Metrics for Web Archives
From eotcd
SME Focus Group Discussion
April 25, 2010 - Buffalo, NY
As tools emerge for librarians to discover and select materials from Web archives, libraries will be asked to report measures of the scope and quality of these materials. We are interested in your views regarding the statistics and measurements that might best characterize the materials in Web archives.
Questions to Consider
In preparation for our discussion, please reflect on the following:
- How would you characterize the impact of digital content on collection development practices at your library?
- What digital content sources or repositories do you select from for your collection?
- How important are web-published materials for the collection(s) you mange?
- Regarding various classes of digital content (e.g., web-published reports, agency/organizational websites, statistical databases, blogs, wikis, or digital recordings):
- What criteria do you evaluate in making acquisition decisions?
- How do you identify acquisition costs?
- What issues have you encountered with publishers, agencies, administrators, IT, catalogers, others?
- Regarding the statistics typically reported for the digital materials in your library:
- What are the strengths and value of these statistics?
- What types or classes of digital or web-published materials are not reported?
- What are the issues and limitations of these statistics, in particular, for web-published materials?
- What criteria would you suggest for measuring and reporting statistics for materials in Web archives, such as the EOT Archive?
Background Material
Bermes, Emmanuelle & Illien, Gildas. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France. Metrics and Strategies for Web Heritage Management and Preservation. World Library and Information Congress: 75TH IFLA General Conference and Council, 23-27 August 2009, Milan, Italy.
