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<font size=3>[Forwarding from the DOAJ. --Peter Suber.]<br><br>
<br>
<a name="OLE_LINK1"></a>For immediate release<br><br>
April 1st, 2009 <br><br>
For more information, contact:<br>
* Lars Björnshauge,
<a href="mailto:lars.bjornshauge@lub.lu.se">lars.bjornshauge@lub.lu.se</a>
or Anna-Lena Johansson
<a href="mailto:anna-lena.johansson@lub.lu.se">
anna-lena.johansson@lub.lu.se</a> (for DOAJ) <br>
* Marcel Ras, <a href="mailto:marcel.ras@kb.nl">marcel.ras@kb.nl</a> or
Els van Eijck van Heslinga,
<a href="mailto:els.vaneijck@kb.nl">els.vaneijck@kb.nl</a> (for e-Depot/
KB long term archiving)<br>
* Peter Axelsson, Swedish Library Association,
pax@biblioteksforeningen.org<br><br>
<b>Long-term preservation of Open Access Journals secured<br><br>
</b>The Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) - Lund University
Libraries and the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands (KB)
today announced the start of a cooperation in order to secure long-term
preservation of open access journals. The Swedish Library Association is
generously acting as sponsor.<br><br>
Long-term preservation of scholarly publications is of major importance
for the research community. New formats of scholarly publications, new
business models and new ways of dissemination are constantly being
developed. To secure permanent access to scientific output for the
future, focussed on the preservation of articles published in open access
journals, a cooperation between Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ –
</font><a href="http://www.doaj.org/"><font size=3 color="#800080">
www.doaj.org</a></font><font size=3>), developed and operated by Lund
University Libraries and the e-Depot of the National Library of the
Netherlands
(<a href="http://www.kb.nl/e-Depot" eudora="autourl">www.kb.nl/e-Depot</a>
) has been initiated. <br><br>
The composition of the DOAJ collection (currently 4000 journals) is
characterized by a very large number of publishers (2.000+), each
publishing a very small number of journals on different platforms, in
different formats and in more than 50 different languages. Many of these
publishers are – with a number of exceptions – fragile when it comes to
financial, technical and administrative sustainability.<br><br>
At present DOAJ and KB carry out a pilot project aimed at setting up a
workflow for processing open access journals listed with DOAJ. In the
pilot a limited number of open access journals will be subject to long
term preservation. These activities will be scaled up shortly and long
term archiving of the journals listed in the DOAJ at KB’s e-Depot will
become an integral part of the service provided by the DOAJ.<br><br>
Directory of Open Access Journals<br><br>
Directory of Open Access Journals is developed and maintained by Lund
University Libraries, Head Office since 2003. The service aims to give
users a one-stop-shop to quality controlled, scientific open access
journals in full text. DOAJ is the authoritative source for open access
journals with over 8 million monthly hits, up to 4000 journals published
in almost 100 countries. “We are very proud of engaging in these
activities, that will add more value to Open Access journals and we
appreciate a lot the cooperativeness of the National Library of the
Netherlands with regard to the e-Depot, the most experienced and
qualified partner we imagine in this regard” says Lars Björnshauge,
Director of Libraries at Lund University, Sweden, “and of course we are
very thankful that the Swedish Library Association graciously has decided
to fund these activities”.<br><br>
The e-Depot<br><br>
The e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands is a digital
archiving environment that ensures long-term access to digital objects
which would otherwise be threatened by rapidly evolving software and
hardware platforms as well as media decay. It is the dedicated archiving
environment for the KB’s national electronic deposit collection. In
addition, it will include the Dutch web archive and digitised master
images. In line with the international nature of information provision,
the KB has extended its e-Depot services to international publishers
worldwide (now 12 million objects). The e-Depot is supported by sustained
research and development efforts geared towards maintaining the integrity
of stored digital objects. “The content of the DOAJ collection contains
many new, specific aspects to overcome. We are sure that we can rise to
the challenge, working together for the benefit of present and future
generations”, says Marcel Ras, Manager e-Depot.<br><br>
The Swedish Library Association<br><br>
“The Swedish Library Association is very happy to support this project.
This is a very specific manifestation of the Association’s engagement in
supporting long term access to publicly funded research publications”,
says Britta Lejon, chairman of the Swedish Library Association.<br><br>
The Association works actively for an implementation of a national policy
for libraries and library services in Sweden. In its program for a
national policy the Association has among other policy areas included
intensified activities in securing Open Access to research publications.
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