Digital preservation of law reviews: Two ways
| Date | 14 August 2017 |
| Pages | 231-234 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-08-2016-0028 |
| Published date | 14 August 2017 |
| Author | Valeri Craigle |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
Digital preservation of law
reviews: Two ways
Valeri Craigle
James E. Faust Law Library, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law,
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This paper will aim to explain two strategies for digitalpreservation of law reviews, informing
law librariansof the options which might best suit their needs.
Design/methodology/approach –On November 7, 2008, the Durham Statement on Open Access to
Legal Scholarship was released to the public. One of its main tenets –that law schools and libraries “stop
publishing journals in printformat and rely instead on electronic publication coupled with a commitmentto
keep the electronic versionsavailable in stable, open, digital formats”–was an open call to law librariesto
start thinking about digitalpreservation strategies for their law reviews. The Legal InformationPreservation
Alliance responded to the need by developing the Law Review Preservation Program, an initiative, which
archives law reviews hosted on the BepressDigital Commons (DC) platform in Controlled LOCKSS (Lots of
Copies KeepStuff Safe) or CLOCKSS.
Findings –For those law libraries without subscriptions to DC, there is an open-source, freely available
alternative solutionfor ingesting digital law reviews into any preservation platform.This application, called
the Submission Information Metadata Packaging, or SIMP tool was developed at the J. Willard Marriott
Library at the Universityof Utah, initially as a solution for ingesting content into the Ex LibrisRosetta Digital
preservation platform, as part of a CONTENTdm digital asset management workflow. Though the
development of the SIMP tool was inspired by Marriott’s need to ingestdigital files from CONTENTdm to
Rosetta,they built it to work with any Digital Asset ManagementSystem and Digital preservationplatform.
Originality/value –Digital Preservationof law reviews is in its infancy. This is one of the first articles of
its kind to provide specificsolutions and technical advice for law libraries.
Keywords Digital preservation, Digital archives, Digitization, Digital asset management,
Law reviews, Legal scholarship
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Law libraries are increasinglyfaced with the challenge of developing preservationstrategies
for digital content often in conjunction with digital library development efforts. Too often,
these activities are doneseparately, which can increase the time commitment and expense of
these projects. To make the process more efficient, digital asset management and
preservation work can be integrated, allowing libraries to simultaneously build digital
collections and processpreservation-quality content for archival purposes.
Digital preservation of law reviews, the primary vehicle for scholarly publishing in law
schools, is still in its infancy. It is not, as articulated by the American Association of Law
Libraries in their PreservationPolicy “the sole concern of law libraries”(AALL Preservation
Policy, July 11, 2013). Digitization and electronic publishing of law reviews have gained
momentum, but preservation effortsare lagging behind. To complicate matters, law schools
still devote significantresources to publishing law reviews in print, despite steep reductions
in subscriptions, and an increasein demand for electronic formats (Reis, 2016). The Durham
Statement on Open Access, a white paper created eight years ago by law library directors
Digital
preservation of
law reviews
231
Received 1 August 2016
Revised 27 September 2016
Accepted27 September 2016
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.33 No. 3, 2017
pp. 231-234
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-08-2016-0028
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5816.htm
To continue reading
Request your trial