, or departmentalservers, for instance; and, * e-journals, working papers working paperspl.n.Legal documents certifying the right to employment of a minor or alien.Noun 1. working papers , research reports, et cetera ET CETERA. A Latin phrase, which has been adopted into English; it signifies. "and the others, and so of the rest," it is commonly abbreviated, &c. 2. Formerly the pleader was required to be very particular in making his defence. (q.v. thatdocument the outcome of scholarship and research. In some cases thiscategory of material was mounted on official university sites but oftenappears on the unco-ordinated servers of departments and researchcentres. Web managers and library staff surveyed knew little about thiscategory of publishing within their institutions. Based on our experience, publishing on the internet in Australia inmost sectors is for the main part decentralised Adj. 1. decentralised - withdrawn from a center or place of concentration; especially having power or function dispersed from a central to local authorities; "a decentralized school administration"decentralized , unco-ordinated andgenerally not supported by institutional policy and procedures -- thesituation would appear to be predominantly `laissez-faire'. We havefound through our digital archiving activity at the Library that it canbe very difficult to discover significant information that is beingpublished online. It would also appear that for the main part littleattention is being given nationally to the range of digital continuityissues. This is illustrated by the Commonwealth government's OnlineAgenda for which the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE v. t. 1. To annoy. See Noy. )has overall policy responsibility. This agenda gives scant scant?adj. scant��er, scant��est1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture.2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. recognitionto the need to ensure on-going public access to online governmentinformation, and does not address preservation issues at all. The Library's action plan Against this background, the Library's action plan for digitalresources gives priority to the following activities: In infrastructure development * We have established a digital archiving and management system(PANDORA) that supports distributed archiving and manages intellectualand commercial rights. * We provide the National Bibliographic Database For computer programs to manage an individual's bibliographic references, see Reference management softwareA bibliographic or library database is a database of bibliographic information. to supportnational resource discovery. (The NBD NBD Next Business DayNBD National Bank of Dubai (United Arab Emirates)NBD No Big DealNBD Network Block Device (Linux)NBD Nucleotide Binding DomainNBD New Business Development is made available through theLibrary's Kinetica service. It is available through around 1500libraries Australia-wide and includes the locations over 3 milliontitles in all formats that are held in Australian libraries). * We are also developing a service to access metadata relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accelectronic resources. (This is a new undertaking for us that is in thefeasibility stage. The objective is to provide a national resourcediscovery service that brings together metadata for electronic resourcesfrom a number of sources, including the NBD.) In collection development we are: * Collecting and archiving significant Australian onlinepublications on a selective basis. * Developing co-operative archiving agreements with othercollecting institutions. * Developing a Code of Practice with the Australian PublishersAssociation covering the future archiving of commercial publications. * Lobbying for the extension of Commonwealth legal deposit toonline publications. * Seeking a mandate for collecting online Commonwealth governmentpublications. In terms of access we are: * Cataloguing archived resources for central national accessthrough the NBD. * Managing the resources for access and testing preservationapproaches. * Developing a national `persistent identifier' scheme andservice. We have also: * Developed guidelines on managing resources for persistent access(http:// www.nla.gov.au/guidelines/2000/persistence.hml). * Developed guidelines for the creation of content for resourcediscovery metadata based on the Dublin Core A set of meta-data descriptions about resources on the Internet. Used for resource discovery, it contains data elements such as title, creator, subject, description, date, type, format and so on. Dublin Core descriptions are often included in HTML meta tags. Element set.(http://www.nla.gov.au/meta/ creatgl.html) The intention of theguidelines is to encourage consistent application by all sectors inorder to enhance information retrieval information retrievalRecovery of information, especially in a database stored in a computer. Two main approaches are matching words in the query against the database index (keyword searching) and traversing the database using hypertext or hypermedia links. . Persistent identification The issue of persistent citation and access is central to theviability of scholarship based on the internet: if the location (or URL URLin full Uniform Resource LocatorAddress of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. )of a resource changes then all links to the resource -- in catalogues,bibliographies, research papers, journal articles -- are broken and theresource is effectively lost to use and citations are rendered useless.To overcome this common problem, unique, unchanging un��chang��ing?adj.Remaining the same; showing or undergoing no change: unchanging weather