Digital Preservation in American Law Libraries

Challenges of Digital Preservation in American Law Libraries in the 21st Century

Annotated Bibliography by Emily DuGranrut

Definition of Project

This bibliography will discuss major challenges that American law libraries face when it comes to digital preservation in the 21st century. Sources in this bibliography will examine four major challenges law libraries face today: copyrights, preserving born-digital items, link rot, and preservation of print materials. Sources were cultivated using the Lexis Nexis Academic Universe, searching specifically for articles on digital preservation from law reviews and journals written after the year 2000 using the following terms: digital preservation; digital preservation challenges; preservation challenges.

Annotations

Claggett, K.T., & Weston, C. (2016). Copyright and the role of libraries in preserving knowledge: preserving the viability of specific exceptions of libraries and archives in the digital age. I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 13, 67-80.

This article addresses the challenge of copyright and how libraries handle it when preserving knowledge. Although it does not strictly apply to law libraries, it is highly useful in examining the challenges a law library faces because it discusses the specific legal guidelines that must be followed when preserving an item for public access. These guidelines include Section 108 (exceptions to copyright law) and the challenges this law presents in the digital age. Section 108 was written in an analog age and many find it difficult to apply in a modern context.

Clareson, T. (2004). Next steps: moving forward on a national plan. Law Library Journal, 96, 649-654.

This article provides a summary of preservation issues law libraries face with a high volume of material incoming and limited manpower to process it. Clareson discusses the need to reach a consensus preservation. Through examining past models and setting goals for future preservation, Clareson provides an introductory view of many different issues, such as deciding what to preserve, which methods to use, funding, and sustainability, among others. Clareson also talks about the best practices models various library organizations have developed to provide rationale for the need to reach a consensus; he argues that having a preservation policy in place will help law libraries combat many issues.

Kunkel, R. (2017). Law libraries and the future of public access to born-digital government information. Law Library Journal, 109, 67-81.

Kunkel's article introduces the reader to a specific problem within public access: digital preservation of government records. The article is useful to understanding the challenge because Kunkel examines the Federal Depository Library Program and the Government Publishing Office, and how changes and born-digital information have affected those organizations. Previously, the FDLP had a strict policy in place for the distribution and storage of government records, but now that so many agencies publish information online without going through the GPO, it is more difficult for the FDLP to maintain that policy. According to Kunkel, this problem is particularly relevant to law libraries because law libraries typically are involved in the preservation of more arcane items that the public would not be able to access elsewhere.

Lynch, C. (2004). Preserving digital documents: choices, approaches, and standards. Law Library Journal, 96, 609-616.

In this article, Lynch provides information about born-digital items and the work law libraries must do to preserve those items. The article is helpful for understanding the differences of born-digital documents compared to print materials. Lynch gives specific detail about two methods (migration and emulation) and how they are used in preservation of born-digital items. For law libraries, Lynch’s article is important because he discusses the importance of preserving journals. As law journals become more digital and include not just text, but multimedia aspects, it is important that the best practices are used to preserve them, according to Lynch.

Prager, S. W. (2004). Law libraries and the scholarly mission. Law Library Journal, 96, 513-524.

This article, a revised version of Prager's speech made during the “What Faculty and Directors Should Expect from a Twenty-First Century Law Library in Order to Support Legal Scholarship” program on January 5, 2004, details the reasons why law libraries must try to further preserve digital versions of research to ensure it is available to future scholars. Prager provides insight into the difficulties surrounding digital preservation of law research by examining the growing volume of scholarly work. This volume can cause difficulties because of the time and manpower needed to accurately preserve it—but Prager argues that time and manpower is worth it.

Rhodes, S. (2010). Breaking down link rot: the Chesapeake project legal information archive’s examination of URL stability. Law Library Journal, 102, 581-597.

The article by Rhodes is an introduction to one project attempting to draw attention to link rot. Rhodes examines the Chesapeake project and how three samples (2008, 2009, and 2010) showed link rot frequency has risen each year. Through examination of these numbers, law librarians can see how prevalent link rot is. For example, Rhodes found that for .org web addresses, link rot occurred 3.8% (2008), 11.4% (2009), and 22.3% (2010). These figures show that link rot is a problem that has increased across time.

Ryan, A. (2004). Contract, copyright, and the future of digital preservation. Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law, 10, 152-176.

Ryan's proposal outlines the challenges libraries can face when trying to preserve items that are copyrighted, such as unclear definitions on who has the right to preserve the world wide web, and whether the responsibility to preserve a digital work lies with the copyright owner or the person leasing the digital work. The article is incredibly useful in understanding how copyright affects law libraries through description of how different materials are limited through current copyright laws. For example, Ryan writes about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how it limits libraries on making digital copies of objects.

Seo, H. (2004). Preserving print legal information. Law Library Journal, 96, 581-590.

Seo's article tackles a challenge not many others have: preservation of print materials. Through examination of common issues in preserving print materials, Seo provides context to how these issues relate to the legal field. The article is helpful to understanding the challenges of law libraries because it gives specific examples. According to Seo, law libraries like the University of Kansas are experiencing difficulty with preservation because the materials law resources were made out of during the last few centuries have not aged well. The university is working to preserve the most fragile works first, and making sure any new books added to the collection are more sustainable.

Young, C. (2013). Oh my blawg! Who will save the legal blogs? Law Library Journal, 105, 493-503.

The article by Young details the challenge of link rot as it applies to legal blogs. As Young states, legal blogs are important scholarly resources and must be properly preserved with links intact to remain relevant. Young's article is a good introduction to link rot because it provides an explanation of the problem in common language. Young examined programs that have attempted to combat link rot and why they have failed, and provides suggestions for how to combat link rot in the future. According to Young, legal blogs can be saved from link rot by practicing good content aggregation, archiving, and management of the blogs.

Zittrain, J., Albert, K., & Lessig, L. (2014, February). Scoping and addressing the problem of link and reference rot in legal citations. Harvard Law Review Forum, 127, 176-199.

This article focuses on link rot in legal citations. Through the study of links in three legal journals (Harvard Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, and Harvard Human Rights Journal) the authors provide data for link rot. The article is important to the understanding of the challenge because it provides concrete numbers and relevant, recent information. For example, in 2012 the Harvard Law Review had 404: Page Not Found errors in 21.9 percent of its links. Only 66.8 percent of the links did not receive any error.