STM publisher Springer Science+Business Media, Germany, has announced a partnership with the community-governed archive cooperative Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (CLOCKSS) to preserve Springer content in the CLOCKSS global archive. Springer publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook collection worldwide. Springer is a founding member of CLOCKSS.
The CLOCKSS archive allows research libraries and scholarly publishers, who launched CLOCKSS as a pilot programme, to preserve and store its electronic content. Once ingested, the econtent is kept safe and secure in a dark archive until it is triggered and the CLOCKSS Board determines that the content should be copied from the archive and made freely available to all, regardless of prior subscription. Due to the success of the pilot programme, the founding members unanimously agreed to incorporate and invite others to participate in CLOCKSS.
Participating CLOCKSS libraries and publishers govern the archive themselves via three tiers of governance - an executive board, a board of directors, and an advisory council. Research libraries working alongside publishers like Springer are able to help shape policy and practice in their communities.
In addition to storing Springer's journal content with CLOCKSS, the publisher has submitted a proposal to the CLOCKSS Board outlining a pilot project to test the feasibility and legal issues surrounding preservation of eBook content. Because eBook contracts differ from journal contracts, Springer can only deposit eBook files when its authors' rights are protected.
