The Archive Layer, and the Atkinson Challenges

John MacCollChair, Research Libraries UK

Taking the Long View: International Perspectives on E-Journal Archiving

EDINA & ISSN International Centre Conference

Edinburgh, 7 September 2015

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 73

Epigraph

AB Kamleh, More photography from Edinburgh in Autumn, flickr

Where we are• No agreed, uniform mode of practice in research library sector

towards collections, nor way forward• Lack of a sense of what constitutes a good research library: no agreed

sense of priority across student experience, research support services, research collections, and – in the latter case – how those are managed across the institutional/above campus divide• Once upon a time, collecting the world's scholarly literature was easy• Grey literature is no longer marginal; it is pervasive

Two decades ago"A library, digital or otherwise, is always a highly selective subset of available information objects, segregated and favored, to which access is enhanced and to which the attention of client-users is drawn in opposition to objects excluded … when an object of information is moved across the boundary from the open zone into the control zone, then that should be done with the understanding that the library community takes certain responsibilities - and makes certain guarantees – for the quality and accessibility of that object indefinitely" Atkinson, 1996

Loss (Authority AND Control)

The Atkinson Challenges (2005)• The ‘enormous challenge’ of archiving• Must be approached for both print and digital• ‘the maintenance of large warehouses of print materials will

become ever more costly’• ‘It is essential, therefore, that research libraries divide

among themselves responsibilities for archiving low-use print materials’

• ‘With respect to digital information, the most serious challenge universities and their research libraries face is how to reappropriate the responsibility for the preservation of key scholarly objects that are now maintained primarily or exclusively on the servers of publishers and other vendors throughout the world.’• ‘Technical, economic and even political impediments can

jeopardize continued access to such objects, despite the best intentions and commitments of publishers and vendors.’• ‘It is essential therefore that research libraries re-assume full

responsibility for archiving such scholarly materials for the long term.’

The Atkinson Challenges (2005)

An Archive LayerTo be assembled from many elements

• UKRR• Portico• CLOCKSS• SafeNet• WorldCat• EuropePMC• Hathi• … and…?

Metadata and Content

Liz Paley, Card catalog in Peabody Library, Might Oughta Should blog

A Strategy for the Atkinson Challenges

• Take the classic analogue-era institutional research library• Use it as our model• The components have to be trusted, and have to trust each other• Cooperatives, national agencies, national libraries, publishers,

disciplinary hub services, content archive stores• Publics; privates; non-profits; for-profits; community-owned• Use these as the components• ‘Above campus’; above nations• Or below us all – an underpinning layer

Remaking the LibraryThen•We bought in the materials, and presented the archive• Our users trusted us

Now•We need to buy into trusted aggregations, and derive the

archive• Our users will still trust us

Branded with a research libraries imprimatur

• Strong enough to influence scholarly domains•Determining what is held in the

archive that comes from the outside in•And what comes from the inside

out

It needs to be expressed something like this

The model research library•Uses Hathi as an extension of its catalogue•Uses WorldCat as an extension of its catalogue• Shows all Open Access papers via a single interface• Shows all open datasets via a single interface•Has its print collection right-sized for its community

The model research library• Disposes of material via a scheme of relegation that builds

a connected network of shared print services• Signs deals with publishers for e-content that ensures that

the purchased material is digitally preserved, including provision for post-cancellation access• Licenses its institutionally-authored papers to publishers

in ways that ensure the rights are Library-approved• … and …?

‘How close is my library to the model?’

How do we get there?

Agreement among international research library organisations• On principles• On governance

Thank You

Ashwin One, Hornbake Library,flickr