Dear Member of the Distributed Auditing Group,

 

I am writing to let you know that the effort we began in 2008 to share
information about LOCKSS, Portico, and other digital repositories has
evolved.  This year CRL is undertaking an in-depth assessment of two
repositories:  Portico and HathiTrust.  We are doing so to foster
greater understanding of and, where justified, confidence in, these
digital repositories.  This will enable libraries to realize the fullest
return on their investment in digital scholarly resources and digital
preservation services.  

 

Portico has agreed to cooperate with the CRL audit, with the goal of
certification as a trustworthy digital repository.  HathiTrust has also
asked CRL to undertake an assessment of its program against the TRAC
criteria.  Meanwhile, CRL is working with LOCKSS to assess the
capabilities of LOCKSS for harvesting and archiving digitized newspaper
content and pertinent metadata.  

 

To guide these assessments we have formed a Certification Advisory
Panel. Its members are: 

 

Martha Brogan (Chair)

Director of Collection Development & Management 

University of Pennsylvania 

 

Winston Atkins

Preservation Officer

Duke University

 

Bart Harloe

Director of Libraries

St. Lawrence University

 

William Parod

Senior Repository Developer

Northwestern University Libraries

 

Anne Pottier

Associate University Librarian

McMaster University

 

Oya Y. Rieger

Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies

Cornell University

 

Perry Willett

Digital Preservation Services Manager

California Digital Library

 

We plan to report our findings at a workshop for CRL members in
November.  Meanwhile, I want to thank you for participating in our
initial discussions.  I hope you will agree that this is a positive
development.  

 

Best regards,

 

Bernie 

 

Bernard F. Reilly

President

 

Center for Research Libraries

6050 South Kenwood Avenue

Chicago, IL 60637-2804

USA

 

voice:   773-955-4545, ext 334 

fax:      773-955-4339

cell:      708-837-0796

 

The Center for Research Libraries is an international partnership of
over 240 universities, colleges and independent research libraries.  CRL
supports advanced research and learning in the humanities, sciences and
social sciences by ensuring the survival and accessibility of source
materials vital to those disciplines.