ACS LiveWire News Flash

[Adam Chesler <a_chesler@acs.org>]

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific 
society, is pleased to highlight two important developments 
designed to further support its library customers, authors, and 
readers.

CLOCKSS Participation

At its 231st National Meeting in Atlanta, the Publications 
Division of ACS announced that it will become a member publisher 
of CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS, which stands for "Lots of Copies 
Keeps Stuff Safe"), a collaborative archiving initiative 
including both publishing organizations and libraries. Over a 
two-year period, ACS Publications will be an active participant 
in the testing of the CLOCKSS technology and social model, to 
support a "large dark archive" that is both fail-safe and has a 
clear process for providing continuing access for orphaned 
materials.

The initiative, which began early in 2006, will use a 
representative portion of each publisher member's corpus.  It 
will replicate this content, using a version of the existing 
LOCKSS software, within a small international network of 
institutions and libraries - thus providing the prospect of 
secure, long-term availability of scholarly content on a global 
scale. Management of the process and the content will be 
exercised by a joint board of publishers and librarians, to 
ensure that all decisions are community-based.

"We are delighted to be joining the CLOCKSS initiative as a 
member publisher," reported Bob Bovenschulte, President, ACS 
Publications.  "ACS Publications was one of the first publishers 
to digitize its back file, starting with the very first issue of 
the Journal of the American Chemical Society published in 1879. 
This effort was a vital part of our mission to provide global 
access to our content.  Participating in a collaborative and 
innovative effort like CLOCKSS is a logical next step, to ensure 
the long-term preservation of this material.  We want our 
customers, authors, and readers to be confident that this content 
will be available for future generations of researchers."

For further information about CLOCKSS, please visit 
www.lockss.org/clockss/.

COUNTER2 Compliance

In January 2006, the ACS Publications Division re-affirmed its 
commitment to providing accurate usage data about its digital 
content by upgrading its statistics reporting system and becoming 
COUNTER2-compliant.  Project COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of 
Networked Electronic Resources) is an international initiative 
designed to serve librarians, publishers and intermediaries by 
facilitating the recording and exchange of online usage 
statistics.

By becoming COUNTER2-compliant, the ACS will supply new, 
additional data in the regular monthly reports it provides to 
library customers:  PDF and HTML views are clearly segmented, and 
the publisher's name is provided for each title.  These enhanced 
reports are designed to help librarians better compare and assess 
the value of electronic publications.  "We will continue to 
develop our web site and the resources we provide to customers, 
in order to ensure that they have the tools they need to use and 
manage their subscriptions to our journals," noted Dean Smith, 
Vice President for Sales and Marketing.

For further information about COUNTER, please visit 
www.projectcounter.org.

For further information about these initiatives, please contact 
Adam Chesler at <a_chesler@acs.org>.  For further information 
about LiveWire, the ACS Publications Division's monthly 
newsletter, please contact Joe Graham at <j_graham@acs.org>.

The American Chemical Society - the world's largest scientific 
society - is a nonprofit organization chartered by the US 
Congress and a global leader in providing access to 
chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, 
peer-reviewed journals, and scientific conferences.  Its main 
offices are in Washington, DC and Columbus, OH.

For futher information about the Publications Division of the 
American Chemical Society, please visit http://pubs.acs.org/.

Adam Chesler
a_chesler@acs.org