About MetaArchive: Collaboratively preserving our digital heritage

The MetaArchive Cooperative provides low-cost, high-impact preservation services to help ensure the long-term accessibility of the digital assets of universities, libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.

Why we need digital preservation.

Today, more than 93% of the world’s information is produced as digital files, not print documents. How do we care for these new digital resources—from government websites to corporate emails and from scanned images to born-digital recordings? As evidenced by such catastrophic events as blackouts, fires, and hurricanes, as well as basic hardware and software failures, we need to act now to begin providing long-term digital preservation services for our digital assets or we risk losing them altogether.

Who we are.

The MetaArchive Cooperative currently is comprised of the following members: Auburn University, Boston College, Clemson University, Emory University, Florida State University, Folger Shakespeare Library, Georgia Tech, Library of Congress, Penn State University, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Rice University, University of Louisville, University of Hull, University of North Texas, University of South Carolina, and Virginia Tech. We are accepting applications for new members at all levels. Please see the MetaArchive Charter for more information.

What we do.

The MetaArchive Cooperative is building a trustworthy digital repository to provide for the long-term care of digital materials. The Cooperative was formed in 2004 out of our increasing concern that the digital items that define our culture and history might be forever lost due to natural disaster, human error, or sheer neglect.

Why we are unique.

The Cooperative functions as a community-owned, community-led initiative. Its collaborative networks are comprised of libraries, archives, and other cultural memory organizations that seek to cooperatively preserve their digital materials, not by outsourcing to other organizations, but by actively participating in the preservation of their own content.

How we do it.

To preserve digital assets, the MetaArchive Cooperative uses a systemic, forward-looking technological approach called distributed digital preservation. Our member institutions identify collections that they want to preserve. Using a technical framework that is based on the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) software, these collections are then ingested into a geographically distributed network where they are stored on secure file servers in multiple locations. These servers do not merely back up the materials, but rather provide a dynamic means of constantly checking each file and providing repairs whenever necessary.

How can I learn more?

Please contact our Program Manager for more information about our Cooperative and the services we offer.