Web Archiving Collection Management Plan
(draft as at February 2008)
This Web Archiving Collection Management Plan is currently only in draft format. It requires further consultation and the work below is considered as a starting point only.
The focus of the Web Archiving Collection Management Plan is on web pages that either contain corporate records or which document corporate activities.
There are two strategies involved in selecting web pages for archiving purposes.
The ‘whole of domain' approach involves the “collection of Web sites and online resources using harvesters to automatically retrieve material in broad sweeps of the institutions Web space” on a quarterly basis. Whereas, the ‘selective' approach enables more focus on particular pages that may (in the University's case) require a greater frequency of capture, a single ‘one off' type capture or some other special requirement that cannot be accommodated with the ‘whole of domain' approach.
The ‘whole of domain' quarterly captures aim to provide a record of the University's ‘web presence' as at the 1 Jan, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October each calendar year.
Other web pages are captured because they contain University corporate web records, as identified by the Enterprise Classification Scheme (ECS). Records Services currently maintains a spreadsheet that matches up various corporate University urls against specific functions/activities as listed from the ECS. Although the spreadsheet does not attempt to provide a comprehensive listing of all existing web records, it does provide a guideline to identify University web records and the listing is used to cross check against various snapshots (including the quarterly captures) to ensure that the urls which represent core corporate University functions/activities are in fact being captured. This process ensures a certain level of quality control.
The ‘selective' approach has been used to further isolate particular types of web pages that may need to be captured from both a records management and risk management perspective. Some of these collections are based around a specific frequency of capture. For example, some pages are required to be captured more frequently than the quarterly snapshots, like the University's home page. This particular page is captured on a daily basis. This is to help manage any reputational risk that the page may pose to the University. It also (over time) provides an historical record of the University's changing public face. The front page is changed almost daily in some instances and so there is a strong case for its daily capture.
Other pages that fall under the ‘selective' approach are captured as one off snapshots. This is particular relevant in cases where a website or webpage needs to be taken down before it can be captured in the quarterly captures. It is anticipated that snapshots can only occur on a case by case basis and there must be a strong set of special circumstances supporting the requirement for a snapshot.
Although the technical solution supporting the web archiving strategy is extremely flexible, there are limitations in terms of the amount of pages that the University can capture under the terms of its service agreement. Although the current limits are very generous, there are limits, and the University needs to be selective in the way that it approaches additional website/page captures outside the quarterly snapshots. If you feel that you may have a page that requires a one off snapshot, or should be captured at a greater frequency, please fill in the following form.
It is envisioned that over time, this Web Archiving Collection Management Plan will continue to develop and be refined. It is also anticipated that other types of criteria will eventually be included as well, to accommodate cultural collection and University archive requirements.
If you would like to discuss any issues surrounding the current Web Archiving Collection Management Plan, please contact the General Manager, University Records & Policy – on 47935 or at kdan@unimelb.edu.au.
Sourced definition from http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/topics/92.html