Preserving Web Sites: NOF-digitise Workshop - 18 November 2003Brian Kelly gave a talk on Preserving Web Sites at a workshop on Digital Resource Preservation. The workshop was held at 1 Queen Anne's Gate, London, SW1H 9AA on Tuesday 18th November 2003. The talk lasted from 11:30-12:00.
This talk will review experiences from a number of other digital library programmes in which project Web site have disappeared shortly after the funding has finished. In order to avoid this happening again, programmes such as NOF-digi now expect projects to formally agree to continue to provide a Web site for a period (say 3 years) after the funding has terminated.
As well as ensuring that contracts with hosting agencies, etc., are in place to ensure that the Web site is not switched off, there are a number of other issues which projects should address in order to ensure that their Web site can continue to function with reduced or no support available. This will include updating the content to remove out-of-date (or ambiguous) information, and addressing any technical aspects which may cause problems.
Although this may appear time-consuming there are a number of simple approaches which can be deployed which will not only minimise potential difficulties, but should also ensure that your Web site can be more easily accessed using new devices (e.g. PDAs, digital TVs, etc.) and also repurposed in new services, if you are successful in finding funding to develop your initial NOF-funded project.
The following materials may be provided at the workshop.