Digital Preservation

CRL supports libraries' efforts to provide affordable, persistent access to traditional and digital resources. This support accords with CRL’s mission to ensure the availability of the knowledge resources vital to research and learning in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

In this role CRL gathers and shares information about the archiving of print and digital resources of interest to its community.  CRL research, analysis, and reports are designed to help research libraries make informed decisions, and optimize returns, on their investment in traditional and digital collections. 

CRL efforts in this arena have received major support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,  the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Science Foundation.


Certification and Assessment of Digital Repositories

CRL has been engaged in the assessment and certification of digital repositories since 2006. CRL's assessments are undertaken on behalf of research libraries that invest in and/or rely upon the repositories examined. Read more...

Digital Preservation Metrics

Various metrics have been developed for assessing digital repositories. Among these are the Trusted Repository Audit Checklist (TRAC) which is used by CRL to certify digital repositories. Read more...

Other Reports and White Papers

CRL works on reports and research papers that are relevant to digital preservation. Past work is listed as below: Read more...