ALAIR: Why & How [draft article]

Abstract

Librarians, with all our information superpowers, continue to be vulnerable to attack by our archenemy—loss of information. A few years ago, members from ALA’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Division (ALCTS), hoping to eradicate the threat from that dastardly villain, requested a repository that could handle their digital records and publications. During a pilot project in 2013, the ALA Archives collaborated with ALCTS to develop an open-access repository suitable for use by members of the entire ALA organization. Now the ALA Institutional Repository (ALAIR) is available as a place for officers, members, and staff of ALA units to deposit copies of their born-digital and digitized materials with enduring value. Over 5,000 items have been deposited in ALAIR thus far, and 66% (3,503 items) are documents issued in the 21st century.