The 21^st century has been witness to an unprecedented explosion in Web-accessible digital information, and, as law librarians are well aware, important legal materials are increasingly digitally born and distributed online, as opposed to published in print.

When it comes to long-term access and preservation, this proliferation of legal information in digital formats has presented the profession with a perplexing new challenge. Digital formats and media are notoriously vulnerable to permanent loss and can descend into obsolescence in as little as five years. Even worse, the average lifespan of a Web page is estimated to be between 44 and 75 days.

To tackle these 21^st century preservation challenges, The Chesapeake Project, a collaborative pilot digital preservation program, is currently underway. Pilot participants include the Georgetown Law Library, the State Law Library of Maryland, and the State Law Library of Virginia. Key participants will be discussing the project at the AALL Annual Meeting on Sunday, July 13, and Monday, July 14.

The Chesapeake Project began actively harvesting legal information from the Web and storing it within a shared digital archive in March 2007. Today, the archive is populated with more than 3,000 items. These archived items are made available through open-access channels and via permanent archive URLs, despite whether or not the original digital files have been altered or removed from the Web.

Research conducted as part of the project’s first-year evaluation revealed that more than 8% of the items archived between March 2007 and March 2008 have already disappeared from their original locations on the Web. Each of these lost items remains accessible thanks to the project’s efforts.

By the conclusion of the project’s two-year pilot phase in 2009, participants aim to lay the foundation for a collaborative and nationwide preservation program for legal resources.

On Sunday, July 13, project participants will share their experiences in digital preservation and interlibrary collaboration as part of the Technical Services Special Interest Section (TS-SIS) programming at the AALL Annual Meeting. The program will be held in Room B114 from 4:15-5:15 p.m.

For a chance to talk to a project participant one-on-one and see the digital archive in action, visit the TS-SIS Activities Table during the no-conflict Exhibit Hall break on Monday, July 14, from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

The Chesapeake Project is being carried out under the auspices of the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA) whose membership includes the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) as well as state and academic libraries throughout the United States.

For more information, visit the LIPA Web site and LegalnfoArchive.org, The Chesapeake Project’s beta archival access Web site.

Sarah Rhodes, Digital Collections Librarian