Permanent access to the records of science requires European coordination
Researchers, research institutions, funding agencies, libraries and publishers agree that funding digital preservation and permanent access to the records of science must be organised at national, European and global levels. Such was the conclusion of the participants in the 2008 Annual Conference of the Alliance for Permanent Access on 4 November in Budapest. The theme was: Keeping the records of science accessible: can we afford it? Business models for permanent access.
Alliance chair Keith Jeffery observed at the start of the conference that as access to scientific information is a common good, public funding is called for. However, this answered but the first of many questions: How much does digital preservation cost? How to we quantify the value created? Who takes responsibility?
Not all of these questions were fully answered during the conference, but the research community and the Alliance (in which the NCDD participates) did formulate an agenda for further action.
A comprehensive conference report is available from the Alliance's website.
