Tony Ageh recently brought to my attention a very important report he co-authored with Michael Bayler, Chris Durlacher & Julian Turner for the Arcadia Fund on The Preservation of Knowledge in the Digital Age. It is an analysis of public and research libraries’ perpetual access to licensed electronic literature. The key word is perpetual. Few libraries possess the capability and resources necessary for systematic digital preservation. Yet the challenge of preserving scholarly publications as digital works fall out-of-commerce and, eventually, out-of-copyright and into the public domain, must be met. However, current library archival practices are not always well-adapted to ensure the perpetual preservation of e-literature. It is not clear how and where users will access preserved e-literature in the near future, let alone in the distant future; and it is not clear how libraries will be able to facilitate such access. To address the gaps in the long-term preservation of e-literature, Ageh et al therefore propose various actions to safeguard all types of electronic publication, including:
- The wholesale adoption of common international standards for preservation of electronic publications.
- Research into developing distributed archiving solutions specifically tailored to the needs of Open Access publications.
- The development of copyright risk assessment to encourage libraries to provide access to works that are out-of-commerce but not yet in the public domain.
- Advocating that libraries be granted the legal right to download and print preservation copies of digital literature for which they have already paid and secured perpetual access, potentially through a collective legal challenge to current contractual limitations.
- [Since] national libraries … are the only organisations systematically, via legal deposit, currently preserving electronic literature … [we recommend that they] systematically provide public access to this material as it falls out of commerce and eventually out of copyright, so that national libraries are actively preserving knowledge, providing access and, in so doing, creating a meaningful public domain for e-literature.
Furthermore, recognising the particular challenges posed to scholarly monographs in digital formats, Ageh et al recommend various targeted actions, including a “comprehensive re-evaluation of preservation strategies for digital scholarly monographs, including the feasibility, implications, and costs of developing capabilities to systematically acquire, print, and secure these works”.
I was thrilled to see the emphasis here on developing solutions specifically tailored to the needs of Open Access (OA) publications. Librarians told Ageh et al that OA is perceived as a positive force for preservation of e-literature, in that it makes it more widely available, because Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe. However, OA journals face unique challenges. First, publishers have no financial incentive to invest in the preservation of OA content. Second, OA publishers are often small and lack resources for thorough preservation. Ageh et al (following Laakso et al‘s study of vanished open access journals) conclude that “there is a very long tail of OA publishers that are too fragile and underfunded to consider the kind of long-term planning necessary to establish systems for preservation”. JASPER, an initiative by which JournAlS are Preserved forevER, seeks to prevent the disappearance of OA journals by creating a robust, sustainable preservation network. To the extent that this and other initiatives (including, ahem, one of mine) are successful, then OA will be a necessary part of the eco-system that will ensure systematic and perpetual digital preservation, but it can never be more than a small part. Much much more is needed.
However, Ageh et al show that research, academic and public libraries have not and do not preserve electronically published material, and for the foreseeable future will not be able to do so. Such libraries are rarely if ever allowed to archive the digital literature that they licence. They do not have the resources for such an undertaking, and have not developed the necessary skills and workflows. Unsurprisingly, the idea of systematic digital preservation as a core responsibility for such libraries garnered mixed responses from them when they were interviewed for the report. Nevertheless, they will be crucial to the long-term robust preservation of e-literature, and the implementation of the report’s recommendations is a necessary first step in the eventual attainment of this important outcome.
However, it is not enough that digital literature is preserved; it must also be accessible and useable, especially when it falls into the public domain. A thriving public domain is a necessary corollary of any copyright regime; copyright protections are afforded to authors not only to incentivise and reward cultural production, but also because the works thereby produced eventually fall into the public domain and are available to the benefit of all. So, on 1 January 2025, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film Blackmail, and John Ford’s first sound film The Black Watch, entered the public domain in the US, whilst the art of Henri Matisse and Frida Kahlo and the literature of Colette and Stig Dagerman entered the public domain in the EU. In the case of e-literature being produced now, it is crucial that it too is available to fall into the public domain when the time comes. A key element of the report therefore revolves around the question of whether there is now, or will in the future be, a meaningful – and enforceable – public domain for e-literature. As they outline, key challenges to the emergence of a public domain for e-literature include:
- Loss of digital works
- Orphaned or abandoned works
- ‘Re-copyrighting’ through minimal changes; and
- ‘Paywalls’ and ‘lock-in’.
As Ageh et al point out, “these challenges highlight the need for innovative strategies to ensure that public domain works created in the digital era remain truly accessible and usable, …”. This will require resources and will, and it will also require amendments to existing copyright legislation. Early steps along this road have been stymied in Ireland. Much will need to be done on the legislative front in Washington and Brussels before an effective public domain for e-literature can be established.
Ageh et al commend the open access movement and national libraries for the work they have done and the leadership they have shown, and they recommend and conclude
Solutions specifically for Open Access materials
We recommend specific research into the possibility of developing affordable, easy-to-implement archival systems tailored to the particular needs of Open Access publications. Such solutions should include automatic archival redundancy to ensure that multiple copies are distributed across participating institutions by default. Following the approach set by initiatives such as JASPER, the project should also promote awareness within academia that publication alone does not guarantee the survival of knowledge. Long-term preservation and permanent accessibility must be integral to the publishing process. …Reforming national libraries’ approach to digital preservation
Our key general recommendation concerns national libraries, which we find are the only organisations systematically, via legal deposit, currently preserving electronic literature. However, this preservation is often undertaken in tandem with copyright registration, particularly in the United States, rather than as intentional cultural preservation for broader public access.We recommend advocacy for a change in that approach as the first step. The next would be for national libraries to systematically provide public access to this material as it falls out of commerce and eventually out of copyright, so that national libraries are actively preserving knowledge, providing access and, in so doing, creating a meaningful public domain for e-literature. …
Final word
… We believe there is still time to act – but the window is closing. Now is the critical juncture to create systems that not only prevent e-literature from disappearing, but that actively preserve it and make it accessible in ways never before possible with print. Through these efforts, we can unleash and secure for future generations the full democratising potential of electronic publishing, thereby setting the scene for a rich and enduring digital public domain.
Hear! Hear!