Task Name: LOCKSS -- persistent digital "caches" of endangered Web content

Task Description: LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is a collaborative project led by staff at Stanford University whereby multiple institutions collect and store copies of e-journals and other at-risk web content on local servers. Accuracy and completeness of LOCKSS caches are assured through a peer-to-peer polling and reputation system, which is both robust and secure. LOCKSS replicas cooperate to detect and repair failures. LOCKSS is designed to run on inexpensive hardware and to require very little technical administration. The software has been under development since 1999 and is distributed as open source.

ILTS Group(s):
ITS Library Systems Group
Research & Planning

Status: Current

Status Comment: Yale runs a local LOCKSS cache as a participant in this project. Yale also participates in the pilot effort to collect small humanities e-journals and write "plug-ins" which enable harvesting of content for these journals. Yale may in the future join the initiative to extend LOCKSS capabilities for the purpose of capturing and storing government documents available on the Web.

Initial Period of Activity: Fall 04

Start Date: 9/1/2004

End Date: 8/31/2005

Initiative Type: Integrated Access

Primary Category: Digital Collections

Additional Categories: Web

Primary Stakeholder: Electronic Collections

Additional Stakeholders: Collection Development

E-mail Contact: jeffrey.barnett@yale.edu