University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The MetaArchive Cooperative: A Collaborative Approach to Distributed Digital Preservation

Skinner, Katherine; Halbert, Martin

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13607

Description

Title
The MetaArchive Cooperative: A Collaborative Approach to Distributed Digital Preservation
Author(s)
  • Skinner, Katherine
  • Halbert, Martin
Issue Date
2009
Keyword(s)
  • Digital preservation
  • National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
  • LOCKSS
Abstract
As identified by the U.S. Congress, there is a national need for collaborative approaches to digital preservation services for cultural, historical, and political repositories. Responding to this need, the Library of Congress established the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) in 2003 to produce a “national network of partners collaborating on digital preservation” that would pioneer a variety of digital preservation services for cultural memory organizations. Among these collaborative ventures, the MetaArchive Initiative developed an organizational model and operated a technical infrastructure (building on the LOCKSS software developed at Stanford University) for preserving the digital assets of cultural memory organizations in a geographically distributed framework. Subsequently, MetaArchive transitioned from a project to a program with the founding of the MetaArchive Cooperative in 2007. This article focuses upon the relationship between MetaArchive and NDIIPP, highlighting MetaArchive’s commitment to enable institutions to host their own preservation solutions rather than outsourcing this core mission. It details the strategies that the MetaArchive Cooperative has employed to support, sustain, and grow its cross-institutional collaboration; explores an array of logistical and organizational issues that have arisen; and discusses the strengths of particular organizational structures for fostering and sustaining collaborative work between peer institutions.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13607
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2009 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Owning Collections

Library Trends 57 (3) Winter 2009: Library of Congress NDIIP Program PRIMARY
Library Trends 57 (3) Winter 2009: Library of Congress NDIIP Program. Edited by Patricia Cruse and Beth Sandore