COPPUL becomes latest PKP Strategic Partner

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is pleased to welcome the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) as its newest PKP Strategic Partner.

PKP and COPPUL are both active in the field of digital preservation, and employ similar distributed, community-owned, and independently-administered preservation storage infrastructures using the LOCKSS platform and related tools like LOCKSS-O-Matic.

PKP and COPPUL will collaborate on the development of their respective Community LOCKSS Networks (the PKP-PN and WestVault, respectively) and, where possible, share resources and expertise in relation to LOCKSS and in support of PKP platforms and the preservation of COPPUL members’ digital collections. This may include cooperative facilitation within COPPUL for use of the PKP-PN, cost-sharing for enhancements of tools like LOCKSS-O-Matic, and a coordinated approach to communications with the LOCKSS Alliance at Stanford University Library.

More broadly, PKP and COPPUL recognize that supporting a robust scholarly publishing system that extends access and opportunities for research and scholarship beyond the traditional publishing model is critical not only to reduce immediate barriers to access for scholarly output. The configuration of the current scholarly publishing environment, which encourages large expenditures of scarce resources on content and services from the for-profit sector, means fewer resources are available to undertake a wide range of community-based digital preservation and stewardship activities which are necessary to ensuring the long-term persistence of the scholarly record itself.

Brian Owen, PKP’s Managing Director, stated: “Long term digital preservation is a critical consideration not just for scholarly journals using OJS but all types of scholarly output. COPPUL and PKP have adopted similar preservation strategies and tools, many of which have originated from LOCKSS. This is a great example of the power of open resources and the ways multiple initiatives successfully intersect and collaborate.”

COPPUL Executive Director Kristina McDavid remarked that “The PKP works tirelessly to ensure that publicly funded research is made freely available to all. It’s a great honour to be working with them at the intersection of sustainable scholarly communications and digital preservation - we are stronger together.”

About COPPUL
COPPUL is a Canadian consortium of 22 university libraries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. It works to leverage collective expertise, resources, and influence, to increase capacity and infrastructure, and to enhance learning, teaching, student experiences, and research at member institutions. The COPPUL Digital Preservation Network works to build capacity for digital preservation at member institutions by offering world-class preservation infrastructure, education opportunities and advocacy resources, and by connect local digital preservation activities with regional, national, and international efforts. More information about COPPUL and the COPPUL DPN is available at https://coppul.ca.

About PKP
The Public Knowledge Project was established in 1998 at the University of British Columbia with the goal of expanding public access to research. Since that time PKP has expanded and evolved into an international virtual operation with two institutional anchors at Stanford University and Simon Fraser University Library. Open Journal Systems (OJS) is open source software made freely available to journals worldwide for the purpose of making open access publishing a viable option for more journals, as open access can increase a journal’s readership as well as its contribution to the public good on a global scale. More information about PKP and its software and services is available at http://pkp.sfu.ca.

More information?
For more information, contact the DPN Coodinator:

Corey Davis, COPPUL DPN Coordinator
corey@coppul.ca
778-677-5746