The Austrian Shared Archiving Initiative was born by merging two similar initiatives which were launched independently of each other: The focus group “National Archiving Concept” which was installed by the Council of Austrian University Libraries (ubifo) for the purpose of drawing up a relevant theoretical concept and a second project started by the Vienna University Library to reduce the number of duplicates stored at the library’s approximately 50 locations. The two projects were subsequently brought together in 2010 to concentrate competencies and avoid parallel activities.
In 2011 the partners agreed upon choosing the journals of the American Chemical Society (ACS) as test run for implementing efficient plans of procedures between the institutions. Two working groups, “contract design” and “workflow”, created templates for the future frame contract and for product specific amendments and demonstrated the potential to establish shared archiving processes without generating excessive additional costs.
In 2012 the project was officially approbated, the frame contract was signed by all Austrian universities and the individual institutions appointed representatives as contact persons responsible for future joint archiving projects.
In 2013 the first actual project, archiving the journals of the American Physical Society (APS), was realized. Seven institutions with substantial holdings signed the respective amendment to the frame contract and Vienna University Library was selected as archiving library.
With 2014 contact and information exchange with other European archiving initiatives were intensified and first steps to build an international infrastucture were token.
For 2015 it is planned to finalize at least two more projects, publications of ACM and ACS, to upgrade tools for communication and collaborative working spaces and to deepen international cooperation.