Preservation of content in electronic journals
Via Knowledgespeak press release:
Two years after a meeting calling for urgent action to preserve scholarly e-journals, the results of a survey of 1,371 library directors of four-year colleges and universities in the United States have been released.
Most library directors who responded believe their own institution has a responsibility to take action to prevent intolerable loss of scholarly records. But although larger libraries support one or more e-journal preservation initiatives, most respondents from smaller libraries are yet to support any preservation effort and secure permanent access to e-journals for their institutions.
The survey, conducted by Portico and Ithaca, raises questions about how the responsibility for preservation of critical electronic resources should be supported by the community, even as electronic resources expenditures expand substantially at libraries across the spectrum. The organizers hope that the report will be a catalyst for leaders of libraries, consortia, and other organizations to provide a mechanism for digital preservation. The full report is available for download as a PDF. (A summary is available here.) Readers are also invited to share comments and reactions in the provided online discussion space.
