RE: a preservation experience

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

I would suggest the mission of a national library is not merely to
preserve its own national literature for the world, but also to preserve
the important part of the world's literature for their citizens, and that
they have always collected and preserved on this basis. National libraries
do not limit themselves to the deposited publications of their own
countries--they typically acquire major non-local journals even though
they have to pay for them.

The primary responsibility for preservation may lie with the producers'
national library, but there is a secondary responsibility that lies with
every scholarly library, to cooperate and provide the necessary multiple
coverage -- to a reasonable extent, with a reasonable proportion of its
resources, and preferably in an organized manner. What seems to be lacking
is the provision for organization. The will is there, and the resources
required are no longer beyond reach.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From:	Anthony Watkinson [mailto:anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com]
Sent:	Thu 10/30/2003 5:49 PM
To:	liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject:	Re: a preservation experience

All national libraries who are either committed to or will be committed to
archiving the national electronic published output will commit to
migrating to achieve long term access. There is no point in their activity
otherwise. Publishers (it can be assumed) will preserve in the short term,
while the content has commercial value.

In many countries the deposit of national electronic content will be a
legal requirement. For example an act has just been passed in the UK.  
For some reason the Dutch national library (which runs a voluntary system)
has decided that it is appropriate for them to spend the money of their
taxpayers on archiving BMC content long term. I cannot guess what the
reason is unless the company is registered in the Dutch Antilles. They
archive Elsevier and Kluwer also but they are local.

I suspect that in all normal cases, because of the costs involved,
national libraries will only commit to national content - it is because
that is what the funding is for (when they get it). The US situation is
different and more complicated. If I was responsible for a US publisher I
would not know how best to act for the best.

I am writing with some knowledge of the UK situation. The British Library
will I am sure correct me if I have misunderstood the situation from their
viewpoint and wider from the European viewpoint. There is a lot of
fruitful cooperation going on in Europe through the CENL. There will be a
presentation from the British Library on this and related issues at the
upcoming Charleston Conference (November 7th)

Anthony Watkinson