We’re delighted to announce that The Ivy Plus Libraries Collections Group has endorsed Working together to Ensure the Future of the Digital Scholarly Record

Ivy Plus Libraries is a partnership of 13 leading academic research libraries comprising Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and Yale.

If you or your organisation wishes to endorse this statement please write to edina@ed.ac.uk.

We are delighted to announce that translations of Working Together to Ensure the Future of the Digital Scholarly Record are now available in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

As the statement suggests, ensuring the preservation and long-term accessibility of the digital scholarly record and of other parts of each country’s published heritage is essential for scholarship around the world. This is an international challenge that requires concerted, coordinated and sustained action from multiple sectors, organisations and regions. We hope that these translations will help to ensure international understanding of the issues and potential actions required.

Our thanks go to Gaëlle Béquet of the ISSN International Center and Miguel �ngel Mardero Arellano of the Cariniana network.

We’re pleased to report that the publication of Working together to Ensure the Future of the Digital Scholarly Record has attracted international attention and the statement has been been endorsed by the following organisations:

King’s College London, UK

Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC), Australia

Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), Canada

Kate Price, Associate Director (Collections & Research Support), King’s College London, writes:

As a major research and cultural institution, we regard the curation and preservation of information as inherent to our role, and we fully accept that in today’s networked world this must be carried out in a collaborative manner. We are keen to work alongside publishers, national libraries and supporting agencies to ensure that the scholarly record is preserved for the benefit of both today’s researchers and for future generations.

EDINA and the ISSN International Centre are pleased to announce the publication of:

Working Together to Ensure the Future of the Digital Scholarly Record

This statement outlines the actions now required to tackle the evolving challenges of preserving and ensuring the long-term accessibility of digital scholarship. It was produced during and after the second Keepers Extra workshop, held in Paris on the 6th and 7th of June 2016.

We are grateful for the contributions and assistance of those who helped to shape and edit this document.

In June 2016, EDINA and the ISSN IC hosted a workshop as part of the Keepers Extra project. The event brought together representatives of the archiving agencies and libraries reporting into the Keepers Registry and other key stakeholder such as Research Libraries UK, Coalition for Networked Information and Digital Preservation Coalition, to explore potential international action to increase the preservation coverage of e-serials. Following the face to face discussions, the Keeper agencies were invited to submit prioritised suggestions for actions that would support e-journal archiving. This is one of a series of posts outlining key actions that would support long-term stable access to serial content. 

Today publishers not only produce digital serials but also face the additional challenges of managing access and holding content securely over the long term. Archiving agencies support publishers by offering a robust and dependable third party solution for long term storage and back up. This enables publishers to offer assurance of post-cancellation access, and ensures that content would be preserved were the publisher’s platform to cease to exist.  Participation in an archiving initiative is thus an important factor for libraries considering subscription to e-journals. Publishers can support archiving in a number of ways.

Firstly, publishers can join at least one reputable third party archiving agency that reports into the Keepers Registry and promote their participation to customers. In this way, publishers not only contribute financially to the long term sustainability of their content but also help to raise awareness of preservation among their peers, encouraging discussion and understanding of e-journal preservation strategies, risks, and business models among the publisher community.

Secondly, publishers can take preservation requirements into account within their internal workflows and production processes.  Following current guidance to ensure that their publications are created in ways that encourage and enable preservation (i.e. use of certain file types, metadata), and that they are packaged and delivered in standard formats that make them easier to work with.

Thirdly, publishers should be vocal about the importance they place on long term archiving. Publishing societies and membership organisations should promote the value and benefits of archiving among members: these include not only the improved security of content, and long term reputational benefit, but also improved clarity of data and the support and establishment of international data standards.  A strong preservation strategy is a marker of best practice, an indicator of the quality of content and a significant part of any offer to customers.

Learn how research libraries can support e-journal archiving

Learn how national libraries can support e-journal archiving

In June 2016, EDINA and the ISSN IC hosted a workshop as part of the Keepers Extra project. The event brought together representatives of the archiving agencies and libraries reporting into the Keepers Registry and other key stakeholder such as Research Libraries UK, Coalition for Networked Information and Digital Preservation Coalition, to explore potential international action to increase the preservation coverage of e-serials. Following the face to face discussions, the Keeper agencies were invited to submit prioritised suggestions for actions that would support e-journal archiving. This is one of a series of posts outlining key actions that would support long-term stable access to serial content. 

Research libraries have traditionally been the collectors and stewards of journals, books and other materials. Their librarians are expert in identifying, selecting, and archiving content of value to the scholarly community and have strong connections with researchers, who rely on stable access to scholarship and publish their work in journals. It is important that such librarians contribute towards shaping the future of the scholarly record, bringing their knowledge, expertise and skills to bear on the challenges that face libraries and archiving agencies alike. Research libraries should promote the value of this work and support their librarians to join the international community engaged in journal archiving. They should view archiving and preservation agencies not only as a form of insurance but also as partners in a shared project.

As a first step, research libraries could commit to supporting the work of e-journal archiving by joining a third party preservation service such as CLOCKSS or Portico, and/or by supporting local or regional hosting initiatives. They can identify clear digital preservation roles and responsibilities within their organization, and embed consideration of long-term access issues in the process of licensing content.

Secondly, research libraries can collaborate with other libraries and archiving agencies to identify and prioritise serials for preservation. For archiving agencies, content identification is a resource-intensive task, especially when it comes to the ‘long tail’ of smaller publishers. Librarians have a broad view of what is being published where, and can greatly assist archives by identifying valuable content and providing this information to archiving agencies.

Thirdly, libraries can advocate for digital archiving and preservation among publishing, research and funding communities. They can raise preservation as a concern during their negotiations with publishers, enquiring about digital preservation arrangements, and making third party hosting a condition of subscription. They can suggest researchers take archival status into account when choosing where they will publish their work.

They can also encourage library associations to promote awareness and understanding of digital preservation through events, publications and training. Only when research librarians feel confident in their knowledge of archiving and preservation are they able to ‘effectively demand archival deposit by publishers’, and ‘educate authors and readers to consider these archiving provisions in evaluating the suitability of journals as durable records of scholarship.’ (Waters, 2005: 3)

Learn how publishers can support e-journal archiving

Learn how national libraries can support e-journal archiving

In June 2016, EDINA and the ISSN IC hosted a workshop as part of the Keepers Extra project. The event brought together representatives of the archiving agencies and libraries reporting into the Keepers Registry and other key stakeholder such as Research Libraries UK, Coalition for Networked Information and Digital Preservation Coalition, to explore potential international action to increase the preservation coverage of e-serials. Following the face to face discussions, the Keeper agencies were invited to submit prioritised suggestions for actions that would support e-journal archiving. This is one of a series of posts outlining key actions that would support long-term stable access to serial content. 

National libraries have historically taken a leadership role in identifying, collecting and stewarding content published within their country. Although, like research libraries, they typically have close relationships with the academic community, they are distinguished by their wide ranging contacts across the spectrum of publishers, from large to small, and by the diverse and active communities of interest that they serve. While most national libraries have collection development policies, some are supported by legislation that requires publishers to deposit copies of their content. As a result, although the resources available to them can vary significantly, national libraries are uniquely experienced in collecting ‘long tail’ publishers. Given the international nature of publishing today, and the extent of the ‘long tail’ still to be archived, national libraries are likely to play an important role in ensuring preservation coverage is increased around the world.

National libraries should continue to provide their services to diverse publishers, prioritising local and small publishers whose work may not be easily collected by larger international archiving agencies. Collection of bespoke, non-standard formats is an important aspect of increasing preservation coverage and, like research librarians, national librarians have collection development expertise that can usefully be brought to bear on e-journal archiving. However, there is scope to work collaboratively to reduce duplication of effort. For example, national libraries can report into Keepers Registry to share their data with one another. This would enable easy identification of content being archived by others and enable effort and resource to be targeted efficiently.

National libraries can take an active international leadership role on digital preservation and setting priorities, forge international partnerships, and share knowledge and best practice with their peers. Joining the Keepers community is a first step in this direction. Advocating for archiving is a second step: given their wide ranging contacts, national libraries are well placed to raise the topic with governments, research libraries, and publishers. The can also provide awareness building and training sessions for different stakeholder groups to understand and assess risks and take action

Learn how research libraries can support e-journal archiving

Learn how publishers can support e-journal archiving

 

On the 6^th and 7^th of June, EDINA and the ISSN International Centre hosted a second international workshop as part of the Jisc-supported Keepers Extra project.  

Following on from last September’s Taking the Long View: International Perspectives on E-Journal Archiving, the event provided an opportunity to discuss recent projects and developments in e-journal archiving and focused on exploring potential collaborative activity among the network of organisations reporting into the Keepers Registry. Delegates included representatives of the agencies reporting into the Keepers Registry and other key organisations such as the Coalition for Networked Information, the Digital Preservation Coalition and Research Libraries UK.

The workshop opened with a series of presentations, including overviews of the work of two new ‘Keepers’ who have recently begun reporting their data into the Registry: the Public Knowledge Project , which archives Open Access journals published on the OJS platform, and the Cariniana network, an initiative of  Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT).  These were followed by reports from the Keepers Extra project team, who presented the work that had been completed since the first workshop.

