CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 66, November 2009
Background: New Zealand Legal Deposit legislation
The legal mandate to collect published electronic materials, including web pages, was first provided for with the passing of the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Act in 2003. It wasn't until 12 August 2006 when the National Library Requirement (Electronic Documents) Notice 2006 came into effect, that the Library was finally able to begin collecting electronic resources under the Act.
The New Zealand Web Archive
The New Zealand Web Archive forms part of the Alexander Turnbull Library's digital collections within the National Library of New Zealand. Much of New Zealand's cultural and historical content is now being published online and it is important to ensure this heritage material is archived and made accessible for future generations.
The Library began selecting websites in 1999 and the collection has continued to grow with active development since 2005. Growth in the Library's selective web archiving activity can be attributed to the development and implementation of the Web Curator Tool web archiving tool1, and to the extension of New Zealand Legal Deposit legislation to cover electronic documents.
The new legislation enabled us to move from selecting predominantly government and political sites, to collecting websites from a diverse range of subjects, such as, community/ethnic groups, music, sports, the arts, history, the environment and websites of particular interest to Maori and Pacific peoples.
Websites not covered by Legal Deposit legislation are also captured once permission has been obtained from the website or copyright owner. These include overseas websites that contain content about New Zealand, the Pacific or Antarctica.
Most websites are collected at regular intervals to ensure new content is captured. Currently there are over 2000 titles in the collection and these websites are preserved in the Library's National Digital Heritage Archive. Each website is fully catalogued with access available through the National Library catalogue.
To search for (and view) websites using the National Library catalogue:
http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz/
For more information about the New Zealand Web Archive:
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-z-of-all-collections/nz-web-archive
To learn more about Web Curator Tool:
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/get-advice/digital-libraries/web-curator-tool
For information about New Zealand Legal Deposit legislation
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/legal-deposit-donations/legal-deposit-intro
2008 Web Harvest
In 2008, the National Library of New Zealand commissioned the Internet Archive to undertake a web harvest of the entire .NZ domain. 105 million URLs were harvested, providing a valuable snapshot of New Zealand's online social history. It is anticipated that further domain harvests will be undertaken at regular intervals to supplement the selective web archiving programme. The 2008 web harvest is not currently available to the public.
Future activity
The Library hopes to begin work on a browse, search and retrieval interface for its web archive (including both selective and whole-of-domain harvests) in 2009/10.
For further information about the Library's web archiving activities please contact:
Gillian Lee
Electronic Publications Librarian
Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Ph. +64 4 474 3000 extn. 8676
Email: Gillian.Lee@natlib.govt.nz
- See CDNLAO newsletter, no. 58, March 2007
Copyright (C) 2009 National Library of New Zealand
