Online Serials

Abstract

The paper consists of a preliminary investigation of preservation issues related to scholarly online electronic serials. Some background issues are discussed relating to how preservation should be defined, types of electronic serials, the current and future development of scholarly communication and formats currently in use. The discussion of preservation that follows looks at media longevity, hardware and software dependence and obsolescence, data migration, authentication, copyright and ownership issues, legal deposit and the related problems of who should preserve and what should be preserved in the digital age.

Open is not forever: A study of vanished open access journals

“…Preservation refers to a set of activities to ensure the long-term accessibility and usability of original material, such as environmental control, disaster planning, storage and handling, digitization, and maintenance of digitally stored material (American Library Association, 2008;Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2015; UNESCO/UBC Vancouver Declaration, 2012). Library collections of printed academic journals and books secure long-term access through physical copies, but the shift from analog to digital gave rise to uncertainty as to who is responsible for preserving scholarly literature in electronic formats-publishers, libraries, authors, or academic institutions (Day, 1998;Fenton, 2006;Johnson, Watkinson, & Mabe, 2018;Meddings, 2011;Moulaison & Million, 2015;Science Europe, 2018;Waters, 2005). This ambiguity can be dangerous since electronic resources are vulnerable to various threats, such as hardware or software failure, natural disasters, or economic failure.…”

An Examination of the Adoption of Preservation Metadata in Cultural Heritage Institutions: An Exploratory Study Using Diffusion of Innovations Theory

“…Rothenberg (2000) suggested attaching "annotation metadata" to the surface of each encapsulation that would both explain how to decode the obsolete records contained inside the encapsulation and to provide whatever contextual information is desired about these records. Day (1998), Rothenberg (2002), and van der Hoeven et al ( 2007) are among strong advocates of the encapsulation method for digital preservation.…”

“…Instead of preserving the host software and hardware, software engineers build emulator programs that mimic the behavior of obsolete hardware platforms and emulate the relevant operating system. Day (1998) noted that emulation is an important strategy that has potential applications where the look and feel of an original digital resource is important but where it is not worth investing in expensive technology preservation. Mellor (2003) and Rothenberg (1995) suggested that there may be sufficient demand for entrepreneurs to create and preserve emulators of software and operating systems that would allow the contents of digital information to be carried forward and used in its original format.…”