Puzzling Through the Pieces Together: Developing the Preservation Service Model for a National Repository Service

Institutional repositories (IRs) house a significant record of unique academic works. Preserving these materials is vital to ensure ongoing access and usability, however there are several obstacles for preservation in the IR context. This paper outlines how the preservation puzzle is being approached by Scholaris, a new Canadian shared IR service that aims to support the open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian scholarship. The service is being developed through an Early Adopter Program coordinated by Scholars Portal at the University of Toronto Libraries and expert groups facilitated by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. This includes the Scholaris Digital Preservation Expert Group, which is lending support to create the digital preservation offering for the service. Beginning with an overview of digital preservation in the IR context and the Canadian landscape that led to the formation of Scholaris, the authors outline the goals and ongoing work of the expert group and reflect on challenges and lessons learned so far.