LOCKSS stands for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, and was established at Stanford University libraries in 1998 as a technology to collect, preserve and provide access to e-book and e-journal content to which an academic library has subscribed. The UK LOCKSS Alliance is a cooperative of UK libraries that are deploying the LOCKSS technology to identify and negotiate and build local archives of scholarly material that librarians and academics deems significant.
LOCKSS acts as the equivalent of a digital library shelf, so a library sets up a LOCKSS box within their institution. They install the software on a dedicated server, and then a librarian configures content for collection according to local collection priorities. So what that institution's academics deem significant. The LOCKSS software then contains web crawling capabilities, and that web crawler goes out and fetches the content so it's an exact copy of that content which is preserved within the LOCKSS box.
For the library, stewardship it's still an important concept, and LOCKSS helps libraries to take custody and control of the digital assets that are important to them. An extension of that custody that LOCKSS provides is that it allows them to provide access to content when they need it. So that can either be in the short terms if there is a temporary problem with a publisher's website, or in the longer term if that publisher no longer provides access to the material because they've discontinue it or it's transferred to another publisher or simply because institution has terminated their subscription with that journal. So LOCKSS allows the library to continue to provide access when needed.
The distributive nature of LOCKSS allows libraries to get involved in digital preservation without requiring significant overhead. So they invest small amounts in setting up a LOCKSS box and dedicating staff resources to the activity which allows the library to engage with digital preservation at a local institutional level. The distributive approach of LOCKSS avoids the reliance on a single institution or a single source of funding and allows the community as a whole to avoid those problems. So it allows libraries to participate, to take advantage of those local collections, while avoiding potential points of failure.
Edina provides a variety of support for the UK LOCKSS Alliance members. It provides first line technical support, so in the event that there is a problem with an individual LOCKSS box, we provide a help desk service for that. We're working to build and improve on carton levels of documentation. We provide a monthly roundup trying to keep members abreast of developments in the field more generally. We also undertake software development. So at the moment we're looking to improve the user interphase and usability of LOCKSS as a whole, and we also undertake content development; that is negotiations with publishers or content testing to make available new content for preservation.
As for our hopes for the future, we've established a UK LOCKSS Alliance steering committee, and that allows the community to take some ownership of the UK LOCKSS Alliance and the direction in which it is heading. In terms of priorities for members, improved access to content and increased range of contents are key.