patterns; unchanging friendliness. names or identifiersare required for resources as well as a system for resolving theseidentifiers to the current location of the resource -- it then would notmatter that the resource might change location. In recognition of the importance of this issue the Library hasdevoted considerable time to investigating viable solutions over thelast eighteen months. A consultancy was carried out to look atinternational developments and to advise on a suitable course of actionfor the Library in managing its own digital resources and inimplementing a national approach to persistent identification. Theconsultancy found that even though several naming schemes are emergingoverseas none of these is mature or reliable enough at this stage tocommit to. As a consequence, the Library has developed a unique namingscheme A naming scheme is a plan for naming objects. In computing, naming schemes are often used for objects connected into computer networks. Naming schemes in computingLarge networks often use a systematic naming scheme, such as using a location (e.g. for its own digital resources (surrogates and `born digital'or those in PANDORA) and developed an in-house resolving system thatworks for all types of digital resource. We are also, in associationwith the Consortium of Australian State Libraries; in particular theState Library of Tasmania The State Library of Tasmania is the organisation which runs the library system in the state of Tasmania, Australia. The State Library operates as part of the Tasmanian Department of Education, and maintains close ties with Tasmanian schools and senior secondary colleges. , developing a national naming schema, at thisstage called the Australian digital resource identifier (ADRI ADRI Animal Diseases Research Institute (Tanzania)ADRI ARC Digitial Raster ImageryADRI Arc Digitized Raster Images ). Weintend to consult widely on the ADRI and we are currently consideringwhether the Library should establish a National Agency Service forpersistent identifiers, much like that offered for ISBNs and ISSNs. (TheLibrary has a website on persistent identifiers that records all ourwork on the subject, including the consultant's report,http://www.nla.gov/ initiatives/persistence.html) Collecting and archiving In recognition of its statutory collecting responsibilities, theNational Library commenced selecting and archiving significantAustralian web publications in 1996. This is now a routine activity forus, integrated with other mainstream collection development activities.It involves five full-time staff. From the outset the Library realised that preserving our onlinedocumentary heritage must involve collaboration as the task is beyondthe resources and capacity of any one institution. A co-ordinatedapproach involving a range of stakeholders and a national strategy wouldbe required. In this way, the range and scope of digital resourcessafeguarded for future use would be increased. Important groups for the National Library to work with includeother collecting agencies, and the academic, Commonwealth government andcommercial publishing sectors. However, our major partnership so far iswith the state and territory libraries and ScreenSound, the NationalFilm and Sound Archive. Together we are building the National Collectionof Australian Online Publications, which resides in the PANDORA digitalarchive (http://www.nla.gov.au/pandora). The National Collection partnership is based on a formal exchangeof letters and entails each institution taking responsibility to varyingdegrees for selecting, archiving, preserving and providing access toselected Australian online publications, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. agreed criteriaand processes. (In this context, the term publications is used to coverwebsites, parts of websites, individual documents and both static anddynamic resources.) Characteristics of the National Collection The main characteristics of the National Collection are as follow.It is: * Selective in coverage: eligibility for inclusion in thecollection is based on detailed selection criteria. * Quality-controlled: the archived version of every web site isquality checked to ensure that all files have been captured correctly * Permission-based: titles are archived only with the permission oftheir publisher/ producer. Without legal deposit rights we have tocontact publishers on an individual title basis. * Intended for national access (subject to negotiatedrestrictions): the collection can be accessed via the Internet but thecommercial interests and intellectual property rights of publishers areprotected as negotiated. * Representative of all formats and publications types: all fileformats are collected -- the easy and the hard; static and dynamic; andit is * Intended for long-term access: on-going access will be providedthrough appropriate preservation action, and each title archived isassigned a persistent identifier to facilitate persistent citation andaccess. Scope Detailed selection guidelines determine eligibility for theNational Collection. The guidelines stress the `Australianness' ofthe resource and take account of considerations such as subject content,authorship, the authoritative nature of the resource and whether it hasbeen indexed by a recognised indexing service. To be selected, aresource must be judged to have some research value, to provide acultural or social snapshot of Australia, or provide insights intoparticular ways in which the internet is used for informationdissemination. To some extent the eligibility requirements build on the principlesunderpinning un��der��pin��ning?n.1. Material or masonry used to support a structure, such as a wall.2. A support