** with apologies for cross posting **

ALPSP has undertaken a survey of its members to enhance awareness of
long-term digital preservation issues and to establish the nature and extent
of strategies that they have planned. The full findings of the survey,
commissioned from Sarah Durrant of Red Sage Consulting, with co-funding from
Portico and ALPSP, are now available as a free to download PDF from the
ALPSP website (www.alpsp.org).

Key Findings

- The majority of ALPSP publishers who responded to the survey believe
long-term preservation to be a critical issue: 91% either agreed or strongly
agreed with the statement "Long-term preservation is an issue which urgently
needs to be addressed within the industry." 9% were neutral; no-one
disagreed.

- ALPSP publishers are strongly motivated to engage with preservation
because of its critical importance to their customers, with over 90% of
respondents citing this as a major motivating factor: a heartening response
for those in the library community.  

- Although 68% of publishers reported understanding of preservation issues
within their organisation to be either 'good' or 'reasonable', the survey
also revealed a wide range of concerns suggesting an overall lack of
confidence, at least for the present. The survey revealed a strong desire
amongst almost all publishers for the development of 'best practice' and
industry standards.

- There is some confusion surrounding the nature and extent of publisher
participation in long-term preservation schemes, with high numbers of
respondents declaring their organisation to be participating in one or more
initiatives and yet the schemes themselves reporting substantially lower
numbers presently taking part. 

- Publisher views on who should take responsibility for long-term
preservation also reveal some interesting contradictions: despite presently
supporting a range of preservation schemes, a significant majority of
publishers indicated they would in fact prefer other groups and institutions
to take this responsibility on. National libraries in particular were a
popular choice. 

- Finally, the survey revealed most publishers are clear about the
distinction between ensuring long-term access and ensuring long-term
preservation, with the majority believing they have clear responsibility for
long-term access. A worryingly high number however admit to either not
trusting their present strategy or not currently having any strategy to
deliver here. 
 
FURTHER INFORMATION:  
Nick Evans, Chief Operating Officer, ALPSP
Email: [log in to unmask]; Phone: + 44(0) 20 8789 2394; Mobile: + 44 (0)
7793 559992

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Lesley Ogg
Senior Coordinator, Events & Information Systems
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
E: [log in to unmask] <blocked::mailto:[log in to unmask]> ; T: 01245 260571; F:
01245 260935; www.alpsp.org <http://www.alpsp.org/>  

ALPSP is a Company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and
Wales Registration no: 4081634. Registered Office: Blenheim House, 120
Church Street, Brighton, BN1 1AU, UK