At the SLA Annual Conference in Nashville, the Physics, Astronomy,and Math Division co-sponsored a session, Publisher/Libarian Archiving Initiatives on June 6. Vicky Reich of Stanford and director of the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) project, explained the background and progress of their work which has created software and protocols to enable libraries to cache digital journal content. The project, Reich explained, was motivating by the fleeting nature of that content and in particular restrictive license agreements that do not guarantee subscribers perpetual access and prevent libraries from fulfilling their "memory organization role." She described how the LOCKSS software and protocols work in conjunction with a system of redundant PCs at participating institutions. More than 50 publishers and 100 libraries are participating in the project. The decreasing costs of data storage works in the participants' favor, Reich pointed out. While the emphasis is on libaries' licensed and freely-available journal content, LOCKSS is extending into other realms, namely, a project collaborating with federal depository libraries called
LOCKSS Docs and a project to preserve state newspapers in California.
Terry Hulbert of the Institute of Physics (IoP,) a participating publisher in LOCKSS, described his Institute's "experiment" with the program. So far IoP has opened one publication, Journal of Turbulence, which is an all-electronic journal dating from 2000. Currently, IoP is licensing its archives (dating from 1874) to subscribers either annually or in perpetuity. Their main concerns with LOCKSS consist of uncertainty about maintaining revenues from their archival subscription model and wanting assurance that unauthorized users will not access the LOCKSS cache, Hulbert explained.
The librarian's view was presented by David Stern of Yale University. While Stern maintained that LOCKSS works and tthat the "right players," "logical partners" (including Yale) are involved, he questioned if there are enough institutions participating yet and if the model can work for all parties. He alerted the audience to issues of administrative costs, migration to new technologies, potential conflicts with copyright, among other questions. Should the model expand to include grey literature, local institutional materials, course materials, Stern asked. Should institutions become full financial participants or should there be a scale for limited participation and support? The "real costs of archiving" need to be addressed, Stern noted, remarking that "self-archiving is not reliable archiving," limiting one's ability for search and retrieval. Finally, LOCKSS points to "more than storage and delivery," and includes issues of "navigation and filtering," and must include a collaboration between commercial and non-profit organizations, Stern asserted.
Posted by
Garrett at 6/06/2004 07:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
