12.3 Actions to Ensure the Integrity and Continuity of the Scholarly Record

Recall a time when research libraries held much of what we call the scholarly record. Research libraries had the role of ‘holding library’ exercised by also providing support to many more ‘access libraries’, through inter-library lending and other forms of document supply. To provide access also meant to keep content, for use today and tomorrow. That was then. Much of the same could be said of the government documents and newspapers now that so much is issued online.

Today, it is the publishers of that content who provide researchers and students with an ease of access that once would only have been imagined. Today, research libraries have become customers on their behalf not custodians of content, their e-collections really only e-connections. Providing continued access to the scholarly record remains an essential task. So, how may research libraries ensure that the scholarly record and the resources needed for scholarship remain under the effective control of libraries – either placed into the custody of consortia of research libraries, national libraries or entrusted to the care of third parties? Evidence from the Keepers Registry will be used to report on the extent to which e-journal content is being archived, and would seem to be at risk of loss.

The scholarly record is under threat in another way. Much of the value in scholarly statement rests upon what is cited in order that argument or evidence can be checked and re-assessed. Increasingly, citation is for reference made to what is issued on the web. However, there is a lack of fixity for web references. What is there at the time of writing (or even earlier, when notetaking) may not be there when the scholarly statement is read later by other researchers or students. Reference rot is the term coined for the combined effect of ‘link rot’ (404 – Page Not Found) and ‘content drift’ (when content changes over time, or is now a completely different website). Evidence from the Hiberlink project will be presented alongside proposed remedies that might avoid or at least stop the rot.

There is need for co-operative action, at regional, national and trans-national level with appropriate division of labour. This requires intelligence gathering to establish what digital content is being archived for future use, and what should be regarded as having priority for attention for fear that it may be lost. It requires support from leaders and specialists in and across research libraries, among others.

Peter Burnhill is Director of EDINA, the Jisc centre for digital expertise and service delivery at the University of Edinburgh. He provides leadership in the development and delivery of services to universities and colleges in the UK and beyond. A statistician, researcher and senior lecturer by background, he has worked to support library activity for over 20 years. He led the first web-based serials union catalogue (SALSER) and the first UK serials union catalogue (SUNCAT), and now has keen focus on ways to ensure continuing access and integrity of the scholarly record given the shift to digital, engaged with thekeepers.org and hiberlink. org. He also led the set up of Edinburgh University Data Library, EDINA and the Digital Curation Centre. He is Past President of IASSIST (the association for data librarians and archivists), an honorary Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and Observer with the ISSN Network.