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Increasingly, the content that libraries collect is no longer on paper, a long-lived, medium whose technology changes very slowly and with which they have centuries of experience. Instead, it is stored on relatively short-lived digital media whose technology appears to change rapidly and with which they have little history. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The storage media industry is highly competitive and is currently evolving rapidly as flash, a solid state medium, displaces spinning disk from many applications. Long-term archival storage is a small part of the total storage market. It typically re-uses media and systems intended for more general bulk storage.

What are the medium-term prospects for change in this market?

Much of this material has appeared in blog posts and talks aimed at storage experts, such as the recent DARPA workshop on future of storage. It is presented here for a librarian audience with the necessary additional exposition and background.

The LOCKSS digital preservation technology collects, preserves and disseminates content in peer-to-peer networks. Many such networks are in use. The Global LOCKSS Network (GLN) is an open network with many nodes in which libraries preserve academic journals and books that they purchase. The CLOCKSS network is a closed network, managed by a non-profit consortium of publishers and libraries to form a dark archive of e-journal content. There are also many Private LOCKSS Networks (PLNs) preserving various genres of content. Each of these networks is configured to meet the specific requirements of its community and the content it preserves. This paper seeks to address these issues.

This paper describes these architectural choices and discusses a development that could enable other configurations.

Third-party rights databases would allow hosted LOCKSS networks.

Hosted LOCKSS networks would be cheaper.

Reducing cost of digital preservation is important in a time of strained library budgets.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.