SHERPA DP: Establishing an OAIS-compliant Preservation Environment for Institutional Repositories

Institutional repositories are considered an important method of capturing research outputs and disseminating them to a wider public. Thus far, the initial focus of activity has been on the process of establishing repositories and handling issues associated with the deposit of academic research. Given the experimental nature of many of these projects, few are able to dedicate staff or funding to the long-term preservation of e-prints. This paper outlines a potential solution, currently in the early stages of investigation, which establishes a shared preservation environment through the outsourcing of essential preservation activities to a specialist service with expertise the field.