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Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust)

Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust)
United States of America
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About

Launched: 2014
Record Updated: Nov 07, 2024
Digital preservation service
APTrust is a consortium of institutions committed to providing a preservation repository for digital content and collaboratively developed services related to that content. The APTrust service accepts digital materials in all formats from member institutions and provides redundant storage in the cloud. It is managed and operated by the University of Virginia. The APTrust consortium leverages the expertise of its members to identify and articulate needs for the digital content environment, to prioritize service development, and to collaboratively build solutions. This approach generates economies of scale and increases value for all members.

Mission

The Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust) is a consortium committed to sustaining secure, diverse, and open digital infrastructure to preserve the scholarly and digital cultural record. Our members collaborate to overcome complex sociotechnical and fiscal challenges to preservation.

Key Achievements

In 2021, APTrust pioneered a new, cost-effective way to conduct fixity checks in the cloud. This method has been shared widely and adopted by many other repositories around the world.
In the fall of 2022, APTrust deployed the latest generation of our preservation services. This included rewriting our applications to use Go instead of Ruby on Rails. This change made our repository 16 times more CPU efficient and 300 times more memory efficient. It also greatly reduced our energy consumption, making our repository greener.
In August 2024, APTrust passed 500 TB of unique digital content being preserved in our repository.

Technical Attributes

Maintenance Status

Actively Maintained

Open Code Repository

Implemented
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Technical Documentation

Implemented
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Code License

Implemented
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Open API

Implemented
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Technical Attribute Statements

Technology Readiness Level

  • Actual system proven in operational environment

Code Licenses Used

  • BSD licenses

Standards

Preservation

  • OAIS

Hosting Options

  • Through solution only

Policies & Governance

Policies

Bylaws

Implemented
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Commitment to Equity & Inclusion

Implemented
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Governance Records

Implemented
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Governance Structure & Processes

Implemented
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Transparent Pricing and Cost Expectations

Implemented
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Policy Statements

Board Structure

  • Multi-board governance

Board Level

The Governing Board is the primary governing body for APTrust; however, member institutions contribute actively to governance through input gathered by the Board. The Board defines and recommends strategic direction to help meet operational and strategic goals and provides advice and oversight for the budget and finances. The Board meets quarterly in person or by phone as needed and holds an annual meeting of the Board with all institutional members. APTrust is legally constituted as part of the University of Virginia. Activities and operating guidelines of APTrust are subject to the rules and policies of the University of Virginia, as are any contracts between individual member institutions and the University of Virginia.

Community Governance

  • Formal

Additional Information

Organizational History

In August 2011, University of Virginia Dean of Libraries, Karin Wittenborg, and James Hilton, then Chief Information Officer, convened a meeting of colleagues from six universities (Duke University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University) to discuss the challenges of preserving the growing amount of digital content. The group discussed the possibility of aligning each institution’s preservation efforts to:
* preserve the scholarly record in ways that would allow the digital copy to be the copy of record
* provide sustained funding for digital preservation of the scholarly record
* accomplish more together
Coalescing around the need to preserve academic content and believing a community approach would be more productive, they created a consortium, Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust), that was committed to creating and managing an aggregated preservation repository.
The group invited five additional like-minded institutions to become founding members of the consortium: Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, Stanford University, and Syracuse University.
Each of the founding members recognized the value of leveraging joint resources and defining common goals. With these principles, the Academic Preservation Trust was born.

Organizational Structure

Business or Ownership Model

Fiscal sponsorship (academic institution)

Full-time Staff

1-5

Current Affiliations

University of Virginia

Funding

Primary Funding Source

  • Program service revenue

Financial Reporting Level

  • Both

Funding Needs

Investment in APTrust allows us to hire dedicated staff with decent jobs. It allows us to further our mission by enhancing, extending, and maintaining our services for our members. Investments allow us to implement our Associate Membership model to extend APTrust services to organizations of all sizes.
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