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Archiving web resources
Why would more than 200 delegates from 21 countries, representing libraries, archives, museums, galleries, and Government agencies congregate at the National Library of Australia?
This was the meeting place for the 2004 Archive Web Resources: Issues for Cultural Heritage Institutions conference.
The conference examined the cultural impact of the web and how a number of sectors are using it to extend their business in the digital age. There were papers from experts on geospatial data, science on the web, sound and film, and digital art.
What are the implications for cultural collecting institutions? Day one ended with two perspectives on this question. The first perspective came from the Research Libraries Group in the United States, and the other from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which is coordinating the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) of 11 national libraries and the Internet Archive. The IIPC is actively addressing the challenges faced in collecting and providing long term access to online publications and websites.
Day two saw a number of speakers addressing the question ‘What should we collect and how should we do it?' Presentations from the national libraries of Sweden and Australia, the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive, the Institute of Chinese Studies at Leiden University, and Cornell University described the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to web archiving that have been developed so far.
It emerged from these sessions that all the programs developed to date have their fiaws. The first decade of web archiving has seen a number of national libraries set up and run individual web archiving programs. A lot has been learned from first efforts, and there is now a very strong inclination to come together to share information on the development of tools, methods and technical infrastructure that will lead to interoperable, national collections of web resources. The web has no bounds, and neither should our archives.
The final day of the conference looked at architectures and business models for collaboration, and research programs that are leading the way forward.
One of the potent messages from the conference was how much has already been achieved, albeit in a fragmented way. There is a clear need now to draw many of these fragments together into a cohesive framework from which many collecting institutions can benefit, avoiding costly duplication of effort. The IIPC is leading the way here, having already achieved some very practical outcomes in the first 18 months of its operation.
The National Library of Australia was well-placed to host the conference. Through its work on PANDORA, Australia's web archive, and through its active participation in the work of the IIPC, the library is well-regarded internationally for its expertise in the field of web archiving.
The conference brought many experts on the various aspects of web archiving to Canberra and enabled them to share ideas.
It was a fertile meeting ground, with a number of projects and collaborations being delineated during the course of the conference, and many links being forged that will no doubt result in further alliances within the coming months.
Visit www.netpreserve.org for more information on the International Internet Preservation Consortium. Further information on PANDORA, Australia's web Archive can be found at http://pandora.nla.gov.au n