The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has announced the completion of an eight-month audit of the CLOCKSS Archive and has certified the CLOCKSS Archive as a trustworthy digital repository. CLOCKSS claims to be the only organisation to earn a perfect score of 5 in the Technologies, Technical Infrastructure, and Security category. CLOCKSS also attained the highest score received by any organisation that has undergone this independent audit.
A team of prestigious digital preservation experts conducted the audit with reference to generally accepted best practices in the management of digital systems; the interests of its community of research libraries; the practices and needs of scholarly researchers in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences in the United States and Canada; and ISO and National Archives and Records Administration standards. The purpose of the audit was to obtain assurance that CLOCKSS provides, and will likely continue to provide, services adequate to those needs without material flaws or defects and as described in CLOCKSS's public disclosures.
The certification is based upon a site visit and sampling of triggered archives content, and upon the review of information gathered by CRL and its Certification Advisory Panel and documents and documentation provided by CLOCKSS. CRL's analysis was guided by the criteria included in the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification checklist, and other metrics developed by CRL on the basis of its analyses of digital repositories.
