Responsibilities of a Trusted Repository

Research repositories need to understand fully what responsibilities they should assume for the preservation of digital materials. Organizational responsibility must be understood at three basic levels: understanding local requirements and how to meet them; understanding how other organizations might share responsibilities through geography or arrangements such as consortial agreements or shared user communities, disciplines, or format of materials; and understanding which responsibilities can be shared and how. In summary, the major factors in defining the responsibilities of a trusted repository are:

• the scope of collections;

• preservation and lifecycle management;

• the wide range of stakeholders;

• ownership of material and other legal issues; and

• cost implications