The Story of

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The Story of at the Alaska State
Library Presented by Sheri Somerville Alaska
State Library March 14, 2009
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• What is ?
• LOCKSS stands for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff
  Safe
• A digital tool developed by Stanford University
  Libraries to collect, store and preserve a local
  copy of content
• Ensures continued access to 100 of electronic
  materials rather than renting access to your
  subscriptions.
• Participants all over the world

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• What can happen to your e-collections?
• They can be damaged or destroyed by
• Natural disasters
• Technical failures
• Economic issues
• System attacks

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• Alliance
• Composed of member libraries, a governing board
  and project team members from Stanford.
• Provides opportunity for libraries to develop
  their LOCKSS collection according needs of their
  own institution
• Support software developments and monitoring of
  system
• Members can collect all Open Access titles and
  all of their own subscriptions

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• How does work?

• Start with a basic PC, secure LOCKSS box
• Need at least 6 other LOCKSS machines
• Other institutions choose to join the
  peer-to-peer network and store content
• Only library users can access the materials

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• How does work?

• Runs off open source software on CD
• Configuration stored on another medium such as a
  floppy disk
• Software indicates what to crawl and the content
  is stored on the hard disk

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• How does work?

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• How does work?
• LOCKSS boxes compare copies against one another
  or perform audits
• Repair identified errors or inconsistencies
• Anything lost or damaged can be restored
• Anything found on HTTP can be preserved
• Images
• Blogs
• Videos
• Web pages

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• How does work?
• Archival Unit (AU) collection of digital
  objects preserved as one unit
• Plug-in what to collect (base URL, volume,
  year, manifest)
• Publishers manifest permission (hosted on
  publishers site)

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• How does work?
• Public network free and anyone can participate
  (e.g. Alaska State Librarys state document
  collection). Larger community.
• Private network sensitive materials and only
  Alliance members can participate (e.g. Alabama
  Digital Preservation Network and U.S. Government
  Documents Private LOCKSS Network). Smaller
  community.

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• the State Library
• We used an older e-preservation method from
  Illinois called Preserving Electronic
  Publications or PEP
• Wished to participate in a pilot project that
  used LOCKSS
• Interested in possibly preserving State of
  Alaska documents via another method
• Purchased an inexpensive computer
• Established a static IP as State of Alaska IPs
  are dynamic
• Installed and configured the software

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the State Library
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• What is the cost?
• 1. LOCKSS Alliance fees based on institutional
  size.
• 2. Equipment 1,500
• 3. Non-networked connection 65/month
• 4. Time 1/2 a day or so initially, 3 hours to
  write plug in if needed, 1/2 - 1 hour whenever
  there is an upgrade (at most).

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• GPO Pilot Project
• 2005, participated in project to preserve
  federal e-journals such as Environmental Health
  Perspectives, Amber Waves and FBI Law Enforcement
  Bulletin
• Over twenty institutions involved
• Tested idea of depositing e-copies, similar to
  traditional Federal Depository Program
• Focus to preserve content vs. format due to
  space constraints
• Considered successful, but not continued. Did
  open door for new project

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• Preserving State Docs
• Write plug-in for web filter
• Used CD provided by Stanford and also received
  technical support
• Required about 3 hours to create
• 30 instutions interested in Alaska are part of
  our network
• Use URLs found on our monthly shipping list
• No permissions or publisher manifests needed as
  preservation of State documents is part of our
  statutory mandate.
• Some agency materials are restricted and we do
  not load their URLs to the web page.

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• Current Status
• Still using LOCKSS to collection State documents
• Have had some recent issues with our LOCKS box
• May be tied to power outages but should reboot
  off of CD
• May be tied to configuration issues
• Working on a resolution, but know that there are
  over 30 boxes collecting our materials and
  available for repair
• Added extra storage to participate in other
  projects

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How might you use LOCKSS? Would you like to
help preserve Alaskas e-documents?
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• Any questions?
• Thank you for coming!
• Sheri Somerville
• Alaska State Library
• sheri.somerville_at_alaska.gov