Our digital heritage as source material to end-users: Collection of and access to net publications in The National Libra
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Our digital heritage as source material to end-users: Collection of and access to net publications in The National Library of Norway Kjerste Rustad is a Librarian, educated in 1986 from the Norwegian College of Library and Information Science, Oslo. She has been working with Legal Deposit Legislation at the National Library of Norway (NLN) since 1991. Since the mid 1990s she has participated in the challenges with regard to legal deposit of digital documents from the Internet.
Keywords: web archiving, web documents, harvesting, access, digital preservation repository Abstract The National Library of Norway (NLN) is a multimedia knowledge center that offers its users source material on any media. This paper will deal with how The National Library according to the Norwegian Legal Deposit Act collects net publications, and how these documents might be made available as source material to end-users. A web archive consisting of millions of uniform resource locators collected over several years is a challenge when it comes to access. How does the end-user get access to net publications in the internet archive for purposes of research and documentation? The paper discusses possibilities of accessing the internet archive, but also limitations set by the existing legislation. Journal of Digital Asset Management (2006) 2, 172–177. doi:10.1057/palgrave.dam.3650032
INTRODUCTION
Kjersti Rustad The National Library of Norway, Mo i Rana, Norway E-mail: Kjerste.Rustad@ nb.no
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A researcher working on the Norwegian press history recently contacted The National Library for information. He was conducting a comparison between the news presentation in printed newspapers, broadcasting and in internet newspapers, and he wanted access to the source material. This episode might illustrate a typical end-user request. The question is, can The National Library provide this kind of information? The National Library of Norway (NLN)1 is the nation’s memory, and it is a multimedia knowledge center, as stated in the Library’s vision. The National Library shall preserve and make available the Norwegian cultural heritage and make records of Norwegian cultural and social life available as source material for current and future users. So the answer to the question is YES — The National Library is expected to provide the enduser with source material on any medium. The main tool to achieve this is the Legal Deposit Act.
JOURNAL OF DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
Vol. 2, 3/4 172–177
When the current legal deposit act came into force in 1990, Norway was among the first countries in the world that got a legal deposit legislation, which included digital documents. The Act is based on the principle that all generally available information, regardless of form or medium, must be preserved and made available as source material for purposes of research and documentation. Although the internet as we know it today did not exist in 1990, documents made generally available on the internet are subject to legal deposit according to the present Act. This is the foun
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