[edit] Welcome
LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is an international non-profit community initiative that provides tools and support so libraries can easily and cost-effectively preserve today’s web-published materials for tomorrow’s readers.
Libraries inform and educate citizens and provide critical support to democratic societies by acting as memory organizations. The memory of a library is its collections; therefore in order for a library to be a memory organization it must build collections. LOCKSS helps libraries stay relevant by building collections even as an increasing portion of today’s content is born digitally and published on the web.
LOCKSS replicates the traditional model of libraries keeping physical copies of books, journals, etc. in their collections, making it possible for libraries to house copies of digital materials long-term. Hundreds of publishers and libraries around the world have joined the LOCKSS community and are working together to ensure that libraries continue their important social memory role.
The ACM award-winning LOCKSS technology is open source, peer-to-peer, decentralized digital preservation infrastructure. LOCKSS preserves all formats and genres of web-published content. The intellectual content, which includes the historical context (the look and feel), is preserved. LOCKSS is OAIS-compliant; the software migrates content forward in time; and the bits and bytes are continually audited and repaired. Content preserved by libraries through LOCKSS becomes a part of their collection, and they have perpetual access to 100% of the titles preserved in their LOCKSS Box.
LOCKSS, now in its tenth year, is a Stanford University Libraries Program. The software is freely available for you to examine and use. Please join us!
“NYU Libraries’ decision to join the LOCKSS Alliance was grounded in our sincere commitment to the preservation of digital content. We want to support the broadest possible exploration of methods for insuring such preservation. The LOCKSS model is based on an elegantly simple philosophy, promoting the building of local collections and their preservation on site. We are impressed by the autonomy that the LOCKSS model offers and the minimal effort required to run it. NYU has been very happy with its decision to join LOCKSS, and we encourage others to express their commitment to digital preservation by joining the LOCKSS community.”
| - Dr. Michael Stoller, Director, Collections & Research Services, New York University Libraries |  |
[edit] News
On a Mission: Daniel Cornwall, Alaska State Library
March 15, 2008
Library Journal's "Mover and Shaker" Dan Cornwall, Head of Information Services, Alaska State Library, entrusted LOCKSS technology to safeguard Alaska's state documents. Read about it here.
Vicky Reich, LOCKSS Director and co-founder, honored with the 2008 Ulrich's Serials Librarianship Award
February 22, 2008
The LOCKSS Program is proud to announce that Vicky Reich is the recipient of the 2008 Ulrich's Serials Librarianship Award in recognition of her distinguished and ongoing contributions to the field of digital preservation. Vicky's leadership role in the development and adoption of digital preservation solutions like LOCKSS and CLOCKSS ensures the accessibility of serial publications and other digital content for future generations. Read the press release here.
PsychiatryOnline.com Textbook to Be Preserved Via LOCKSS
February 19, 2008
LOCKSS is a unique digital preservation solution that enables libraries to easily and inexpensively collect and preserve their own copy of authorized e-content. LOCKSS Alliance members who subscribe to the American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry, Fourth Edition at PsychiatryOnline.com will have access to this e-book in perpetuity. The Fourth Edition of the Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry is being made available for LOCKSS preservation in conjunction with the March 2008 release of the new Fifth Edition to current subscribers at http://www.PsychiatryOnline.com, the book-and-journal portal from APPI.
"We are thrilled to support APPI in its endeavor to preserve for future generations, not simply its world-class e-journals on the LOCKSS system, but also this important digital textbook. Through these actions, APPI helps libraries fulfill their role as custodians of scholarly content," says Vicky Reich, LOCKSS Director.
“We feel lucky to have the LOCKSS system as a preservation solution,” says Pam Harley, Director of e-Publishing Strategy at APPI, “and to be able to extend their innovative and collaborative approach beyond our journals to our key online textbooks, making sure they remain accessible for generations to come.”
New LOCKSS YouTube video: "Why Libraries Should Join LOCKSS"
January 7, 2008
A new YouTube video detailing why libraries need LOCKSS was recently created by University of Michigan School of Information graduate students. In the two-part series, they do an impressive job walking the viewer through the advantages and benefits of being a LOCKSS Alliance member. We thought you might be find the video interesting, and we encourage you to share it with others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJf38RzihA (part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKr1Adc8tnA (part 2).Over 200 Scholarly Publishers Participating in LOCKSS
November 27, 2007
The LOCKSS Program is pleased to announce that best-of-breed scholarly journals from over two hundred publishers, including BMJ Group and the Oxford University Press, will be preserved in LOCKSS. LOCKSS, developed at Stanford University Libraries, provides the tools, services, and publisher support that ensure libraries access to their web-based subscriptions in perpetuity. By joining LOCKSS, publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine, AnthroSource, and others, have granted permission to LOCKSS member libraries to preserve an electronic copy of their subscribed content locally in a "LOCKSS box." When an article or book can no longer be accessed on the publisher’s website, LOCKSS libraries will be able to serve it to their readers in real-time -- today and for years to come.
"A core library mission is to build and perpetuate collections. The LOCKSS system helps them in their task by allowing the library to collect, preserve, and serve to authorized readers its own copy of the web-based content when the publisher’s copy is unavailable," explains LOCKSS Director Vicky Reich. "The high level of publisher participation in LOCKSS enables libraries to offer tomorrow’s readers access to more of today’s publications."
