Retaining Access to Outdated Content - webpublishing.agimo.gov.au http://webpublishing.agimo.gov.au/ en-au 60 Retaining Access to Outdated Content http://webpublishing.agimo.gov.au/Retaining_Access_to_Outdated_Content

Retaining Access to Outdated Content

Website content becomes out of date over time as the business of government changes to meet new circumstances. The impact of changes to government on websites may include the need to create websites, amalgamate content, consolidate information with other websites, decommission websites or substantially modify content.

Agencies should consider the issue of preserving and retaining access to website content that becomes outdated

Why Must I?

Agencies should be aware of their obligations under the Archives Act 1983. Government websites are considered to be Commonwealth records under the Act and a snapshot of the old and new sites should be taken and kept as ‘retain as national archives’ in accordance with entry 1935 of the Administrative Functions Disposal Authority and lodged with the National Archives of Australia (NAA).

The Archives Act 1983 also establishes that the public generally has a right of access to Commonwealth records.

How Do I?

Agencies should consider options for retaining public access to out of date web content, including:

  • preserving key electronic resources in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora Web Archive;
  • creating a publicly accessible archive for out of date web content, on their websites (e.g. AGIMO Archive); or
  • publishing information on how to obtain out of date content that is no longer available through their websites.

Government resources

Advice

Australia.gov.au, as the online entry point to the Australian Government, provides links to content on agency and ministerial websites. Changes to websites and to links will be reflected on australia.gov.au as soon as the website administrators become aware of them.

Web managers are encouraged to inform the australia.gov.au administrators, via an email to australia.gov@finance.gov.au, of new or archived websites and all major changes to existing websites.

Who Can Help?

For archiving assistance contact:

National Archives of Australia
Email: recordkeeping@naa.gov.au
Tel: 02 62123610
Fax: 02 6212 3989

What's Related?

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