Preservation of Web Resources: Making a Start University of Bath : Case Study Lizzie Richmond and Alison Wildish - University of Bath.
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Preservation of Web Resources: Making a Start University of Bath : Case Study Lizzie Richmond and Alison Wildish - University of Bath University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Lizzie Richmond Head of Web Services Alison Wildish •Archivist •Web specialist •Background in collection cataloguing and archival administration and conservation •Background in information technology, web design and development, communication and Web Specialist marketing •Paper environment •Digital environment •Responsible to the archives – keep them safe and accessible for the future •Responsible to the user – keep things up to date and useful Marieke Guy and Brian Kelly (UKOLN): “ We’re doing these workshops on Web Preservation and wondered if you’d be willing to give us a case study“ about the approach from the University of Bath… ” Alison Wildish and Lizzie Richmond (University of Bath): GULP Initial thoughts… University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Why me? This sounds technical… I’m a paper person I have enough trouble trying to preserve hard copy records without having to worry about the web I can see the value in theory, but in practice it’s too huge I guess it might be a good idea, but no one much cares what I think I am interested though… Now and the past Oh no… not this again! Now and the future Head of Web Services EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!! In all honesty it isn’t interesting to me… We struggle to keep the site – never mind thinking Webcurrent Specialist about preserving the old stuff I am future watching… need to know what to bring in not how to keep hold of the past Why is it something I should think about now? I’m not really that interested Case Study… The Prospectus Why the prospectus? • Practice makes perfect • Starting small = less daunting • Everyone has one • There’s strong demand for digital • Raises wide web preservation issues We already have lots in the archives… 1953 1960 1965 1966 1968 1970 1976 1982 1985 1991 1994 1999 2001 2004 2008 Why preserve? What value? • Over 50 years of institutional history • Rise of the logo • Dominance of design • From stuffiness to street cred • Competitive market • Contextually valuable And this is just a ‘snapshot’… With more and more moving to the web what will we have in 50 years? Implications for online… Past The publication Print Web Present / Future The record Web Print We are doing some things… Version controlled information: • Developing an online prospectus • CMS • Wiki However: • Systems could change? • How much would we migrate? ? A typical record - online course Core course content Latest publications (feed) NSS data (feed) ? Student reviews (feed) ? Department news (feed) ? What could that tell us? • How additional data sources affected our recruitment? • Picture of the current climate (our research, what we were doing, how students rated the course) • What was important to the University? Interesting… but do we need this? Yes! • Publication and record • Good information management = good management • Our past helps inform our future • WWW.witness • Integral to corporate continuity • Preservation to track progress • Institutional heritage Considerations… • File formats may change • Equipment may change – do we keep a paper copy of web pages too? • Resource implications – file storage • Who’s responsibility? University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Lizzie Richmond Head of Web Services Alison Wildish What have we learned? •Better informed about differences between printed and web records and their implications •Recognition that web preservation should be addressed to avoid gap in Web Specialist University history •This is worth doing •There’s a lot to think about •We’ll need to work together to succeed •We need a strategy because: - its important at an institutional level - consistency of approach will be crucial - the line between publication and record is blurred Steps forward… • What do we need to preserve? • How can we preserve this? • Set realistic expectations Thank you Any questions?