The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has endorsed the recommendations made in the report, “E-Journal Archiving Metes and Bounds: A Survey of the Landscape,” written by Anne R. Kenney, Richard Entlich, Peter B. Hirtle, Nancy Y. McGovern, and Ellie L. Buckley, and published in 2006 by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

The recent CLIR study surveyed existing preservation programs and the report highlights the roles that libraries, publishers, and archiving services must play to ensure a trusted and trustworthy archiving system for e-journal preservation.

In addition to endorsing the recommendations of the report, ARL

• urges its member libraries to support and participate in trustworthy and effective e-journal archiving initiatives as recommended in the report, and

• urges its member libraries to press publishers of e-journals to participate in and support trustworthy and effective archiving of their titles.

ARL’s endorsement of the CLIR recommendations builds on the Association’s 2005 support for the statement, “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals.”

“Research libraries have a responsibility to preserve the research record,” said James Neal, Chair of ARL’s Scholarly Communication Steering Committee, “and that record includes the content in electronic journals.” The ARL Board endorsed the recommendations in the CLIR report at its February 8–9, 2007, meeting in Washington, DC.

The recent CLIR report, “E-Journal Archiving Metes and Bounds: A Survey of the Landscape,” is available at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub138abst.html.

The 2005 statement, “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals,” is available at http://www.arl.org/news/pr/presvejrnloct05.shtml.

For more information, contact Karla Hahn, Director, ARL Office of Scholarly Communication, karla@arl.org.