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

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fax:      773-955-4339

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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.