A talk given at the conference 'Taking the Long View: International Perspectives on E-Journal Archiving', Sept 7th 2015.

1. The Archive Layer, and the
Atkinson Challenges
John MacColl
Chair, Research Libraries UK
Taking the Long View: International Perspectives on E-Journal Archiving
EDINA & ISSN International Centre Conference
Edinburgh, 7 September 2015

2. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Sonnet 73
Epigraph

3. AB Kamleh, More photography from Edinburgh in Autumn, flickr

5. 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

6. 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

7. Loss (Authority AND Control)

8. 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’

9. • ‘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)

10. An Archive Layer
To be assembled from many elements
• UKRR
• Portico
• CLOCKSS
• SafeNet
• WorldCat
• EuropePMC
• Hathi
• … and…?

11. Metadata and Content
Liz Paley, Card catalog in Peabody Library, Might Oughta Should blog

12. 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

13. Remaking the Library
Then
• 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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?’

17. How do we get there?
Agreement among international
research library organisations
• On principles
• On governance

18. Thank You
Ashwin One,
Hornbake
Library,
flickr