The KB’s e-Depot: a trustworthy steward for the digital scholarly record
Continuing research and development to secure permanent preservation of and access to electronic information requires substantial financial, technical and staffing commitments that exceed the possibilities of individual publishers. Therefore, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek/National Library of the Netherlands (KB) has undertaken the development of a digital repository with a specifically long-term perspective.
Digital repository facilities
The KB’s e-Depot is aimed to ensure the research community perpetual access to the published records of the arts, humanities and social sciences, science, technology and medicine, and the digital cultural heritage. The KB ensures publishers, libraries and end users that the information stored in the repository will outlast the transience of digital information carriers. In addition, the e-Depot offers publishers a durability check on archived formats as well as guidance on how to create the most durable electronic publications. As of November 2007, the e-Depot has ingested more than 10 million digital objects, mostly publications by international publishers.
Why the KB ?
As a national library in a smaller country with an international orientation, the KB is uniquely positioned to serve as a trustworthy steward for the scholarly record, building upon its tradition as a national deposit library, and expanding this mission into the emerging international world of information provision. The KB has recognised expertise in the area of digital preservation, and it pursues no commercial targets that may conflict with careful archiving. From the start, the Dutch Government has been supportive of this expansion of the KB’s public role by providing funding for the KB’s research and development activities.
Access
In and of itself the KB’s e-Depot is neither a dark archive nor a light archive. The extent to which access is given to the information in the repository is determined by each individual archiving agreement. In these agreements, the KB aims to strike a balance between the justified commercial interests of publishers and its own intrinsic mission to serve its users. Generally, end-user access is restricted to on-site perusal for reasons of private research only; on-line access is denied. Full access is of course granted to publications by Open Access publishers such as Biomed Central.
Archiving partners
The KB’s international e-Depot does not accept single publications. Organisations wishing to make use of the services provided by the e-Depot are required to conclude an archiving agreement with the KB and to deliver bulk content and specified metadata. The KB intends to conclude archiving agreementswith the twenty largest publishers in the world. These publishers will follow in the footsteps of, among others, Elsevier, Springer, Blackwell, Biomed, Oxford, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Brill and IOS Press who have already made such agreements with the KB.
Business model
The e-Depot is an intrinsic part of the Dutch National Library, and therefore the Dutch Government is the major sponsor of both the e-Depot and the R&D efforts involved. In the coming years the KB intends to develop a sustainable business model for the e-Depot which will reflect both public and private responsibility for our digital scholarly and cultural heritage.
International cooperation
In the European arena a group of research institutes, national libraries and international publishers, coordinated by the KB, have joined together to establish a viable and sustainable European infrastructure for access to information resources, the European Alliance for Permanent Access. Worldwide the KB promotes the concept of a global Safe Places Network. The Network is intended to include a limited number of institutions with certified digital archives which collaborate to ensure that information resources published by international publishers are permanently archived and continue to be available to future generations. The essence of this collaborative effort will be to share the responsibility for complete, world-wide coverage.
Further information
For further details on archiving agreements, contact our Account Manager
Adriaan Lemmen phone +31 70 314 04 68.
For information on the Safe Places Network and the Alliance, contact our Programme Development Manager International e-Depot
Els van Eijck van Heslinga phone +31 70 314 01 78.