13 April 2005

Digital amnesia - challenges of government online

The digital revolution has transformed the way that we do business. Publication of a document in today's world generally means that it goes up on the authoring organisation's website as soon as it is available in hard copy. Often publication on the website is the main form of publication and just a handful of hard copies are made.

To alert policy-makers to the traps for the unwary in managing publications online, the Australian Library and Information Association is organising a seminar titled Digital amnesia - challenges of government online.

ALIA executive director, Jennefer Nicholson, said: 'The purpose of the seminar is to examine issues relating to the access and management of government publications online, now and into the future. Our members' concerns are that government publications do get published online and that all versions remain accessible. We have found that a number of significant publications have disappeared from a range of government websites.

Sometimes this happens as a result of 'upgrading the website', sometimes it is due to staff turnover. The important issue is that there are no 'whole of government' protocols or standards in place to capture government publications online,' she said.

The keynote speaker at Digital amnesia - challenges of government online is Patrick Callioni, division manager at Australian Government Information Management Office, located in the Department of Finance and Administration.

A range of perspectives on this issue will be addressed by Jack Waterford, editor, The Canberra Times, Ian Oi, from lawyers Blake Dawson Waldron, and Helen Hopkins executive director of NGO Consumers Health Forum.

Toss Gascoigne, director of Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences will give an academic perspective, and Senator John Watson, chair of the Senate Publications Committee will give the perspective from Parliament.

The seminar is sponsored by the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia. For further details and registration go to the ALIA website at http://alia.org.au/events/.