Harvard University (Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Murray Research Archive)

Working with the Odum Institute for Research (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), the Roper Center for Public Opinion (University of Connecticut), and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (University of Michigan), Harvard will develop and distribute a production-ready open source tool for verified distributed replication of digital collection data, based on an existing prototype. The tool will allow any library, museum, or archive to audit replication of its content across an existing LOCKSS network and will allow groups of collaborating institutions to automatically and verifiably replicate each others’ content. Project partners will develop the prototype tool into a self-contained system that can be installed, used and maintained by institutional staff with limited technical expertise. The result will be a set of widely dissemination open source (OSI licensed) tools that can be used easily by libraries, museums, and archives. The system will provide a technically and organizationally feasible way to ensure that replicated collections are both institutionally and geographically distributed and allow for the development of increasingly measurable and auditable trusted repository requirements. Project results will enable libraries, museums, and archives to safeguard digital content against most common threats by enabling them to establish compliance with emerging trusted repository standards.