Abstract: By analyzing of the development， operation， and dissolution of the US digital preservation network， this article hope to provide archive institutions with experiences and lessons on the sustainable development of the Digital Preservation Alliance. This article presents the risks in digital preservation and the advantages of the preservation alliance model， comprehensively reviews the development of the US digital preservation network， analyzes possible factors that led to DPN dissolution in detail， and summarizes the related lessons and inspirations which the preservation community can learned from. The author believes that the preservation alliance as an effective model of cooperative preservation， the biggest challenge of its sustainable development comes from organizational management. The development of alliance-based cooperative preservation based on China’s national conditions is a problem worth exploring for chinese preservation community.

Key words: Digital preservation, Preservation alliance, Sustainable development, Risk analysis, DPN