Projects announced as an idea three months ago are now becoming tangible with real participating institutions, real digital collections, and broader strategic conversations around preservation and access. We are delighted with progress so far and want to share more detail!
We are now working with organizations across three continents to preserve an array of digital collections hosted on a variety of platforms:
- The Committee of Higher Education Libraries of South Africa – Libraries at universities in South Africa hold a wide array of digital collections including born digital materials such as e-theses and dissertations and important material digitised to provide wider access.
- Harvard University – As the newest library participant in the CLOCKSS archive, and with a wealth of experience in digital preservation, Harvard joins at pace and is assessing which digital collections to preserve with us.
- The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) Library & Archive Network – There is a wealth of fascinating digital content made available on Digital.CSIC, a DSpace institutional repository, and our collaboration is to ensure this remains available for future generations.
- The Texas Digital Library and its members – After a long and successful strategic partnership, the University of California San Diego is sunsetting its Chronopolis service, and the Texas Digital Library is launching a strategic partnership with CLOCKSS and LOCKSS.
With more participants to come.
And preservation isn’t the only thing we are advancing through our innovation projects. We are also excited to be convening strategic conversations between librarians, intermediaries, and publishers about post-cancellation access of journals and perpetual access for books.
These are complicated issues, with legitimate perspectives and constraints on all sides. Bringing the right people together is an important first step towards finding practical approaches that work for the scholarly community.