Archiving web site resources: a records management view

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose the use of records management principles to identify and manage Web site resources with enduring value as records. Current Web archiving activities, collaborative or organisational, whilst extremely valuable in their own right, often do not and cannot incorporate requirements for proper records management. Material collected under such initiatives therefore may not be reliable or authentic from a legal or archival perspective, with insufficient metadata collected about the object during its active life, and valuable materials destroyed whilst ephemeral items are maintained. Education, training, and collaboration between stakeholders are integral to avoiding these risks and successfully preserving valuable Web-based materials.

REFERENCES

• 1: Weiss, R quoting Brewster Kahle, in On the Web, Research Work Proves Ephemeral Washington Post Nov 24 2003.
• 2: DCC/Wellcome Library workshop, Future-Proofing Web sites http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/fpw-2006/
• 3: PANDAS/PANDORA archive, http://www.kb.se/kw3/ENG/Default.aspx
• 4: Peter Buneman , Sanjeev Khanna , Keishi Tajima , Wang-Chiew Tan, Archiving scientific data, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.29 n.1, p.2-42, March 2004 [doi>10.1145/974750.974752]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.0 General

General Terms:
Human Factors, Management

Keywords:
archiving web sites, best practices, records management