Archiving on-line materials in the national collection
The purpose of the National Library is to archive public Finnish on-line materials in a way that is representative of the range of material available. On-line material is gathered automatically with a programmed search and in cooperation with publishers initiated by the National Library. Publishers may also deposit materials independently. There are three complementing collection methods in use:
1) Extensive annual search
The search for Finnish on-line materials is conducted annually with an automatic search programme. The National Library will archive web pages with the domains ".fi" or ".ax". The intention is to also archive Finnish web sites with the domains ".com", ".net", etc. These annual searches are not based on content. The automatic search cannot collect all publications of national importance on the internet. Materials with restricted use, on-line publications requiring fees and materials based on databases cannot be completely collected automatically. The preservation of these material groups requires cooperation with the publishers or producers.
The materials will not be described in the National Bibliography or National Discography, but can be found fully indexed in the internet archive.
2) Selected materials
The intention is to preserve certain types of materials as comprehensively as possible. These materials include at least the electronic forms of
- books with an ISBN number
- publications with an ISSN number
- materials in the publication archives of universities and universities of applied sciences
- newspapers
- official publications
- map publications
- internet-only music (recordings and printed music) or music otherwise absent from the National Collection.
The materials will be described in the National Bibliography and National Discography where applicable.
3) Themed searches
The purpose of themed searches is to archive on-line material relating to a certain matter or topical issue. These materials include
- current materials relating to important national and state affairs (e.g. elections and official visits)
- materials relating to other events that are likely to disappear from the internet soon after the event (e.g. major sports competitions, festivals and concerts)
- unexpected events in global politics, natural disasters and other similar events
- searches conducted in cooperation with memory organisations and various research institutions.
Materials not included in the active searches
The search and preservation of on-line materials only pertains to material that is freely at the disposal at the public. This excludes
- intranet pages of companies and organisations
- materials in discussion and news groups
- on-line materials with very little information, pictorial or sound content (such as sound and picture samples in web shops, internet forms and plugin applications distributed over the internet)
- registers and databases that are either documents as described in the Archives Act or consist of such documents.
