Country |
|
Why not? Who should take over this task? |
Type of library |
Austria |
 |
Digital documents are not only master copies of printed books, but mostly non printed texts, databases and the like. This kind of material lies rather within the competence of archives ("written texts") than within the competence of libraries ("printed texts"). Most digital documents are collected in archives, rather than in libraries. |
GRL |
Belgium |
 |
It would be good if libraries had the time and the technical means to do so, but in reality I don't think this will happen. Also, should every small library do this then? Maybe it would be a good idea to have one big organisation that takes care of it for the sake of everybody. Or else, editors themselves are also in a good place to do so - as a service to readers and libraries. They are at the source of the documents and are hence much more able to technically take care of the preservation of digital documents. Of course it is all a matter of money. And there is also the danger of the editors being taken over or disappearing all together, which also means a risk to the preservation of the documents. So actually, thinking about it, maybe it is the library that should take care of this! |
UL |
Finland |
 |
Producers of digital research documents should have at least equal interests for preservation as libraries. Cooperation between both of the partners could be the best solution. I also prefer national repositories of digital documents. I hope the most interesting documents will be preserved as national legal deposit copies by the National Library. |
UL |
Germany |
 |
It cannot be the exclusive responsibility of libraries to make available these documents. This is a task that can only be accomplished in collaboration with editors and IT centres. |
UL |
 |
This task has to be accomplished by regional libraries that archive depositary copies as well as by Die Deutsche Bibliothek. |
GRL |
 |
Digital documents are mostly documents meant for immediate use; their value is highest in the very moment of publication. Documents that are preserved in archives are much less used than literature such as text books or bestsellers. Preservation of digital documents should be the task of external service providers, e.g. the editors of e-journals. One could also think of regional or national projects witch guarantee standardized guidelines concerning availability, copyrights and citation. |
UL |
 |
Long-term preservation of digital documents cannot be the task of single libraries. They do not have the necessary infrastructure and it will certainly not be created either because of the extraordinary costs. This task can hence only be accomplished by national and international centres. Only such centres can afford the costs of the preservation of the documents and the programs needed to make them available. |
GRL |
 |
IT Centres. |
UL |
Greece |
 |
Libraries are not scientific institutions, hence are not able to decide about the quality of digital material (in case that an evaluation of the digital material is needed). If the preservation is done without an evaluation, then a robot machine can do the job. |
UL |
Italy |
 |
The long time preservation of digital documents falls within the competence of the general archive of a university. |
UL |
 |
If long term preservation has the goal to preserve all the documents that are produced in the course of time, we think that this should be a centralized task, accomplished by one institution with appropriate resources and especially trained staff. |
NL |
 |
This task should be accomplished by a special institution capable of knowing and keeping up to date the software necessary to preserve these documents in a standardized format for all common public archives of a region (Europe, for instance). |
GRL |
Latvia |
 |
In our case, we haven't special equipment and such specialists in our library for this purpose. |
UL |
Lithuania |
 |
It is very expensive. The European academic society as whole. |
GRL |
Netherlands |
 |
Libraries have to play a role in organizing and coordinating digital preservation. Preservation can be done by any governmental organization with tasks in the field of storing, preserving documents. |
UL |
Poland |
 |
This is a far too general approach. Either of the two possible answers (yes/no) for the question of long term preservation of digital documents as being an intrinsic task of libraries would be wrong. The division should not be between "digital" and "print" but between "appropriate" and "not appropriate" material for the library. The same way as libraries do not collect ALL kinds of printed material, they should not collect ALL digital material. Of course, if the library users are interested in certain digital data, the library should collect it and try to preserve it. But the preservation of digital content is a highly technologically complicated task and should not be the MAIN effort for libraries (which should be selecting and providing personalized information for users). It may happen that what we call 'libraries' will evolve into the institutions managing electronic content in 95% of their daily tasks, but: - I am not sure if they will still be named "libraries" - there will be specialized companies/agencies to provide technologies for the long time preservation of electronic content to be used by "libraries". |
UL |
 |
We are not interested in the long term preservation of digital documents. |
UL |
Slovenia |
 |
Because long term preservation of digital documents is primarily a problem to be solved by high-technology; this kind of specialists should maintain the digital documents. Librarians can only 'handle' the digital documents in terms of traditional on-line cataloguing description (and assist the user to find his document quickly). The preservation itself is, I believe, a different, purely technological issue. For the time being, after only 2 years, every CD-Rom is in risk to become unreadable. So, the technological problem remains unsolved... |
GRL |
Spain |
 |
I think it is not the task of libraries independently of their function, means, collections and legal status. This is in first place a task of national libraries, and in second place the task of very big libraries or library networks. |
UL |
 |
Libraries do not have the technical or economic means for long-term preservation of digital documents. Each library could use different strategies which would finally lead to an incompatibility of such archives. I think this has to be the task of the editors of the documents themselves. |
UL |
 |
It makes no sense that a hundred per cent of all libraries try to turn into repositories. If we assume that some copies of documents printed on paper are enough to preserve them for the future, and if we take into consideration that this system is coordinated between national libraries and depositary libraries in a system comprising national libraries and research libraries, with digital documents the solution is much easier, because the documents are remotely and simultaneously accessible. The responsibility should be shared within the networks and lie in university libraries and national library services. Why? Because long term preservation of digital documents comprises two main aspects: The ability to make the documents available and accessible, as well as the ability to "transform" the stored files to new TIC requirements. PDF will not be a valid format forever. There will come a time when the technology requests the conversion of this format into other formats. The two axis of digital preservation demand for capacities of development and the application of TIC, and the innovations big goals, both, qualitatively and quantitatively. They can only be achieved by an infrastructure which has to be organized strategically and on a permanent basis, in other words: by university libraries together with national library services. |
UL |
 |
A general library cannot guarantee long time preservation of digital documents. E-journals, for instance, should be archived by their proper editors or a dedicated institution. Libraries would then have the rights to access many of these digital documents. |
UL |
 |
An archive. |
GRL |
Switzerland |
 |
Libraries do not have the means to accomplish this task. On the contrary these days the resources of libraries are more and more restricted. |
GRL |
 |
Libraries do not have scientific know how! Only big libraries can afford the restoration of damaged paper, for instance. In course of current economy measures no additional staff will be provided. The preservation of digital documents has to be done by IT-specialists, who do not care about the content, but rather know how to handle the files. |
GRL |
 |
National archives. |
GRL |
United Kingdom |
 |
Possibly national libraries (rather than all libraries), or deposit libraries and a new government funded body. |
UL |
 |
There are three layers: 1) Institutional - there are many documents which need to be managed digitally and this is best done by a partnership between Computing (for technical support) and individual departments making decisions within an institutional policy. The Library will be involved in formulation of policy and contributing material. 2) Consortial - this implies joint responsibility for digital assets either generated by libraries etc. or through consortial responsibilities such as LOCKSS. 3) National/international - digital assets which must be managed nationally, potentially through the National Libraries. |
UL |
 |
This task should be integrated throughout business functions across the organisation. However, there should be an overall coordinating and quality control function providing advice, guidance, and policy and influencing strategic direction. |
UL |