Digital Preservation through Archival Collaboration: The Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences

The Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS) is a partnership of five major U.S. institutions with a strong focus on archiving social science research. The Library of Congress supports the partnership through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The goal of Data-PASS is to acquire and preserve data from opinion polls, voting records, large-scale surveys, and other social science studies at risk of being lost to the research community. This paper discusses the agreements, processes, and infrastructure that provide a foundation for the collaboration.