Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
LOCKSS stands for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, and was established at Stanford University
libraries in 1998 as a technology to collect, preserve and provide access to e-book and
e-journal content to which an academic library has subscribed. The UK LOCKSS Alliance is
a cooperative of UK libraries that are deploying the LOCKSS technology to identify and negotiate
and build local archives of scholarly material that librarians and academics deems significant.
LOCKSS acts as the equivalent of a digital library shelf, so a library sets up a LOCKSS
box within their institution. They install the software on a dedicated server, and then
a librarian configures content for collection according to local collection priorities.
So what that institution's academics deem significant. The LOCKSS software then contains
web crawling capabilities, and that web crawler goes out and fetches the content so it's an
exact copy of that content which is preserved within the LOCKSS box.
For the library, stewardship is still an important concept, and LOCKSS helps libraries to take
custody and control of the digital assets that are important to them. An extension of
that custody that LOCKSS provides is that it allows them to provide access to content
when they need it. So that can either be in the short term if there is a temporary problem
with a publisher's website, or in the longer term if that publisher no longer provides
access to the material because they've discontinued it or it's transferred to another publisher
or simply because that institution has terminated their subscription with that journal. So LOCKSS
allows the library to continue to provide access when needed.
The distributed nature of LOCKSS allows libraries to get involved in digital preservation without
requiring significant overheads. So they can invest small amounts in setting up a LOCKSS
box and dedicating staff resources to the activity which allows the library to engage
with digital preservation at a local institutional level. The distributed approach of LOCKSS
avoids the reliance on a single institution or a single source of funding and allows the
community as a whole to avoid those problems. So it allows libraries to participate, to
take advantage of those local collections, while avoiding potential points of failure.
EDINA provides a variety of support for the UK LOCKSS Alliance members. It provides first
line technical support, so in the event that there is a problem with an individual LOCKSS
box, we provide a help desk service for that. We're working to build and improve on current
levels of documentation. We provide a monthly roundup trying to keep members abreast of
developments in the field more generally. We also undertake software development. So
at the moment we're looking to improve the user interface and usability of LOCKSS as
a whole, and we also undertake content development; that is, negotiations with publishers or content
testing to make available new content for preservation.
As for our hopes for the future, we've established a UK LOCKSS Alliance steering committee, and
that allows the community to take some ownership of the UK LOCKSS Alliance and the direction
in which it is heading. In terms of priorities for members, improved access to content and
increased range of content are key.
- 1 -