NatHosting II (National Hosting of Electronic Resources)

The proposal submitted is based on the results of the project NatHosting (National Hosting of Electronic Resources), which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) between 1 Febr 2014 and 31 Jan 2016. The project NatHosting aimed at developing a federated strategy for ensuring perpetual access to licensed electronic resources in Germany, focusing on the existing solutions LOCKSS and Portico. As a result of the project a combined approach was recommended, which was based on both a German Portico membership consortium to secure the content of esp. larger publishers without further delay as well as the establishment of a Private LOCKSS Network (PLN) to cover content currently not available in Portico.The proposal for NatHosting II focuses on the actual implementation of the recommended concept, aiming at the establishment of an operational hosting service as exemplified in the following project goals.- Defining content priorities for the Private LOCKSS Network (PLN) and licensing content from publishers.- Administration of a Portico membership consortium (outside DFG funding). Prior to the submission of the proposal a German opt-in consortium was established.- Explorative analysis of the possible future extension of the PLN approach to gold Open Access content.- Establishment of the technical infrastructure required to build a Private LOCKSS Network (PLN); implementation of distributed and centrally coordinated LOCKSS nodes; content loading according to the priorities defined; setup of an operational hosting service.- Coupling the PLN with an ERM-based rights management system in close cooperation with the DFG-funded project LAS:eR.- Setup of a central hosting agency on the basis of previously analysed organisational concepts.- Developing a sustainable funding structure for routine operation after the implementation phase.- Conceptual exploration of possible future value-added services such as text- and datamining as well as the examination of the potential adaptability of the hosting service for long-term preservation purposes.- Continuous information of potential members to reach a degree of acceptance.- International networking and possible cooperation with similar initiatives.