Response to the Technical Report “Addressing the uncertain future of preserving the past. Towards a robust strategy for digital archiving and preservation” by RAND Europe, 2007
See: Addressing the uncertain future of preserving the past (pdf).
Archiving and preserving electronic scholarly publications and making them accessible for the long term is a key priority for the KB. To provide a sound evidence base for this long-term strategy RAND has examined the key determinants of sustainable digital preservation in general, with specific reference to developing a robust approach to the archiving of the records of science at the KB.
RAND states that the KB as a national library and an independent institution with a public function is well positioned to play an important role, both in a national and international context. Prerequisites for a successful strategy as a reliable safekeeper are proven performance, stability and evident flexibility.
Reflecting official rules regarding the responsibility for long term preservation of paper publications, the KB functions in a natural way also as the official e-archive for international publishers headquartered in The Netherlands, like Elsevier and Brill. But as national imprint for international e-journals as such is in general no longer a distinctive characteristic, this criterion has lost its meaning in the context of allocation of responsibility for such journals. International publishers on their part are looking for a limited number of institutions to archive their total output of digitized and digital born journals. As the KB started already in the early 90’s to build up knowledge and experience with the specific subject of archiving and preservation, the KB is now one of the few organisations in the world with contracts with the most important international publishers. RAND subscribes KB’s vision of a Safe Places Network: those institutions that have the responsibility for archiving and preservation of scientific publications should form a network that will guard quality, trust, permanent access and new developments.
On the long term the RAND report advises the KB to continually monitor, anticipate on - and prepare in an active way for future trends. The KB acknowledges this need. Such trends will occur both in the field of dissemination of the records of science, as in the formats of the publications themselves. Researchers use all kind of technological means in their e-publications, from dynamic webpages to visualisations and other programs. This trend brings along the continuous adjustment of archiving- and preservation methods, such as the further development of migration and emulation techniques. Moreover researchers are now able to share their knowledge with every colleague in their field wherever in the world. They organise international e-communities, hubs or collaboratories in which they interchange and discuss results of research. Publishing becomes an integrated aspect of the scholarly process. Hence it is important for the KB to also review the boundaries of the records of science and to discuss how exactly we define ‘publication’.
The KB will continue to invest in R&D and set up new alliances to take up new challenges. Three strands of activities are relevant in this area: R&D on permanent access strategies, webarchiving and collaboration with the research community. Since the e-Depot archiving system became operational, KB has focussed on the development of both migration- and emulationprocedures. These developments have not been aimed at the preservation of text-documents alone, but have specifically been set up to address a broad range of challenges and goals, both technical as functional. This means that KB will be able to give access to obsolete formats in the future: both in original form as in future formats, depending on user needs.