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Preservation of Web Resources: Making a Start University of Bath : Case Study. Lizzie Richmond and Alison Wildish - University of Bath. Web Specialist. University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Lizzie Richmond. Head of Web Services Alison Wildish. Archivist
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Preservation of Web Resources: Making a StartUniversity of Bath : Case Study Lizzie Richmond and Alison Wildish - University of Bath
Web Specialist University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Lizzie Richmond Head of Web Services Alison Wildish • Archivist • Background in collection cataloguing and archival administration and conservation • Paper environment • Responsible to the archives – keep them safe and accessible for the future • Web specialist • Background in information technology, web design and development, communication and marketing • Digital environment • 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
University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Oh no… not this again! 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
Web Specialist Head of Web Services EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!! In all honesty it isn’t interesting to me… We struggle to keep the site current – never mind thinking 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 Now and the future
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…
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… The record The publication Print Web Past Web Print Present / Future
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 Latest publications (feed) Core course content 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?
Web Specialist University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Lizzie Richmond Head of Web Services Alison Wildish What have we learned? • Recognition that web preservation should be addressed to avoid gap in University history • Better informed about differences between printed and web records and their implications • 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?