RE: ALA Panel on Perpetual Access--running a LOCKSS box

["Aaron Trehub" <trehuaj@auburn.edu>]

Folks,

A colleague pointed me to this thread--specifically, to the 
comments about the resources required to run LOCKSS 
(http://www.lockss.org/).

The Auburn University Libraries run three LOCKSS boxes: two for 
private LOCKSS networks (that is, smaller LOCKSS networks for 
harvesting and preserving locally created digital content), and 
one for the regular LOCKSS network that harvests and preserves 
access to e-journals--what this thread is about.  We've found 
that setting up and running a LOCKSS box is pretty simple and not 
at all time-consuming or resource-intensive.  I'm guessing our 
systems administrator spends, on average, 1-2 hours a week 
managing all three boxes.  And that estimate is probably on the 
high side.  Also, LOCKSS runs on inexpensive hardware.  We used 
an old beige Compaq desktop computer that was destined for the 
surplus pool for the regular LOCKSS network for several years. 
It did just fine.

As for small institutions: Spring Hill College is a very small 
(1,100 students) liberal-arts college in Mobile, Alabama.  It's 
also a full-fledged member of the Alabama Digital Preservation 
Network (ADPNet: http://adpn.org/), a private LOCKSS network for 
the state of Alabama. The lone sysadmin at Spring Hill has found 
that running his college's ADPNet LOCKSS box is one of the less 
time-consuming jobs on his very full docket.

In our experience, running a regular LOCKSS box for preserving 
access to our e-journals has been simple and cheap.  Setting up a 
private LOCKSS network with other libraries and archives in 
Alabama to preserve our own digital collections was more 
complicated, but also not too bad (the main issues were 
administrative, not technical).  Please feel free to contact me 
off-list at trehuaj@auburn.edu if you'd like more info.

Best,

Aaron Trehub
Assistant Dean for Library Technology
Auburn University Libraries
Auburn, AL 36849-5606
Phone: (334) 844-1716
E-mail: trehuaj@auburn.edu
URL: http://lib.auburn.edu/