Vicky Reich

LOCKSS: A Permanent Web Publishing and Access System

LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is a tool designed for libraries to use to ensure their communitys continued access to web-published scientific journals. LOCKSS allows libraries to take custody of the material to which they subscribe, in the same way they do for paper, and to preserve it. By preserving it they ensure that, for their community, links and searches continue to resolve to the published material even if it is no longer available from the publisher. Think of it as the digital equivalent of stacks where an authoritative copy of material is always available rather than the digital equivalent of an archive. LOCKSS allows libraries to run web caches for specific journals. These caches collect content as it is published and are never flushed. They cooperate in a peer-to-peer network to detect and repair damaged or missing pages. The caches run on generic PC hardware using open-source software and require almost no skilled administration, making the cost of preserving a journal manageable.

Requirements for Digital Preservation Systems: A Bottom-Up Approach

The field of digital preservation is being defined by a set of standards developed top-down, starting with an abstract reference model (OAIS) and gradually adding more specific detail. Systems claiming conformance to these standards are entering production use. Work is underway to certify that systems conform to requirements derived from OAIS. We complement these requirements derived top-down by presenting an alternate, bottom-up view of the field. The fundamental goal of these systems is to ensure that the information they contain remains accessible for the long term. We develop a parallel set of requirements based on observations of how existing systems handle this task, and on an analysis of the threats to achieving the goal. On this basis we suggest disclosures that systems should provide as to how they satisfy their goals.

LOCKSS (lots of copies keep stuff safe)

Over the last 12 years the LOCKSS Program at Stanford has developed and deployed an open source, peer-to-peer system now comprising about 200 LOCKSS boxes in libraries around the world preserving a wide range of webpublished content. Initially supported by NSF, and subsequently by the Mellon Foundation, Sun Microsystems and NDIIPP, the program has since 2004 been sustainable, funded by the libraries using it. The program won an ACM award for breakthrough research in fault and attack resistance in peer-to-peer systems. Since it was designed initially for e-journals, the system’s design is unusual; it is driven primarily by copyright law. The design principles were:

A future for technical services

Abstract The technical services function of libraries is due for immense changes. The roles it plays will be needed more than ever, but the skills needed to fulfill those roles will be changing drastically. It is not unlikely that the research library of the future will have an increasing need for the technical services function, especially during the transition period when libraries are doing large amounts of both physical and online access of information.

Discipline-specific literature bases: A view of the APS model

Abstract Librarians see the large quantities of literature and the complete writing/publishing/world as a complete system. Changes to one piece (e.g., making publishing or reading electronic) will not fundamentally change the process. The pieces of the system are there, not for technological reasons, but for reasons of authority, validation, and self-correction in the process of scholarly communication. Electronic publishing will cause great changes, but the changes will not eliminate roles that now exist. The changes will be to enhance our abilities to better do that which we do now, whether that be to edit, review, referee, write, or manage the information flow.

Panel on digital preservation

Digital information in any form is at risk. Software and hardware become obsolete, and versions and file formats change, making data inaccessible. Data stored in even the simplest form are in danger due to computer media degradation and obsolescence. On-line information such as e-journals and databases are susceptible. They may become partially or entirely unreadable, and may not be recoverable by the time the problem is detected. Preservation strategies such as emulation (keeping alive the software and hardware needed to access a digital object), migration (converting the digital object to new versions and formats), and other long-term archival methods have been proposed [1-7]. Models such as the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) provide an architecture for conducting digital preservation research and experimentation [8-10]. The importance of preservation metadata has been recognized by a number of groups and efforts to develop and deploy metadata standards are underway [11-14].As more and more digital information is created, attention must be paid to what information should be preserved and how it can be preserved most economically and effectively. It is clear that for preservation to be successful, we need to pay attention not only to the format of digital objects, but also to the commitment we make to providing long-term access to the information. Thus, decisions about digital preservation will involve technical issues as well as economic, legal, social, and organizational ones. Is it possible or feasible to preserve all digital data automatically and in a cost effective way? How much functionality can or must be preserved? What type of metadata will be needed to ensure both access and preservation? What metrics do we use to evaluate whether our methods will be successful.Panelists will make short presentations about work in which they have been involved and which reflect a variety of aspects of digital preservation. Reagan Moore will discuss the levels of abstraction that are needed to create infrastructure independent representations for data, information, and knowledge, and he will discuss a prototype persistent digital archive. The persistent archive infrastructure has been developed for use by the National Archives and Records Administration and other Federal agencies. William Underwood will report on lessons learned in preserving digital records created on personal computers. The records being examined are the digital records created on personal computers during the administration of President George Bush (1988-1992). Vicky Reich will present work on the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) project, which is a permanent web publishing and access system. LOCKSS software allows libraries to retain local collection control of materials delivered through the web while preserving the functionality of the original web based content. Robin Dale will report on activities of the preservation program of the Research Libraries Group (RLG). She will focus on the joint work of RLG and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) on preservation metadata. Following the presentations by the four panelists, Alexa McCray will provide brief comments and then open the discussion for audience participation.