After I received an interesting email response yesterday for an article I’m writing about LOCKSS, I realized I needed to clarify that the Youtube Video I made for the BIGWIG Showcase emphasizes special-case uses of LOCKSS.
LOCKSS is primarily used as a long-term insurance plan for e-journals, and it’s particularly powerful this way because it tips the scales back to librarian ownership of our collections (a theme I repeated in my NASIG presentation, with the observation you will hear from me a lot this year that often, possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law; possession IS the law). For this use, most participation occurs primarily through e-journals and the wider LOCKSS network, not through private LOCKSS networks for special content (though there is great promise for this use).
Furthermore, while LOCKSS software is free, membership in the LOCKSS Alliance is not — though it comes with benefits you may find, long-term, quite the bargain.
However, the technical strategies for LOCKSS are the same whether you are replicating e-journals, local dissertations, or Twitter logs, and the concept of digital preservation holds equally well in all circumstances. I chose to discuss LOCKSS because I’m writing about it for a library rag right now, and also because I wanted to slip a little spinach onto the BIGWIG Showcase menu. Digital preservation isn’t very fluffy and cute, so getting over 200 views of a rather homespun video about replication and format migration makes me, relatively speaking, a dig-pres rock star.
Perhaps I’ll do a follow-up video about the impact of LOCKSS on the balance of power for collection ownership…
Posted on this day, other years:
- Alert the Press: NY Times Discovers RSS Feeds - 2004
- Listgarden: Roll-Your-Own Feeds for the Rest of Us? - 2004
Nice use of video.
Thanks, Karen–I am only just now getting around to checking out the BIGWIG stuff, and I’m glad to learn something more about a technology thing that I don’t know much about. Also, it’s always good to see a video with a cat in it.