First ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation Given to CLOCKSS

Contact: Charles Wilt
Executive Director, ALCTS
312-280-5030
cwilt@ala.org

For Immediate Release
February 27, 2007

CHICAGO—CLOCKSS, or Controlled LOCKSS, is the inaugural recipient of the ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation. The citation will be presented to Victoria Reich, director of the LOCKSS Program at Stanford University Libraries.

The mission of CLOCKSS, a non-profit partnership between publishers and libraries, is to develop "a distributed, validated, comprehensive archive that preserves and ensures continuing access to electronic scholarly content." CLOCKSS is based on the technology of the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) Program. CLOCKSS will act as an “insurance policy” to preserve long-term access to digital content, allowing libraries to continue their role as stewards of the scholarly record without limitations of changing business models or advances in technology. The shared development and governance by major research libraries and key society and commercial publishers is a remarkable collaborative achievement that creates a solution to the most significant challenge of the digital era.

The ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation recognizes and encourages collaborative problem-solving efforts in the areas of acquisition, access, management, preservation or archiving of library materials. It recognizes a demonstrated benefit from actions, services, or products that improve and benefit providing and managing library collections. The citation may be presented to two or more individuals or groups who have participated jointly in an appropriate achievement. Accomplishments that expose problems may be as valuable as successes. The citation will be presented in a year when an achievement of merit has occurred. Recognized forms of collaboration must be between library personnel and other individuals or groups such as: publishers, vendors, cultural organizations, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and the like. Results of a collaborative effort must demonstrate advancement in collection management or technical services working environments.

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services. Areas of concentration of ALCTS members include acquisition, cataloging, collection development, preservation, and archiving of all library materials in all formats as well as serial collection management.

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.