Dear Colleagues –
As the higher education community continues its transition to ever greater reliance upon electronic resources, we – publishers, libraries and archives – are faced with an array of challenges surrounding the long-term preservation of these important scholarly resources.
Notable progress has been made, but the majority of libraries and a tremendous number of publications remain unprotected. Most publishers and libraries are still working to develop archival strategies and identify appropriate partners. At this point, two certainties stand in sharp relief. First, building and sustaining effective and robust preservation solutions requires broad support from a diverse array of publishers and libraries. Second, in this dynamic environment much can be gained by active communications and sharing of experiences among responsible parties.
To address in a small way the community’s need for open communications, three libraries participating in Portico have agreed to share their perspective on digital preservation and strategies being developed at their institutions. We share these perspectives with you in the hope they may usefully contribute to discussions underway at your organization. We appreciate the openness and unique voices of the colleagues whose perspectives follow, and we look forward to hearing from others as digital preservation strategies continue to be developed.
At Portico we look forward to continuing to learn and communicate with our librarian and publisher colleagues. I hope that you will feel free to be in touch with Portico or myself directly if you have any questions or experiences to share.
Sincerely,
Eileen Fenton
Executive Director, Portico
eileen.fenton@portico.org