Preservation of Web Resources: University of Bath Case Study

Slide 1: Preservation of Web Resources: Making a Start University of Bath : Case Study Lizzie Richmond and Alison Wildish - University of Bath

Slide 2: University Archivist, Records Head of Web Services Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Alison Wildish Lizzie Richmond •Archivist •Web specialist •Background in collection •Background in information cataloguing and archival technology, web design and administration and conservation development, communication and marketing Web Specialist •Paper environment •Digital environment •Responsible to the archives – •Responsible to the user – keep keep them safe and accessible things up to date and useful for the future

Slide 3: 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…

Slide 4: Alison Wildish and Lizzie Richmond (University of Bath): GULP

Slide 6: Initial thoughts…

Slide 7: University Archivist, Records Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Oh no… not this again! Now and the past 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…

Slide 8: Head of Web Services Now and the future EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!! In all honesty it isn’t interesting to me… We struggle to keep the site current – never mind thinking Web 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

Slide 9: Case Study… The Prospectus

Slide 10: 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…

Slide 11: 1953

Slide 12: 1960

Slide 13: 1965

Slide 14: 1966

Slide 15: 1968

Slide 16: 1970

Slide 17: 1976

Slide 18: 1982

Slide 19: 1985

Slide 20: 1991

Slide 21: 1994

Slide 22: 1999

Slide 23: 2001

Slide 24: 2004

Slide 25: 2008

Slide 26: 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’…

Slide 27: With more and more moving to the web what will we have in 50 years?

Slide 28: Implications for online… The record The publication Past Print Web Present / Future Web Print

Slide 29: We are doing some things… Version controlled information: • Developing an online prospectus • CMS • Wiki  However: ? • Systems could change? • How much would we migrate?

Slide 30: A typical record - online course Latest publications (feed) Core course content NSS data (feed) ? Student reviews (feed) ? Department news (feed) ?

Slide 31: 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?

Slide 32: Interesting… but do we need this?

Slide 33: 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

Slide 34: 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?

Slide 35: University Archivist, Records Head of Web Services Manager and FOI Co-ordinator Alison Wildish Lizzie Richmond What have we learned? •Better informed about •Recognition that web preservation differences between printed and should be addressed to avoid gap in web records and their implications 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

Slide 36: Steps forward… • What do we need to preserve? • How can we preserve this? • Set realistic expectations

Slide 37: Thank you Any questions?