Archiving Websites: A Practical Guide for Information Management Professionals

by Adrian Brown

Overview

The world wide web is arguably the most important, and certainly the largest and most ubiquitous, cultural and commercial information resource in existence. The requirements to actively preserve selected parts of it, and the attendant problems of archiving such a vast and ephemeral entity, are only now beginning to be fully appreciated. This important book is the first to offer practical guidance to information-management professionals seeking to implement web archiving programmes of their own. It is essential reading for those who need to collect and preserve specific elements of the web - from national domains or individual subject areas to an organization's own website. Drawing on the author's experience of managing The National Archives' web-archiving programme, together with lessons learned from other international initiatives, this book provides a comprehensive overview of current best practice, together with practical guidance for anyone seeking to establish a web-archiving programme. It assumes only a basic understanding of IT and web technologies, although it also offers much for more technically oriented readers. Contents include: the development of web archiving; selection; collection methods; quality assurance and cataloguing; preservation; delivery to users; legal issues; managing a web-archiving programme; and; future trends. Written to address audiences from the whole spectrum of information-management sectors, this book is essential reading for three types of reader: policy-makers, who need to make decisions about establishing or developing an institutional web archiving programme; information-management professionals, who may be required to implement a web-archiving programme; and website owners and webmasters, who may be required to facilitate archiving of their own websites.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856049009
Publisher:	Facet Publishing
Publication date:	07/18/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Adrian Brown is Assistant Clerk of the Records at the Parliamentary Archives and has lectured and published widely on all aspects of digital preservation. He was previously Head of Digital Preservation at the National Archives where his team won the International Digital Preservation Award in 2007.

Table of Contents

1. The development of web archiving 2. Selection 3. Collection methods 4. Quality assurance and cataloguing 5. Preservation 6. Delivery to users 7. Legal issues 8. Managing a web archiving programme 9. Future trends Appendix 1. Web archiving and preservation tools Appendix 2. Model permissions form Appendix 3. Model test script Appendix 4. Model issues log Appendix 5. Model job description.

Editorial Reviews

As more information is born digital, preserving access to electronic data is gaining significance. Devising methods to archive the web requires a set of skills and knowledge that differs from what is applied in the traditional library or historical archive. Even planning an archive for only a single web site can be a challenge considering the basic problems inherent in the transient nature of digital media and the inevitable obsolescence of software and hardware. The difficulties grow exponentially when the goal is archiving even a relatively small percentage of the Internet. Web sites containing Java, frames, streaming audio or video, flash movies, JavaScript, or managed content or databases make preservation and continuing access even more difficult. This handbook by the head of digital preservation at Britain's National Archives details key issues and solutions in web site selection, cataloging, quality assurance, copyright and other legal issues, preservation, migration, and access delivery methods. Essential reading for those with web site responsibility.
—Margaret Sylvia

Library Journal