Systematic Approaches to Long Term Digital Collection Management

Abstract

Digital-only subscription is increasingly popular as a means of journal and book delivery among our major libraries. The advantages of digital delivery are apparent, but unlike traditional publications, digital subscriptions are commonly not housed within national boundaries. With an increasingly large proportion of book and journal subscriptions being digital only, this presents an as yet unqualified risk to the collections of the major research and state libraries. At present very little attention is directed to the continuity of access to increasingly important research resources through periods of economic, social or military instability. This is typical of long-term resource management on the Internet. A model for managing the risks associated with these new directions must address both business risks of digital collection continuity and systems issues of content discovery, sharing and reuse. Escrow contracts are an established method to guarantee continuity of business when licensing business-critical software applications. The article examines low cost community driven resource sharing networks (the GratisNe case study) and new approaches to content syndication. A case for the establishment of a digital escrow database at the community level is presented with an architecture that embraces both the business and systems issues of long-term management of the digital resource supply.