Digital Archiving & Preservation
With digital information, it is not clear to the user how this information will be preserved and archived for future generations. There are currently several initiatives to help preserve digital content and to help preserve access to content. These initiatives require cooperation between libraries and publishers to ensure that content is safely archived and accessible. Our journal is included in the following networks for digital archiving and long-term preservation.
- LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), based at Stanford University
- CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), An independent non-profit organization.
Copies of scholarly material are kept on many computers in multiple locations around the world. These copies are regularly compared to each other in order to detect any loss of data or errors. The missing or corrupted data can be restored by copying intact data from other locations, ensuring that each copy stays readable and accessible.
LOCKSS is a "light" archive, which means that it can provide access to content even in the case of a temporary loss of access. If a publisher's server goes offline, LOCKSS participants can access their archived copy.
Other archival services, like CLOCKKS, are "dark" archives, meaning that they serve as long-term archives, but users can only access content in the event of a catastrophic loss of access (e.g. the publisher goes bankrupt and ceases to exist).