Bringing Up a LOCKSS box in 5 minutes, 6 seconds
October 8, 2007
Angela Slaughter, Indiana University Libraries, stars in this short YouTube video of how to bring a LOCKSS box online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdcnXrQkaI
Blog Preservation
July 19, 2007
We are pleased to announce blog preservation in the LOCKSS system. As of today, LOCKSS Alliance members can preserve selected content hosted on Blogger, Google's blog hosting platform. Blogs are growing in intellectual importance. This is an important milestone for the LOCKSS Program and for libraries that are building local collections in the web environment.
Library of Congress Interview on Sustainability
July 12, 2007
The Library of Congress NDIIPP staff interviewed the LOCKSS Program about the vexing issues of how to sustain digital preservation programs for the very long term. Read this short report.
LOCKSS YouTube video at ALA
June 27, 2007
Karen G. Schneider, a well known and respected librarian who writes about Internet technologies, produced a YouTube video on the LOCKSS Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOE_Jw23cVg) for the ALA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. The cat's name is Emma.RLG DigiNews preserved on the LOCKSS System
June 20, 2007
"For more than a decade, RLG DigiNews provided a reliable source of current information about developments and research results in digital imaging and digital preservation from an applied and problem-solving perspective. The content included in-depth articles describing innovative approaches, providing lessons learned, and recommending next steps; FAQs on organizational and technological topics; highlighted websites on emerging technologies and trends; and special features like conference reports and document reviews. This bi-weekly online publication documented the milestones and progress of an emergent digital preservation community, from shortly after the publication of the seminal 1996 report, "Preserving Digital Information," forward. When we announced that RLG DigiNews would be transitioning into a redesigned OCLC publication, we received numerous notes from readers, many of whom expressed concern about the future of existing content, much of which is of ongoing interest to and actively linked to by educators, students, practitioners, and researchers engaged in lifecycle aspects of the digital cultural heritage. Given their interest in long-term availability and our own, we were very pleased to be contacted by the UK Open LOCKSS team about preserving RLG DigiNews and we enthusiastically embraced meeting the publisher requirements for adding content to LOCKSS. We hope that you will add RLG DigiNews to your LOCKSS box." -- Robin Dale, Associate Editor, 1997-2007; Anne R. Kenney, Editor/Co-Editor, 1997-2007; Nancy Y. McGovern, Co-Editor, 2001-2006
Spring 2007 U.S. Depository Library Conference
May 1, 2007
Presentations from the LOCKSS Docs session are available at Free Government Information.
LOCKSS Team featured by Library of Congress
April 24, 2007
Pioneers of Digital Preservation on the Library of Congress' web site features an overview of the LOCKSS program.
Presentation at CNI
April 17, 2007
Vicky Reich and David Rosenthal talked at the CNI meeting in Phoenix, AZ. Vicky gave an overview of the status of the CLOCKSS program, and David talked on Can We Afford To Preserve Large Databases?.
OpenLOCKSS Project Launched
April 4, 2007
We are pleased to announce the OpenLOCKSS project, funded by JISC and led by the University of Glasgow. Through this important initiative the UK library community is taking an important first step to identify and preserve open access electronic journals with long term value to the UK scholarly community. OpenLOCKSS project website
CLOCKSS Wins ALA ALCTS Collaboration Award
March 9, 2007
ALCTS is proud to announce the CLOCKSS Initiative as the first-ever winner of the ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation. CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS), a not-for-profit partnership, leverages the contributions of key members of the scholarly communications community. Building on the widely-used LOCKSS system and working outside the limitations of business models or current technology, CLOCKSS is creating a distributed, validated, platform-neutral archive to ensure the long-term preservation of digitally published scholarly materials. CLOCKSS benefits everyone regardless of their ability to pay. By working together to develop and govern the archive, CLOCKSS is a shared solution to one of the most significant challenges of the digital era. Read the press release.
New LOCKSS Platform Released
January 25, 2007
Approximately every six months, the LOCKSS team upgrades the LOCKSS Platform, the software that makes your LOCKSS box as easy to bring online as many household appliances (think TIVO box). Today we released LOCKSS platform CD 243. To upgrade or to bring a LOCKSS box online, follow these instructions.
AnthroSource to be Archived on LOCKSS
January 19, 2007
AnthroSource is the premier online resource for anthropologists. Developed by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and published by the University of California Press, AnthroSource brings 100 years of anthropological material online to scholars and the public. Read the announcement.
[edit] Content Releases
06/26/08
Seventy eight additional volumes are now available for preservation, including volumes from one new publisher and 17 new titles: Marine Biological Laboratory (5 volumes), Pennsylvania State University Press (9 volumes), SAGE Publications (50 volumes) and University of Hawai'i Press (14 volumes).
06/11/08
Eighty five additional volumes are now available for preservation, including volumes from one new publisher and 20 new titles: British Medical Journal Publishing Group (2 volumes), Histochemical Society (2 volumes), Royal Society of Chemistry (8 volumes), SAGE Publications (49 volumes), University of Missouri (4 volumes), University of Toronto Press (9 volumes), and the open access publications Dictynna (4 volumes) and Journal of the Indian Institute of Science (7 volumes).
05/27/08
Seventy four additional volumes are now available for preservation, including volumes from one new publisher and 7 new titles: Field Museum of Natural History (17 volumes), Paleontological Society (16 volumes), Radiation Research Society (15 volumes) and Royal Society of Chemistry (26 volumes).
