JISC Beginner's Guide to Digital Preservation

Today the JISC Preservation of Web Resources (PoWR) team announced the launch of A Guide to Web Preservation.

I worked on the PoWR project back in 2008. The project organised workshops and produced a handbook that specifically addressed digital preservation issues that were, and still are, relevant to the UK HE/FE web management community. It was a really successful project but later down the line there was felt to be a need for a more accessible, easy-to-use version of the handbook. This new guide does just the trick! I was really pleased to see it being given out as a resource on the DPTP Web Archiving Workshop I attended a few weeks back.

To steal some words from the press release:

This Guide uses similar content to PoWR: The Preservation of Web Resources Handbook but in a way which provides a practical guide to web preservation, particularly for web and records managers. The chapters are set out in a logical sequence and answer the questions which might be raised when web preservation is being seriously considered by an institution. These are:

• What is preservation?
• What are web resources?
• Why do I have to preserve them?
• What is a web preservation programme?
• How do I decide what to preserve?
• How do I capture them?
• Who should be involved?
• What approaches should I take?
• What policies need to be developed?

Each chapter concludes with a set of actions and one chapter lists the tasks which must be carried out, and the timings of these tasks, if an institution is to develop and maintain a web preservation programme. In addition points made in the Guide are illustrated with a number of case studies.

The guide was edited by Susan Farrell who has used her knowledge and expertise in the management of large-scale institutional Web services in writing the document.

The Guide can be downloaded (in PDF format) from the JISC PoWR Web site. The Guide is also hosted on JISCPress service which provides a commenting and annotation capability. It has been published on the Lulu.com print-on-demand service where it can be bought for £2.82 plus postage and packing.