America's founding documents--the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights--are icons of human liberty. But the ideals enshrined in those documents did not initially apply to all Americans. They were, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir."…

Recent years have seen an explosion of the number of institutions involved in or beginning to think about web archiving. Many National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) members, as well as other universities, historical societies, and state and local governments, have recognized the need for and importance of preserving a variety of web content…

Presented as the keynote address at the Library Research Seminar, University of Maryland, October 7, 2010, this essay identifies and explores three agendas ever appropriate for study, the pursuits of which are especially needed now. They are as follows: to (1) explore the historical dimension of library topics, (2) revive study of the institution…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief description of the digital preservation programme at the National Library of New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: Following a description of the legislative and strategic context for digital preservation in New Zealand, details are provided of the system for the National Digital…

State library agencies (StLAs) provide key leadership for library services planning and development in each state. Their structure and governance varies widely across states; StLAs are located in various departments in state government and they report to different authorities. This research brief gives an overview of the revenues, expenditures,…

Since 2005 the State Library of New South Wales has provided staff with an opportunity to research aspects of the Library's services and collections through the State Librarian's Staff Fellowship Program. In January 2008, Maggie Patton commenced a project to rediscover and document the development of the rare printed collections at the State…

One of the most exciting developments to occur within the library profession in recent years has been the re-evaluation of library's role in resource discovery in the web environment. This has involved recognition of short-comings of online library catalogues, a re-affirmation of the importance of metadata and a new focus on the wealth of…

In 2009, after a year of planning and preparation, the second generation of Ohio Memory was launched. A collaborative effort of the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) and the State Library of Ohio, Ohio Memory is a repository for more than 75,000 digital items, including photographs, journals, and other manuscript materials, as well as print documents…

In 2005 and 2006 the National Library of Australia (NLA) carried out two whole-domain web harvests which complement the selective web archiving approach taken by PANDORA. Web harvests of this size pose significant challenges to their use. Despite these challenges, such harvests present fascinating research opportunities. The NLA has provided…

In the late 1990s the Archives of Ontario adopted a version of the Australian "series system" for the arrangement of Government of Ontario records. Series-based systems of arrangement and description provide an alternative means for archives to represent the relationships between a body of records, the functions and activities that…

Local records are the foundation on which social history is constructed. However, in an era when most historians categorize themselves as social historians, it is amazing to note how much these primary resources appear to be underutilized in scholarly works. This article attempts to understand why this is so by investigating how it is that…

Archives are preserved records of human activities. An account of Chinese archival development is as long as the written records of the Chinese history. Oracle bones, bronze ware, and wood and bamboo strips are the three most important recording forms of the early Chinese civilization, as they represented three major stages of archival development…

A 2-month study trip was made in 1982 to 4 major repositories of Indian archival material in France and 2 major repositories in the United Kingdom in order to draw up a detailed inventory of dossiers, other file units, and isolated individual documents related to the history of India that are located in these repositories. The repositories visited…

The purpose of the reformatting operations at the New York State Library (Albany, New York) is to preserve the content of brittle, rare, out-of-print, or damaged materials and to enhance the accessibility of New York State government documents. This article describes the roles of staff members, and discusses microfilming/microfiching,…

The Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney is a centre for public dialogue and progress, with the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection inspiring its programs. The collection, both physical and virtual, was established in 2002, drawing upon primary source material made available or donated by the Hon E G Whitlam AC QC, and…