The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) announced the completion of an eight-month audit of the CLOCKSS Archive and has certified the CLOCKSS Archive as a trustworthy digital repository. CLOCKSS is the only organization to earn a perfect score of 5 in the Technologies, Technical Infrastructure, and Security category. CLOCKSS also attained the highest score received by any organization that has undergone this independent audit.
A team of prestigious digital preservation experts conducted the audit with reference to generally accepted best practices in the management of digital systems; the interests of its community of research libraries; the practices and needs of scholarly researchers in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences in the United States and Canada; and ISO and National Archives and Records Administration standards. The purpose of the audit was to obtain assurance that CLOCKSS provides, and will likely continue to provide, services adequate to those needs without material flaws or defects and as described in CLOCKSS’s public disclosures.
“On behalf of the CLOCKSS board, I would like to thank CRL for its certification of the CLOCKSS service, and for thoughtful suggestions about how we can continue to develop and improve,” said Alicia Wise, Publisher Co-Chair of the CLOCKSS Board. “The 725 library supporters and 200 publisher partners in CLOCKSS already value the terrific team that delivers the CLOCKSS service, and this independent certification should inspire others committed to the long-term preservation of quality academic content to reach out and learn more.”
The certification is based upon a site visit and sampling of triggered archives content, and upon the review of information gathered by CRL and its Certification Advisory Panel and documents and documentation provided by CLOCKSS. CRL’s analysis was guided by the criteria included in the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification checklist, and other metrics developed by CRL on the basis of its analyses of digital repositories.
“CRL’s review found the CLOCKSS approach, with its simple and flexible technical architecture, to be particularly well suited to the rapidly evolving landscape of e-journal publishing and scholarly practice” said Bernard Reilly, President of CRL.
“The CLOCKSS Archives is very pleased with the results of the audit, especially the highest score in the Technology category. Our partnership with the LOCKSS team at Stanford has afforded us a robust platform from which to deliver our preservation activities,” states Randy S. Kiefer, Executive Director of the CLOCKSS Archive.
This follows an announcement earlier this year that Victoria Reich and David S. H. Rosenthal, the co-founders of the LOCKSS technology, have been named the winners of the 2014 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. The CLOCKSS Archive is a private LOCKSS network.
“The Stanford University Library’s LOCKSS Program is extremely pleased that CRL’s rigorous examination provides reassurance to the publisher community, to the library community, and to the greater academic community that the LOCKSS technology is of the highest quality for long-term preservation and continuing access” said Vicky Reich, Executive Director of LOCKSS.
The report on CLOCKSS Audit Findings can be read HERE