Preservation and security
Preservation of the NED Collection
One of the benefits of depositing electronic publications using the NED service is that your publication will be preserved for the community and future generations.
The National Library of Australia (NLA) as the NED Service Provider will apply the following digital preservation policies and procedures to electronic publications deposited using the NED service and accepted into the NED collection.
Checking that content is preservation-ready
Upon submission, we perform automated quality checks to verify that all content deposited to NED is free of issues that could inhibit its long-term preservation. The content must be:
- In a file format/type accepted by NED;
- Free of viruses and other malware; and
- Free of digital-rights management (DRM) technologies.
If a file is found to be unsuitable during the deposit process, an error message will appear. You should check the file, remove anything causing an error (for example, a password on a PDF file), and resubmit. Please contact your member library if you need assistance.
All content is ingested to the NLA’s digital preservation management system, Preservica, within one month of deposit. Once in Preservica, NLA digital preservation staff perform further checks, such as verifying that the deposited content is not corrupted or malformed. Issues which may require remedy or re-submission by a publisher are reported to the respective NED member library who is responsible for negotiating with the publisher.
Safe storage of content
To mitigate disaster risks, the content is stored in the NLA’s managed mass storage system in multiple copies, on different types of storage media, and in more than one location.
Safeguarding long-term accessibility
Over time, as technology changes and evolves, digital publications will eventually become inaccessible when the file formats in which they are encoded become outdated and cease to be supported on contemporary computers. NLA digital preservation staff regularly monitor the impact of technology changes on file formats. Should the level of support for content in particular file formats be lacking or become insufficient, the NLA digital preservation staff take managed actions to ensure or restore accessibility of the content.
Security of electronic publications
The National Library of Australia as the NED Service Provider securely stores all deposited publications. NED security standards are based on those specified in the Department of Home Affairs Protective Security Policy Framework, the Australian Government Information Security Manual, the ISO 27000 Standards, and recommendations of the Australian National Audit Office.
Cybersecurity
The approach to safeguarding NED content and ensuring its confidentiality, integrity, and availability, will be in line with NLA’s cybersecurity policies and best practices. These include but are not limited to the following:
- Deployment of secure organisational IT network perimeter and access control mechanisms, including user authentication and authorisation protocols to prevent unauthorised access;
- Compliance with cyber security measures as outlined by the Australian Cyber Security Centre;
- Deployment of threat detection and prevention mechanisms;
- Implementation of regular security auditing and monitoring plan as well vulnerability management for the ICT systems, resources, and their underlying infrastructure; and
- Development and implementation of an ongoing cyber security awareness training program for all staff to promote a strong security culture and best practices.
As a collaborative service, authorised staff in NED member libraries have access to the content stored at the National Library that is relevant to their jurisdiction, for the purpose of managing the collection.
Transfer of files between libraries
Where state or territory legislation mandates that a copy of a publication be located within that jurisdiction, or a member library elects for a copy of a work deposited in accordance with a legal deposit law in their state/territory to be located in that jurisdiction, files will be securely transferred from the National Library to the relevant state or territory library. The access conditions will be identical to those of the copy in the national repository.