OCLC to participate in CLOCKSS

Online Computer Library Center to Participate in CLOCKSS Initiative

Joins expansive list of libraries and publishers involved in the community archive

PALO ALTO, California, June 23, 2006- Online Computer Library Center
(OCLC) is the newest member to join CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS-Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a not-for-profit community approach to securing access to electronic scholarly content for the long term. More than 53,000 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

"The partnership between OCLC and CLOCKSS is a natural combination and aligns with our common goal to ensure the perpetual preservation of our scholarly materials," said Jay Jordan, President & Chief Executive Officer, OCLC. "Although there is much work ahead of us, we look forward to establishing a sustainable model of preservation that meets the needs of OCLC's membership and the worldwide research community."

OCLC's partnership with CLOCKSS coincides with a recent contract from the Library of Congress to the CLOCKSS partnership for collaboration with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.

"We are pleased that the OCLC has joined CLOCKSS and reinforced the library community's support of this important initiative," commented Gordon Tibbitts, President, Blackwell Publishing. "Their participation furthers our objective to share governance in all decisions and ensure that no single entity can compromise the long-term integrity of the archive."

Developed through a community-based and open process that ensures complete transparency, the CLOCKSS partnership uses the robust technology underpinning the acclaimed LOCKSS Program. CLOCKSS provides additional functionality to that of the use of the LOCKSS system, which is widely known as a technology to help preserve a library's local collections in the long term. CLOCKSS aims to provide a long-term global archiving solution that will serve the joint library and publisher communities in the event of a long-term business interruption or in making orphaned or abandoned works readily available to the scholarly community.

Commented Vicky Reich, Director of LOCKSS Program, Stanford University Libraries, "The CLOCKSS board welcomes OCLC as a full partner in our work to build an archive that will make available materials accessible to the broad community."