Web Archiving the Cultural Heritage

Saw a very interesting presentation from Bnf (National Library of Paris).
It was co-authored by Gildas Illien whom i shall be visiting in Paris next week but it was presented by a colleague who co-authored the paper.

The presentation was based around metrics and strategies for Web archiving Cultural heritage. It made some good points in that we lack distance and perspective to know which segments of contemporary digital production should or not be considered heritage. When it comes to the web we cannot define heritage as material inherited from the past. This heritage is still too young to be inherited. The challenges of web archiving seem to be universal and BnF outlined similar issues known to those who undertake it on a larger scale to us at the University (although some of the challenges are still relevant on our smaller scale);- virtuality and multiplicity of document types: the web is intangible and diverse; twilight zones- the web is for everybody and everything; web document structure the web is a puzzle.

Metrics for collection development were explored and based around seeds (see Lucinda Davies for a detailed explanation of seeds) It was proposed that the way to measure the value of the web archiving program (and justify cost of program) was that the process of harvesting developed was the most economic one and a valuable way to manage collections (via seed connected to collections) and minimises risk of loss of cultural heritage.