Selection guidelines
PANDORA is a selective archive. The National Library and its partners do not attempt to collect all Australian online publications and web sites, but select those that they consider are of significance and to have long-term research value.
Some national libraries, such as Australia and Canada, have established selective archives, and some, such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Austria, endeavour to take periodic snapshots of their countries' entire web domains. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. The ideal situation would, perhaps, be a selective archive supplemented by periodic snapshots of the entire domain. For a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches see Sections 3-5 (pages 10-12) of Collecting Australian Online Publications.
Each of the PANDORA partners selects titles for the Archive according to its own selection guidelines, which are available below. The National Library aims to archive titles of national significance, while the State libraries aim to archive those of State and regional significance. ScreenSound Australia takes responsibility for sites relating to music and film; the Australian War Memorial archives sites relating to Australian military history; and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies archives publications and web sites of our Indigenous peoples.
PANDORA partners' selection guidelines
- Australian Institue of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Australian War Memorial
- National Library of Australia
- Northern Territory Library
- National Film and Sound Archive
- State Library of New South Wales
- State Library of Queensland
- State Library of South Australia
- State Library of Victoria
- State Library of Western Australia
