Libraries have always taken on custodial responsibilities for
the long-term preservation of library materials and other
cultural artifacts in their care. Today's digital world
changes the nature and scope of those responsibilities. Not
all questions have been answered in regard to preservation of
the digital library. Yet many in the library world are
actively filling in the blanks.
One particular facet of this is the serial literature. More
and more journals have electronic components or are published
solely in an electronic form. What are the long-term risks
to the ongoing accessibility of this literature? What risks
are there in this regard should the publisher go out of
business?
Librarians have a long tradition that includes a focus on
stewardship. But, library budgets are strapped in attempting
to provide new services while maintaining age-old parts of
their mission. Surely, the publishers also have
responsibilities in this realm. The scope of the issue calls
out for collaboration. Here is yet another area where we as
librarians know that we'll have to work together to be able
to solve this problem.
Non-profit organizations, ARL plus other libraries and
publishers have commenced this collaboration. Two examples
are the LOCKSS and Portico projects.
LOCKSS (the following is from http://www.lockss.org)
LOCKSS (for "Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe") is open source
software that provides librarians with an easy  and inexpensive
way to collect, store, preserve, and provide access to their
own, local copy of authorized content they purchase. Running
on standard desktop hardware and requiring almost no technical
administration, LOCKSS converts a personal computer into a
digital preservation appliance, creating low-cost, persistent,
accessible copies of e-journal content as it is published.
Since pages in these appliances are never flushed, the local
community's access to that content is safeguarded. Accuracy
and completeness of LOCKSS appliances is assured through a
robust and secure, peer-to-peer polling and reputation system.
LOCKSS provides benefits to libraries, publishers and
researchers, while capitalizing on their traditional roles.
Libraries:
- Can easily and affordably create, preserve, and archive
local electronic collections;
- Own rather than lease electronic information;
- Retain traditional custodial role of scholarly information;
- Provide continuing and perpetual access to their local
community.
Publishers:
- Can easily and affordably provide content to the libraries
for preservation and archiving with minimal risk to their
business models or to their publishing platforms;
- Ensure perpetual access to their materials;
- Fulfill librarians' requirements that publishers guarantee
both continuing (day to day) and perpetual (very long-term)
access to purchased content.
Researchers and Journal Readers:
- Can access archived and newly published content
transparently at its original URLs;
- Can use existing search engines to transparently locate
archived content;
- Need not be aware that LOCKSS exists in order to take
advantage of it.
The design of the LOCKSS technology is based on a few key ideas:
* The major threat to digital preservation is economic; no
one has enough money to do a perfect job of preserving
everything they would like to. Thus the less expensive
the system is to run, the more content will be saved and
the longer it will survive. ...
Portico (the following is from http://www.portico.org)
The scale and complexity of the infrastructure and operation
necessary to preserve core electronic scholarly literature
exceeds that which can be supported by any individual library
or institutional budget. After extensive, iterative discussion
in the library and publisher communities, the Portico electronic archiving service has been shaped in response to
this need.
Portico began as the Electronic-Archiving Initiative launched
by JSTOR in 2002 with a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation to build upon The Foundation's seminal E-Journal
Archiving Program. The charge of the Electronic-Archiving
Initiative was to build a sustainable electronic-archiving
model, and for more than two years, project staff worked on
the development of necessary technology and engaged in extensive
discussions with publishers and libraries to craft an approach
that balances the needs of publishers and libraries while
generating sufficient funding for the archive.
The Portico service offers a permanent archive of electronic
scholarly journals, thereby providing protection  against the
potential loss of access to e-literature integral to a
library's collection.
Portico provides all libraries supporting the archive with
campus-wide access to archived content when specific trigger
events occur, and when titles are no longer available from
the publisher or other source. Trigger events include:
- A publisher stops operations; or
- A publisher ceases to publish a title; or
- A publisher no longer offers back issues; or
- Upon catastrophic and sustained failure of a publisher's
delivery platform.
Portico also provides a reliable means to secure perpetual
access, if participating publishers choose to designate Portico
as a provider of post-cancellation access. In addition, select
librarians at participating libraries are granted password-controlled access for verification and audit purposes
only.
The two projects are taking different approaches. Publisher
content is likely to vary also between the two projects. But,
no matter if you are in a library large or small, we all need
to be aware of and consider participating in efforts such as
LOCKSS and Portico.
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LOCKSS & Portico -- Collaborative Projects for Preserving
Electronic Journals![[Image: Bobby Approved Logo]](approved.gif){kind=small}