Thoth Archiving Network Workshop, November 2022 | Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)

Barnes, M. (2023). Thoth Archiving Network Workshop, November 2022. Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM). https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.22f8d148 Our Thoth Archiving Network workshop was held virtually on Tuesday, 2nd November 2022.  Around 30 participants attended, and we thank all of you who participated and provided feedback. The video of the first half of the workshop (the presentation portion) can be found here, with many thanks to the DPC for hosting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgq1KWzgL4 Work Package 7 Lead Gareth Cole began the workshop with a presentation, updating attendees on the activities of the COPIM Project, including Opening the Future (Work Package 3), the Open Book Collective (Work Package 4), and the Thoth metadata management system (Work Package 5), Experimental Publishing (Work Package 6), and of course, Archiving & Preservation (Work Package 7).   Gareth explained the overall values and goals of the COPIM Project and introduced the core objectives and activities of each work package. This led into the important discussion of the proposed Thoth Archiving Network, a collaboration between Work Packages 5 and 7, to create a simple dissemination system for small publishers to archive their monographs in a network of participating institutional repositories. Proof-of-concept has been developed and tested, and several universities have already agreed to take part.   Small and scholar-led presses make up much of the “long tail” of publishers without an active preservation policy in place, putting their significant contributions to the scholarly record at risk. While large-scale publishers have existing agreements with digital preservation archives, such as CLOCKSS and Portico, the small press often languishes without financial or institutional support, alongside challenges in technical expertise and staff resource. The Thoth Archiving Network would not solve every issue, but it would be an initial step towards essential community infrastructure, allowing for presses to use a push-button deposit option to archive their publications in multiple repository locations. This would create an opportunity to safeguard against the complete loss of their catalogue should they cease to operate. [...]