Who will be responsible? The authentication and preservation of government digital information

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the authentication and preservation of government digital information. The Government Printing Office (GPO) has been the official distributor of government information for 147 years and charged with assuring authenticity of all published government documents. Most federal information is now “born digital” and the GPO is evolving into an electronic information repository. Digital technology has made editing and altering documents easy, making authentication a prominent issue. Through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the federal depository libraries (FDLs) have been providing preservation and access to government information for almost 200 years. In its 2007 Annual Report, the GPO claims its planning on assigning the duties of authenticating and preserving electronic documents to the FDLs.Design/methodology/approachAreas discussed include the GPO and authentication, the FDLP, the depository libraries and preservation, policy and technological changes, and organizational change.FindingsThis paper argues that depository libraries are unprepared for this responsibility and recommends changes before the transition.Originality/valueThe changes could help make the transition successful and encourage continued collaboration between GPO and the depository libraries.

Legal deposit of electronic books – a review of challenges faced by national libraries

“…On the other side of the coin users want free access to material without paying any money (Walsh, 2008): private copying allows the reproduction of a legally acquired work for personal use, but does not consider the exclusive copyright of an author (Schöpfel, 2006).…”

“…According to Kumbhar (2012) copyright and DRM are issues that will still be discussed for years to come; if not addressed, copyright and intellectual property rights issues have the potential to prevent preservation (Moghaddam, 2010). On the other side of the coin users want free access to material without paying any money (Walsh, 2008): private copying allows the reproduction of a legally acquired work for personal use, but does not consider the exclusive copyright of an author (Schöpfel, 2006).…”

“…Users need to trust the national libraries to guarantee long-term access to the electronic cultural heritage of the nation (Hockx-Yu, 2006). They also need to trust that what has been made available for their perusal, would be as good as the original version and format submitted on legal depositthese are complicated issues that touch on authentication and validation of different representations through digital certification (Walsh, 2008), as well as version migration and emulation for preservation (Green, 2009). Publishers need to trust national libraries to protect their commercial interests (Oltmans and Van Wijngaarden, 2006) and to ensure long-term preservation.…”

“…The ability to self-publish electronically resulted in a proliferation of electronic books that cannot be harvested through the usual agreements as with commercial publishers (Brantley, 2012 (Muir, 2001). Examples include the Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries (CIDL), British Library Partnership and Collaboration Programme (Beagrie, 2001), the partnership between the United States Government Printing Office and Federal Depository Libraries for the preservation of digital publications (Walsh, 2008), the development of the National Digital Library (BND) of Portugal through alliances with external partners (Borbinha, 2004), Switzerland's cooperation with the Library Network of Western Switzerland (RERO) (Clavel-Merrin, 2010), and Finland's development of the public interface service (Finna) (Hormia-Poutanen, Kautonen and Lassila, 2013).…”