Highlight

Digital-only e-books and e-journals will be lost unless publishers, research libraries, and dark archives collaborate to ensure their long-term preservation. 

Preservation of Knowledge in the Digital Age is a new report was commissioned by Arcadia from Ageh Consulting and co-authored by Tony Ageh, Michael Bayler, Chris Durlacher and Julian Turner. It involved interviews with 43 key figures and a survey of librarians from a range of institutions. It highlights that even when libraries’ licences for e-books allow for copies to be archived, few possess the capability and resources necessary for systematic digital preservation. Moreover, although publishers’ agreements with so-called ‘dark archives’ should ensure that copies survive, this is rarely applied to ebooks and – for both books and journals – the principle that ‘lots of copies keeps stuff safe’ may be being breached in practice.

You can download the full report here.