Focus Group Discussion Guide Page: 17
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The Web at Risk: Needs Assessment too I kit
TOPIC 9:
PRESERVATION OF WEB-PUBLISHED MATERIALS
Notes to Facilitator
Preservation challenges are numerous. They include persistent naming, format
migration and/or emulation, inventory management, volatility, and storage.
The purpose of these questions is to identify the needs of your end users regarding
their expectations for interacting with source materials in the archive and to identify
the implications for preservation activities.
Web archives will likely consist of materials harvested from particular web locations at
different points in time. How should materials be named within an archive? What naming
issues emerge?
Notes to Facilitator
If necessary, prompt with the following questions.
* How critical are unique object identifiers or persistent names? For example,
should a web page or image harvested on different occasions have a unique
name associated with it for each harvest?
* What if there was no change in the object from time to time?
* Will users expect to identify all versions of an object in the archive from a single
name search?
2. Your end users may expect their interactions with the web archive to mirror their
interactions with the source web sites, that is, they may expect the archive to present the
same 'look and feel' and behave in the identical fashion. Obsolescence of both hardware
and software platforms presents challenges to satisfying this end user expectation.
Currently, there are two primary ways in which this "mirroring" is being achieved:
emulation and migration. Discuss each one and identify any known or potential problems
they present for your end users. What are the implications for preservation of the web
archive?
Notes to Facilitator
Definitions if needed.
* Emulation: Original end user experience is preserved on new platforms that
provide access to original materials by emulating older platforms
* Migration: Materials are recreated as necessary for presentation on new
hardware and software platforms
3. How will hardware and software platforms be preserved to enable presentation of
materials over time? What issues or needs emerge if this direction is chosen?
4. Inventory management is an important preservation function. What is the scope and
definition of inventory management for a web archive?17
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Murray, Kathleen R. Focus Group Discussion Guide, text, May 31, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc33125/m1/17/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .