Preservation
Preserving research for the future
Cash and a lack of responsibility hinder the progress of digital preservation initiatives, reports Rebecca Pool
In 2008, the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) surveyed its members to find out what they thought about the long-term preservation of digital content. More than 90 per cent of the publishers surveyed believed this issue needed to be addressed urgently, bringing much relief to resource-stretched, cash-strapped librarians. Two years on, Oxford University Press
(OUP) has replicated the survey. This time though the respondents were its customers, the librarians. As the publisher’s senior marketing manager, Colin Meddings, says: ‘We wanted to ask the librarians the same questions and get a complementary view of what they think and what they are doing.’ And it would appear that librarians and publishers have, on the whole, similar concerns. In both surveys, preservation refers to ensuring electronic scholarly literature remains accessible to future scholars, researchers and students. So, if a publisher ceases operations, a title closes down, back issues are no longer offered or a publisher’s delivery platform fails following catastrophic events such as flooding or earthquakes, the content is preserved. According to Meddings, OUP’s survey
results indicate that the question of responsibility is definitely at the forefront of librarians’ minds. ‘The thing that really stood out was who should take responsibility for this,’ he said. ‘It’s no surprise that collaboration between libraries and publishers came out on top, but many librarians said they can also see a role for national libraries and not-for-profit organisations.’ This output echoes the ALPSP survey, in
which more than 70 per cent of publishers believed that national or legal deposit
10 Research Information August/September 2010 To this end, the survey presented librarians
with three options, with which they could either agree or disagree. First, should publishers fund initiatives with libraries having the option to subscribe at a lower rate in exchange for no reassurance of long-term preservation of digital content? Second, should libraries contribute to publisher preservation initiatives, whose costs may be rolled into subscription price? And third, should libraries take on the costs of digital preservation themselves? Unfortunately the results were inconclusive. Meddings states that there was a clear preference for libraries and publishers to work together on funding preservation initiatives. Meanwhile, an equal number of librarians agreed and disagreed that publishers should take sole responsibility for payment. And similar numbers agreed and disagreed that libraries should fund initiatives. ‘We don’t have a clear answer,’ says
‘Funding is the elephant in the room whenever we talk about this but
somebody has to pay for these initiatives’
Colin Meddings, Oxford University Press
libraries should take responsibility for long- term preservation. And as Meddings adds: ‘What is coming out from our results is that this has to be a trusted party, not a full-profit publisher.’ The thorny issue of money was also broached in the OUP survey. According to Meddings: ‘We really wanted to draw out the sticky question of who’s going to pay for this. Funding is the elephant in the room whenever we talk about this, but somebody has to pay for these initiatives.’
Meddings. ‘And especially with libraries’ funding pressures, there’s no clear picture emerging of who’s going to fund this. Maybe the middle-ground is the way to go, but it’s hard to see. Right now, cost issues are more significant than technical issues.’
Leading activities Neil Grindley, digital preservation programme manager at JISC, (the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee), is not surprised by the librarians’ mixed reactions on both responsibility and funding. He also acknowledges views that national libraries and not-for-profit businesses could take responsibility for long-term digital preservation, but is keen to highlight the leading roles the British Library and the UK’s National Archives have already taken in a vast array of activities. One example is the British Library-led ‘Planets’, Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services. This four-year project was co-funded by the European Union
www.researchinformation.info
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