From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2019 15:59:03 -0500

Forwarding this sobering item from last November, as it wasn't posted
earlier.  How often do we stop to realize what a long way there is before
us in shared print archiving (to say nothing of digitization itself)?

https://www.crl.edu/blogs/holes-print-safety-net

The findings of a CRL analysis of print archives data
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqnRPxBt250&feature=youtu.be> call into
question some of our basic assumptions on shared print. Earlier this year
Amy Wood, head of CRL Technical Services, and Marie Waltz, Special Projects
Manager, using data in the PAPR database <http://papr.crl.edu/>, analyzed
the holdings of three major validated JSTOR print archives: CRL's own JSTOR
print archive
<https://www.crl.edu/archiving-preservation/print-archives/crl-administered/jstor>
and the archives maintained by the University of California
<https://www.crl.edu/profiles/profile-uc-jstor-archive> and Harvard
University. CRL began building its archive in 2001; the California and
Harvard archives were established shortly thereafter, in cooperation with
JSTOR.

Our analysis found that not one of the three archives holds a complete set
of JSTOR titles. The two "dim" archives (Harvard's is a "dark" archive,
i.e., off-limits for use) are far from complete: California holds only 51%,
and CRL 57%. Combined, California and CRL hold 63%. Harvard's archive,
assembled from print copies digitized by JSTOR, is the most complete but at
88% still lags behind the ever-growing corpus of JSTOR material.

Moreover, it is not clear from the existing data how many of the titles are
archived in full runs. The analysis only accounts for titles represented in
the archives by one or more issues. Per volume, CRL's collection contains
approximately 60% of the estimated 134,136 digitized volumes in JSTOR.
(CRL's “invitational” archive, receives titles from deselecting
institutions, and is therefore dependent on the donations of willing
depositors.) And the gap is widening, as JSTOR adds “rolling wall” volumes
and new titles annually).

Considering the time and resources the three organizations have devoted to
archiving JSTOR print, it is surprising that after more than a decade of
building the archives we are still so short of comprehensive. This is also
sobering, because the 4,200-title JSTOR corpus represents a miniscule
fraction of the total number of serial titles held in print by major North
American research libraries. By our estimate, the critical corpus of
humanities and social science serials is close to 500,000 titles.
[SNIP]