or foundation. Often used in the plural.3. Informal The human legs. Often used in the plural. the traditional national bibliography role of nationallibraries but without giving pre-eminence to place of publication -- atricky concept in the online domain. Currently online publications with print equivalents are out ofscope for the National Collection but this situation is under review --and we expect to commence including these from early next year. In fact,I should say that the selection criteria undergo regular review toensure they remain relevant in the light of changes in the way theinternet is used to disseminate dis��sem��i��nate?v. dis��sem��i��nat��ed, dis��sem��i��nat��ing, dis��sem��i��natesv.tr.1. To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.2. information. The approach to building the National Collection is highlyselective and it is acknowledged that many resources relating toAustralia are not collected by the Library and its partners. The policydecision on selective acquisition was a pragmatic one, influenced byresource considerations, by the significance of information beingdistributed on the internet and by the requirement that whereverpossible, everything archived must remain accessible to the public inthe form in which it was originally issued. In spite of the selective approach, the National Collection alreadyconstitutes a strongly representative sample of Australian webpublishing by academic, government, commercial and communityorganisations. Several of the websites captured -- including theofficial site for the Sydney Olympic games Olympic games,premier athletic meeting of ancient Greece, and, in modern times, series of international sports contests.The Olympics of Ancient GreeceAlthough records cannot verify games earlier than 776 B.C. -- have already disappearedfrom the live Internet and are now only available through the PANDORAarchive For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation) and Pandora's box (disambiguation).PANDORA is a web archive of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with a number of other Australian . The type of resources in the archive include the following: * Research reports, working papers, and discussion papers -- mostlyfrom the university and government domains. * Conference proceedings and lectures -- of, for example, the H RNicholls Society * Journal articles and whole journals. * Government and community websites, and * Political, educational, and cultural publications and sites. So, the content of the archived collection is diverse and it hasnow reached a size at which it is valuable as a research and referencetool -- it provides an evaluated, quality-controlled record ofAustralian research and scholarly information published on the internet,as well as more general interest information relating to cultural andsocial issues. It currently includes around 1700 titles (310gb) and isgrowing at the rate of about forty-five new titles per month -- aboutone quarter of the titles in the archive are re-gathered on a regularbasis. To exploit the potential of the Collection as a research tool weare encouraging libraries to point to it from their public web pages andto consider including bibliographic records for titles in the Collectionthat are of particular interest to their client group, in their ownlocal catalogues. While all formats of publications are in-scope for the NationalCollection in PANDORA, no matter how diverse the media used or complexthe software on which they are based, we have not yet worked out how todeal with resources with underlying database structures -- and these arebecoming more the norm. This subject is a priority for us at the momentand we hope to find a solution that will at least secure the content ofthe databases, if not the full interactivity. An alternative approach to archiving online resources being pursuedby some national libraries is to harvest periodically the whole webdomain for their country, using harvesting software. This approach hasthe obvious advantage over selective archiving of collecting much moreinformation but there are still some major problems associated with itto do with data quality and providing public access. Nevertheless, the National Library is keeping a close watch ondevelopments with whole domain harvesting and we will shortly commence aproject to trial this approach ourself our��self?pron.1. Myself. Used as a reflexive when we is used instead of I by a singular speaker or author, as in an editorial or a royal proclamation. See Usage Note at myself.2. Nonstandard Ourselves. , perhaps restricted to one domainsector. It the domain harvesting approach is feasible we would see it asa way of supplementing the selective, quality controlled approach wewould continue to take using the PANDORA system The PANDORA digital archiving system was built by the Library tosupport development and management of the National Collection ofAustralian Online Publication. The system comprises harvesting software,a digital repository for storing and accessing titles collected, andunderpinning management software. The PANDORA system is supported by ITstaff at the Library and is developed in response to identified needs. Amajor upgrade to the management system was released recently anddelivered greatly improved functionality and considerable work-flowefficiencies. The management system is designed to support: * Gathering titles selected for archiving. The gathering schedule can specify the frequency with which titleswill be gathered and can specify particular dates on which titles shouldbe gathered. The majority of titles in the archive are gathered from thepublisher's site as this minimises the impact of archiving