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FAQ to indexing and abstracting agencies

1. What does this service offer?

The National Library of Australia archives indexed or abstracted Australian Internet publications and provides a persistent identifier for them, thus guaranteeing that links from citations in indexes and abstracts to the copy in the Archive will remain permanently viable. The item will therefore remain accessible to researchers even once the item is no longer available from the publisher's site.

2. To whom is the service available?

This service is available to indexing agencies anywhere in the world that are indexing or abstracting Australian Internet publications.

3. What is the background to this service?

The National Library of Australia, together with its partners , is building PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive . Many publications appearing in the Australian Internet domain are as important to the nation's documentary heritage as print publications are. Titles are selected for their long term research value and, with the permission of the publisher, are copied into the Archive. The aim is to ensure long-term access to online publications of national significance.

The National Library assigns persistent identifiers, a special type of permanent URL, to all titles in the PANDORA Archive, which means that links to these titles can be cited with confidence that they will never fail.

Subject experts in their fields, indexers and abstracters are identifying and describing online publications that have long-term research value and should be preserved in the national interest. The National Library invites indexing and abstracting agencies to work with it to ensure that these publications remain accessible to researchers now and in the future. Upon request from agencies that have entered into an agreement with us, we will provide a persistent identifier for insertion into citations, which means that, even when the publisher's site no longer exists, a copy of the item will still be available to the researcher in the PANDORA Archive.

4. Where do I find background information about PANDORA

Background information about PANDORA is available from the PANDORA Web site.

5. What titles are already available in PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive?

Access to titles in the Archive is available from the PANDORA home page. Subject and alphabetical title access is provided, as well as a search service.

6. What is a persistent identifier?

The persistent identifiers used by the National Library of Australia are functionally a type of URL. However, instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet resource, the persistent identifier points to an intermediate resolution system. The resolution system associates the persistent identifier with the actual URL and returns that URL to the client. In Web parlance, this is a standard HTTP redirect.

The advantage of this is that the URL associated with a document can be changed any number of times and the researcher citing the persistent identifier can still locate it, as long as the link between the persistent identifier and the current URL is maintained, which the Library guarantees to do.

Links to additional information about persistent identifiers can be obtained on the National Library's web site at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/persistence.html.

7. What are the advantages to indexing and abstracting agencies of using persistent identifiers?

Indexing and abstracting agencies are already finding that links to online publications included in their citations are failing. This means that their clients will experience frustration in attempting to effect links. Even though the failure is beyond the agency's control, it may influence the research community's perception of the reliablity of the indexing or abstracting service. A well-managed persistent identifier implementation, in conjunction with a permanent archive of publications, offers what is probably the best current solution to this difficulty and reasonable surety that items cited will remain accessible.

Since upgrading the digital archiving software to Version 2 in August 2002, persistent identifiers for parts of titles, as well as whole titles, can be determined and used in citations. For example, the persistent identifier for an article within an issue of an e-journal can be determined using the citation service .

Research and development into the preservation of electronic publications through generations of changing hardware and software is taking place in a number of centres around the world, including the National Library of Australia, although it is not yet clear how it will be achieved. By citing the persistent identifier for the copy in the PANDORA Archive, indexing and abstracting agencies will position themselves to take advantage of international developments in preservation strategies. (More information about the preservation of online publications is available from the PADI site.)

8. Are there any pitfalls?

We cannot guarantee to archive every title requested. Occasionally a publisher will not be willing to give us permission to copy a title into the Archive. Sometimes there are technical obstacles. The technology is new and there are many aspects that are not yet under control. In a few cases, problems encountered during archiving may be intractable in the short to medium term and we may occasionally have to advise you that we are not able to archive a particular title and supply a persistent identifier for it.

In most cases, however, we are successful and can supply the requested persistent identifier.

9. How can I obtain persistent identifiers for the items I am indexing/abstracting?

You will need to provide us with the details of what you are indexing on the form supplied. It enables you to provide the details for each whole item (e.g., an e-journal) for which you require a persistent identifier. You will need to complete a new form for each whole item.

10. What information do I need to provide?

Guidelines for Indexing and Abstracting Agencies Requesting Persistent Identifiers outlines the information you need to provide us with.

11. How long does it take for a persistent identifier to be supplied by the National Library?

The speed with which we can return persistent identifiers to you depends on a number of factors:

whether the publisher responds promptly when we seek permission to archive;
the number of requests that you send to us at any one time;
the number of indexing and abstracting agencies we are dealing with at any one time; and
whether we encounter any technical obstacles during the archiving process.

Archiving an Internet publication is a labour-intensive activity. It takes one member of staff an average of one full working day to complete all the tasks necessary to archive a title. It will help us to manage our work flow if you send requests to us as you index them, rather than batching them and sending them at the end of the month. If we receive between one and five requests from you in a week, we should be able to return persistent identifiers to you within one week. If you send between six and 10 requests, expect it to take two weeks, etc. However, if two or three agencies send requests all at once, this will also slow down the response time. We will keep you informed if there is likely to be delay.

As the Commonwealth Legal Deposit provisions do not yet include electronic publications, the Library is obliged to seek the permission of publishers to archive. Most are pleased to grant permission but many do not respond promptly.

The archiving process is not always successful, resulting in problems that require intervention from technical staff. This takes time as they have other responsibilities. Occasionally the technical problems are intractable in the short to medium term and we will have to advise you that we are not able to supply a persistent identifier for that particular title.

Within these constraints, we will do our best to provide you with prompt and effective service.

12. Please contact us if you have any further questions

We welcome comments and suggestions from indexing and abstacting agencies to assist us to refine this service. Let us know if you need something different and we will consider whether we can provide it.

Contact:

Paul Koerbin, Supervisor
Digital Archiving Section
Email:
Phone: 61 2 6262 1411