CLOCKSS: Governance and Organization
Contents |
CLOCKSS; Governance and Organization
Overview
The CLOCKSS Archive is a 501(c)(3) organization. It is governed by a board. The board has established a contract with Stanford University Libraries (SUL) covering these operational issues:
- A management agreement under which SUL employees provide the CLOCKSS Archive with management, business and marketing services.
- An operations agreement under which SUL employees, specifically the LOCKSS team, operate the CLOCKSS Archive.
The overall organization of the CLOCKSS Archive is shown in this chart, with the board in dark blue, CLOCKSS management in light blue, and the LOCKSS Program in red:
CLOCKSS Board
The overall goals and direction of the CLOCKSS Archive is set by the Board of Directors. There are 24 board positions – 12 each for libraries and publishers. The libraries are also the host of the archive nodes and have permanent representation on the board. The publishers are to be rotated on a regular basis.
The Co-Chairs of the Board are chosen from the full board and there is one representative each from the publisher and library groups. The current plan is to have two year terms with an option for one additional term on the publisher side. Currently, the library co-chair is filled by Stanford University, because of their key role in handling the personnel issues, being the site of the LOCKSS Program, and the home of multiple ingest boxes for preservation. The Co-Chairs and the Executive Director have regular calls or exchange update reports 9-10 times per year.
The Executive Committee (EC) includes the Co-Chair (Library), the Co-Chair (Publisher), the Treasurer, the Secretary and up to three at-large positions. The EC offers overall guidance and approval for certain actions as brought forth by the Executive Director. The EC meets seven to fifteen days in advance of the Board Meeting to review the agendas and ask for any clarifications of documents prepared by the Executive Director.
The Audit Committee is charged with reviewing financial report, advising on issues related to the accounting, and oversight on the investments made by the Executive Director.
CLOCKSS Management
The structure of the CLOCKSS Archive management team is very simple in concept. There are two permanent positions: Executive Director and Director of Publisher Outreach. Each individual in those positions is an employee of the Stanford University Libraries (SUL). The CLOCKSS Archive entered into an agreement with SUL to cover to cover payroll, administrative costs, and benefit costs, plus overhead, and this has allowed CLOCKSS to recruit and retain people for these key positions.
The Executive Director is responsible for all aspects of the operations including accounting, financial reporting, library and publisher recruitment, organizing board and committee meetings, preparation of support documents for board activities, and communications with the LOCKSS team. The Executive Director signs all agreements with publishers, establishes any pricing discounts from the approved fees, develops the policies and procedures for the advancement of the CLOCKSS mission, works with the accountant to oversee all billing related work, and works directly with independent contractors to develop and implement outreach campaigns.
The Director of Publisher Outreach is responsible for implementing email campaigns, performing follow-up phone contacts, arranging conference calls with prospects and the Executive Director, arranging meetings at conferences and book fairs with publishers, preparing agreements, communicating with publishers regarding the PR releases for the listservs and websites, and developing regular reporting on the progress of the outreach efforts.
CLOCKSS Operations
All actual operations of the CLOCKSS archive are performed by the staff of the LOCKSS Program. Their main responsibilities under the operations contract are detailed in CLOCKSS: Mandatory Responsibilities. They include the management of the archive node network, the ingest process, security, quality assurance of the preserved content, and reporting to Executive Director the transactions performed. The LOCKSS Program Executive Director assigns roles and responsibilities to LOCKSS team staff as required to meet the needs of the CLOCKSS Archive. The specific current assignments are maintained on a page on the LOCKSS team's internal Wiki entitled CLOCKSS/RolesAndResponsibilities.
The organization chart of the LOCKSS team is:
Relevant Documents
- CLOCKSS Byelaws - available on request
- CLOCKSS/RolesAndResponsibilities - available on request
- CLOCKSS: Mandatory Responsibilities