onpublishers. As part of the gathering process, technical metadata aboutthe file types captured is recorded by the system. This information isused to automatically generate public notes listing any plug-insrequired for viewing sites, and is also used to support preservationdecision-making. * The system also manages administrative metadata about titles --both selected and rejected, such as descriptive details, permissionstatus, type of resource, gathering schedule, restriction information; * It manages the quality-checking and problem-fixing process. Anobjective of the National Collection of AOP (Automatic OPerator) An IRC channel host who moderates the topics, keeps online users in check and provides help for newbies unfamiliar with IRC software (mIRC, etc.). Whenever AOPs come into the channel, they inherit operator status. is that all archived titlesshould be as complete and accurate as possible. Some aspects of thequality checking process are automated but manual intervention isrequired to ensure that the look and feel of captured sites is as closea possible to the original; and it * Prepares the item for public display (for example by generating atitle page); * Manages access restrictions; and * Provides management reports. The recent upgrade to the management functionality of the PANDORAsystem allows partner organisations to manage a very efficient workflowusing the central management system. The management system is accessedusing Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. 5.5 (although public access to the archive mayuse any web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. ). Web access means that partners have no need forspecial desktop software to use the management system. Currently alltitles selected by partner institutions are stored and delivered fromthe National Library's server but the management system willsupport distributed storage Storing data in multiple computers or in computers that are geographically dispersed. This was an early term for storage that evolved into SANs and storage virtualization. See SAN and storage virtualization. of content as an option from early nextyear. The Library regards the PANDORA Digital Archiving System as a partof the national information infrastructure and is willing to make itavailable to others for use in support of national distributed archivingobjectives. Future co-operative development of the system to supportvarious distributed archiving models would be considered by the Libraryas long as interoperability The capability of two or more hardware devices or two or more software routines to work harmoniously together. For example, in an Ethernet network, display adapters, hubs, switches and routers from different vendors must conform to the Ethernet standard and interoperate with each other. was assured and the objective of nationalaccess to archived resources (subject to reasonable restrictions)observed. Since it commenced collecting and archiving online publications in1996, the Library has confronted a number of issues. Some I have alreadyreferred to -- for instance, persistent identification and citation;selective versus comprehensive collecting; archiving databases; andproblems associated with identification of significant resources -- andsome, such as authentication (1) Verifying the integrity of a transmitted message. See message integrity, e-mail authentication and MAC.(2) Verifying the identity of a user logging into a network. , we are still to come to grips with. Twoother issues that are particularly relevant and which interest theNational Library because they have direct bearing on the effectivenesswith which we carry out our role, can be summarized as: * What else (apart from what is eligible for the NationalCollection) is worth saving, who decides this, and who should takeresponsibility for it; and * How will researchers want to use archived resources in future? The selective approach to digital archiving drives the question ofsignificance to the fore. Significance can be determined differently bydifferent stakeholders, depending on their information needs and role.The National Library has defined it from the perspective of our role asa documentary heritage repository, conscious that this excludesresources that could well be significant to others. However, theLibrary's strategy has always been based on the belief that theNational Collection that it is building with the state libraries shouldideally form a component or node of a much broader national distributedarchive. To be effective, a national distributed archiving approachwould need to be based on shared responsibilities and understandings ofwhat was required and what should be done. These and related questionsare currently being addressed by an important project being undertakenby RLG RLG Research Libraries Group, Inc. (Dublin, OH)RLG Ring Laser GyroRLG RedLightGreen ProjectRLG Royal Laotian GovernmentRLG Resident Love GoddessRLG Right, Let's Go and OCLC, two big library consortia in the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Theyare attempting to define the attributes of a trusted digital repositoryof research resources. A draft report was released for comment someweeks ago. The question for us then is who else should or could take onresponsibility for archiving Australian digital resources in order toincrease coverage at the national level? Clearly, the academic sector and its libraries have a valuable roleto play here, either collectively or as individual institutions. Inorder to bring some discipline to the creation of intellectual propertyin digital form within academic institutions, a centralised Adj. 1. centralised - drawn toward a center or brought under the control of