E-print Services and Long-term Access to the Record of Scholarly and Scientific Research

Michael Day, Research Officer     m.day@ukoln.ac.uk     (UKOLN: the UK Office for Library and Information Networking)

Ariadne 2001
(ReLIS:doi:doiari:y:2001:i:28:p:18)

Abstract:

In the April 2001 issue of D-Lib Magazine, Peter Hirtle produced an editorial highlighting the potential for confusion between the standards being developed by the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and the draft Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). He noted the frustration that can ensue when words that have a clearly understood meaning in one domain begin to be used by others in a different way. Hirtle ended his editorial with a suggestion for an OAIS-compatible OAI system that would offer "assurances of long-term accessibility, reliability, and integrity". While acknowledging the potential value of such a system, this column will confine itself to a preliminary investigation of the long-term preservation implications of just one of the OAI protocol's potential applications, i.e. e-print services (or archives). As the OAI Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Web page states, the use of the term 'archive' "reflects the origins of the OAI – in the E-Prints community where the term archive is generally accepted as a synonym for [a] repository of scholarly papers". This appears to be a development of the way computing scientists have used the term to refer to the creation of secure backup copies for a fixed period of time - a usage included in the current edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: In computing ... to transfer to a store containing infrequently used files, or to a lower level in the hierarchy of memories. The main problem with this usage is not just that it excludes connotations of "long-term value, statutory authorization and institutional policy" (to quote the OAI FAQ again) but that it might encourage complacency, subconsciously implying that all long-term digital preservation issues have been resolved.

Note: Michael Day looks at the long-term preservation implications of one of the OAI protocol's potential applications - e-print services.
Month: 22-June-2001
Year: 2001

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