May be of interest

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Deborah Woodyard
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 11:12 PM
To: 'padiforum-l'
Subject: Preservation selection guidelines available


[Posted to Padiforum-l]

Now available online:
National Library of Australia's
Preserving Australian physical format electronic publications - selection
guidelines
(http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/selectgl.html)

The National Library of Australia (NLA) has recently compiled some
guidelines for internal use on the selection for preservation of physical
format digital materials in the general collections. In the spirit of
information sharing we have made them available online and thought this list
may be interested to see them. We welcome any feedback.

The origin of these guidelines:
In the process of transferring collection material on floppy disk to CD-R it
was noted that not all disks contained valuable information compared to the
effort it would take to preserve them. For example, a training manual for a
software tool will often contain examples for training purposes on an
accompanying disk. This disk will not contain the software however the
software is needed to use the examples. Therefore to provide long term
access we must also 'preserve' the software, which we would only need to be
able to use the manual to learn how to use the software. All a bit circular
really.

Disks containing sample material stuck on the front of magazines are not all
considered to merit preservation action either.

We decided these and other distinctions should be formally recorded, and
these guidelines are the result. We already have similar guidelines for
online publications.

It all takes us another step along the way to the preservation of our
digital collections.

Regards
Deborah

Deborah Woodyard
Digital Preservation / PADI
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
mailto:[log in to unmask]
ph: +61 2 6262 1366
PADI: http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/