Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant

<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant

Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources

Friday, June 17, 2005

LOCKSS
http://www.lockss.org/

Seven million pages of new information are added to the world-wide-web each day. Websites are becoming the version of record for many scientific journals. As a result, academic libraries are faced with the urgent problem of creating online collections with the staying power of traditional hardcopy books and journals. Information stored on paper can survive for millennia; information stored digitally today may not be recoverable next week. For librarians whose mission is to build collections and transmit today's intellectual, cultural, and historical output to the future, this is fast becoming a nightmare. The LOCKSS Program, initiated by Stanford University Libraries, is coming to their aid. 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: 1) Can easily and affordably create, preserve, and archive local electronic collections; 2) Own rather than lease electronic information; 3) Retain traditional custodial role of scholarly information; and 4) Provide continuing and perpetual access to their local community.

Publishers: 1) 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; 2) Ensure perpetual access to their materials; 3) Fulfill librarians' requirements that publishers guarantee both continuing (day to day) and perpetual (very long-term) access to purchased content.

Researchers and Journal Readers: 1) Can access archived and newly published content transparently at its original URLs; 2) Can use existing search engines to transparently locate archived content; and 3) Need not be aware that LOCKSS exists in order to take advantage of it.

Currently, more than 80 libraries and 50 publishers from around the world are using the software. In addition, the Stanford LOCKSS team is collaborating with institutions through the LOCKSS Alliance to further collection, technical, and community development. This has been added to Research Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:15 AM

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