a central authority; "centralized control of emergency relief efforts"; "centralized government"centralized publishingand archiving system which provides stable long-term storage of thedigital resources produced by institutions, could be considered -- and Ibelieve some institutions have already made progress in this area. Withany undertaking, I would urge consideration be given to the benefits ofcooperation and using existing national infrastructure (includingPANDORA) if suitable, in order to avoid costly duplication of effort anddevelopment costs. Questions the National Library is keen to explore with universitieswho are developing digital archives include the relationship of theNational Collection of Online Publications to the archives, thesuitability of the PANDORA digital archiving system in meeting thearchiving needs of other sectors; and respective preservation roles. There is no doubt an extensive range of issues and questions thatuniversities need to address themselves in determining their digitalarchiving roles, a major one being how they see themselves fitting intoa national distributed archiving model. To operate as an effective component of a distributed nationalAustralian archive, academic repositories would, for instance, need tobe interoperable The ability for one system to communicate or work with another. See interoperability. with other archives, be standards based, permit a levelof national access, and accept responsibility for the long-term whichcould necessitate ne��ces��si��tate?tr.v. ne��ces��si��tat��ed, ne��ces��si��tat��ing, ne��ces��si��tates1. To make necessary or unavoidable.2. To require or compel. a commitment to preservation action. Another advantage in the academic institutions becoming involved indigital archiving is that the creators and/or distributors ofinformation are often best placed to judge the lasting importance orsignificance of that information. It is quite legitimate to view someinformation to be of temporary value and not worth saving. This decisionis best made at the time of creation so that certain actions can betaken at the outset that will greatly facilitate later preservation ofthose resources that are deemed to be significant. These actions involvethings like use of standard software and hardware, applying metadata andnaming resources, and are outlined in this set of guidelines we issuedin January this year(http://nla.gov.au/guidelines/2000/webresources.html). The guidelinesare intended to raise awareness of the need for creators to think interms of long-term access when they produce a resource. Centralisation n. 1. same as centralization.Noun 1. centralisation - the act of consolidating power under a central controlcentralizationconsolidation, integration - the act of combining into an integral whole; "a consolidation of two corporations"; of academic online publishing and archiving would greatly facilitate theadoption of standardised approaches and implementation of commonprocedures, and allow responsibilities to be more clearly defined. Itwould also allow the decision-making process concerning significance andconsequent action, to be built into the production cycle. The other major issue I want to touch on is the question of howdigital archives will be used in future or how they could best supportthe different types of research needs that might emerge? These questions have bearing on how digital archives are developedor built and the research community is well placed to provide valuableassistance with attempting to answer them. For instance, researchersmight want to be able to analyse large amounts of data rapidly forspecific information or to identify trends and patterns over time usingspecially tailored computer programs. Such analyses are best carried outon the original source files rather than the form rendered to the user,so files would need to be organised in a manner to allow such rapidprocessing. Alternatively, the user might wish to view the online version ofthe resource as it was when archived, to experience sites as theyoriginally appeared -- or the `look and feel' of the original. TheLibrary's PANDORA archive enables this form of use. The way inwhich users find the resource they might want to view in this way is,however, another issue and is an area of growing research interest --for instance, will known item searches continue to be relevant or willbrowsing based on descriptors be the more common approach? If so, aredifferent kinds of descriptors to the ones normally associated withprint resources more appropriate? In conclusion, the National Library of Australia is committed toarchiving and preserving significant, Australian online publications forlong-term access. It views its undertaking as part of a larger, nationalendeavour and is keen to work with other groups and sectors to findsolutions to issues, to strengthen the national digital archivinginfrastructure, and to make the concept of distributed nationalarchiving a reality Pam Gatenby is assistant director-general Collection ManagementDivision National Library of Australia. She has worked at the NationalLibrary of Australia since 1979 where she has held a number of seniorpositions in collection development, access and preservation, and fordelivery of information services See Information Systems. to the public. In her current positionshe has overall responsibility for the technical services andpreservation operations at the Library. Collection developmentresponsibility includes collecting significant Australian onlinepublications for long-term access, development of a preservationstrategy for digital resources, and exploring new ways of providingenhanced access to information. E-mail pgatenby@nla.gov.au.