ALA Meeting Announcement

ALCTS Forum:  A conversation on Digital Preservation

Monday, June 25, 8 - 10 am, Morial Convention Center, Room
353/355

Preservation of e-journal content has become a pressing
concern 
as more and more libraries drop print copies of journals to
rely 
on their electronic counterparts. On September 13, 2005 a
group 
of academic librarians, university administrators, and
others 
participated in a meeting at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

offices in New York where they discussed electronic journal 
preservation.  As a result of this important meeting, the 
document "Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly
Electronic 
Journals" (http://ww
w.diglib.org/pubs/waters051015.htm) was 
issued to the scholarly communications community at large. 
The 
document has been endorsed by the Association of Research 
Libraries, ACRL, ALCTS, and the Medical Library Association,

among others, and calls for action on four key points: * 
preservation of electronic journals is a kind of insurance *

qualified preservation archives would provide a minimal set
of 
well-defined services * libraries must invest in a qualified

archiving solution * research and academic libraries and 
associated academic institutions must effectively demand
archival 
deposit by publishers as a condition of licensing electronic

journals

Speakers

* Moderator: Robert Kieft, Librarian of the College,
Haverford 
College

* Gordon Tibbitts, President, Blackwell Publishing Inc. (US)

* Robert H. McDonald, Associate Director of Libraries for 
Technology and Research, Florida State University

The panel will address issues and raise questions like the 
following: How can libraries and publishers move from a 
philosophical understanding of the necessity of digital 
preservation to productive and concerted action?  What can 
libraries do to encourage publisher involvement?  How will 
libraries and publishers collaborate to support community 
initiatives?  And what are the economic issues involved in 
building a secure future for a digital history? ALCTS Forums
are 
designed to provide the opportunity to hear experts discuss 
important topics of current concern to the ALCTS community. 
The 
second hour of the forum is reserved for questions from the
floor 
and for broad-ranging discussion.

Marilyn Geller
Collection Management Librarian
Lesley University Library
30 Mellen Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: mgellerlesley.edu
Phone: (617) 349-8859