One of the main aims of the Keepers Extra project has been to explore the challenge of increasing the archival and preservation coverage of scholarly journals, with a focus on tackling the ‘long tail’ of small publishers.  At the first workshop, it was established that the key barriers to increasing coverage were lack of resources, particularly around publisher participation negotiations and technical set up. In discussion with the agencies, the Keepers Extra project team drew up a series of proposed activities to address these barriers, and then tested the viability of the proposals through a series of consultations. The team found that while archiving agencies themselves often had quite divergent approaches and missions, there were a number of shared challenges around working with other stakeholders, such as publishers and libraries.

Outcomes

The workshop affirmed the value of the Keepers Registry as a tool and locus of community activity and the enthusiasm for knowledge sharing and collaboration which has been evident throughout the Keepers Extra project . The value of coming together to discuss shared challenges was evident, and it was agreed that the group might effectively speak as one on several issues.  Over the next months, a small working group has agreed to collaboratively craft a shared statement, setting out the importance of the Keepers Registry as a community hub, highlighting the progress made in e-journal archiving, and setting out actions now required. It was agreed that regular meetings of the network around the Registry would be useful, and a series of provisional dates were proposed.

Keepers Extra Workshop, University of London Institute in Paris, June 7th 2016

Recognition of the importance of digital preservation has grown significant over the last few years: what progress has been made, and what challenges do we face today? 

Digital publishing has fundamentally changed the distribution and preservation of serial publications. While preservation and stewardship of print was recognised as a core function of libraries and archives, today publishers manage and provide access to digital content, and libraries subscribe to access publications through publisher platforms.

In 2005, the Association of American Research Libraries issued a statement calling for urgent action to ensure the preservation of scholarly electronic journals (Waters et al. 2005). Detailing the risks inherent in the new journal distribution and licencing models that have emerged in the shift from print to digital, the authors argued that research and academic libraries must work to establish ‘trusted archives in which the published scholarly record in electronic form can persist outside of the exclusive control of publishers, and in the control of entities that value long-term persistence.’  Now, just over a decade later, many of the key actions that the statement deemed essential are underway.

Academic and research libraries today recognize the importance of preservation. They understand that archiving is a necessary form of ‘insurance’ and the only means to guarantee long-term, perpetual access. Many libraries now have sustainability policies that encourage investment in archiving services and many raise preservation as a concern during their subscription negotiations with publishers. Publisher awareness of the various benefits of participation in an archiving service is growing. The ‘qualified preservation archives’ that were beginning to emerge in 2005 have become established, and their number has grown significantly. Regional and national initiatives, some led by research library consortia, now operate alongside large globally active third party archiving services.

The development of this emergent ‘archive layer’ has been supported through a variety of investments and initiatives. In the US, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation made significant investments in Portico and in the LOCKSS programme, and supported ‘Strategies for Expanding E-Journal Preservation’, a 2013 project run by the 2CUL partnership between Cornell and Columbia University libraries. Jisc has continued its investment in this area, suportinf the development of the Keepers Registry and constituting an e-Journal Archiving Implementation Group (JARVIG) in 2011, whose recommendations form the basis of the Jisc-supported Keepers Extra project (2014-2016).

Although progress has been made, a series of significant challenges remain. First among these is the challenge of the ‘long tail’. Scholarly publishing is a diverse sector in which a variety of organisations operate. These range from large multinationals such as Elsevier or Taylor and Francis at one end of the spectrum, to scholarly societies and individual academics publishing online journals at the other. In order to establish broad collections and ensure that they are archiving high quality content, preservation agencies have tended to initially focus on working with major publishers. This is productive not only because larger publishers are more likely to have resource that can be diverted into ensuring their content is preserved, but also because there is an economy of scale that means a single negotiation can yield significant quantities of content.

Work with smaller publishers is considerably more expensive, requiring the same amount of initial resource but sometimes returning as few as only one or two titles. Moreover, while larger publishers are both technically astute and increasingly aware of the benefits of archiving their journals, small publishers may not have resources to invest and may not be able to access the same levels of information and support.

Yet it is widely recognised that important and high quality academic content is published across the spectrum, and that if the long tail of smaller publishers is not preserved it will constitute a very significant loss to future scholarship.

A second key issue is sustainability: agencies operate in a difficult environment and archiving is typically seen as a lower priority than access. While publishers are increasingly aware of the importance of archiving, many do not have the resource to commit to archiving their content. The output of small publishing houses and Open Access publishers, whose content does not enter established acquisition streams, is particularly vulnerable to the risk of loss.

As the final report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation (2010) points out, there is little incentive for individual institutions to take action on preservation, and strong incentives to wait for other institutions to act. But the responsibility is truly a shared one. Increasing sustainable preservation coverage of the long tail is an urgent challenge and one that archiving agencies cannot tackle alone.