Fran Horner is an Archivist at the University of Sheffield.
This World Digital Preservation Day, I would like to highlight and celebrate the digital preservation communities I am part of and find extremely valuable.
I am an Archivist at the University of Sheffield Library Special Collections, Heritage and Archives and digital preservation falls under my remit. The university is part of the White Rose Libraries (WRL) partnership which was established in 2004 and brings together the university libraries of Sheffield, Leeds and York in the UK to collaborate in various different ways.
As part of the WRL Knowledge Sharing Network, digital preservation staff from all 3 institutions meet 3 to 4 times a year online and in person. We have used our informal meetings as a safe and reflective space to discuss our digital preservation work, share knowledge, explore our challenges and successes and ask each other for advice. This has been a great networking opportunity for me to meet others who undertake digital preservation work in Yorkshire and I have appreciated their input in discussions, for example in a meeting last year they gave useful feedback on a folder structure and workflow I devised for born digital material in a digital repository.
Another community I am part of is the newly established DigiPres North. This informal community was founded by Bryony Hooper (Digital Preservation Manager, University of Sheffield) and Dorothy Waugh (Digital Preservation Archivist, University of York) in 2024. They were inspired by other regional communities of practice such as MidiPres, Australasia Preserves and Atlanta-Area Digital Archives Group and recognised that there was a gap in support for digital preservation colleagues in the North of England (generally referring to the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber).
The purpose of DigiPres North is clearly defined in its Code of Conduct: ‘DigiPres North aims to create a supportive community of practice for archivists and practitioners working in the region. The goal of the Code of Conduct is to help create an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive, and which fosters participation and community.’
DigiPres North’s aims are set out in the Terms of Reference:
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Create an active network of practitioners in the region
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Enhance our collective ability to advocate for digital preservation within our own institutions and across the region
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Widen and lower the bar for participation in digital preservation activities at institutions and organisations across the region
Because DigiPres North places community at its centre, The Code of Conduct and Terms of Reference were open for comment and input from the community.
Members are from a range of institutions and organisations, such as universities, local authorities, estate archives, specialist repositories and banking and industry archives. Members work in a variety of roles including but not limited to dedicated digital preservation roles to archivists to records managers, and some may be lone workers or work as a team meaning digital preservation work and capacity to undertake the work is different for each member.
There are 4 DigiPres North meetings a year which are organised by a small committee of volunteers (me being one of them!) and so far meetings have taken place online. Topics covered in meetings are decided based upon the interests and needs of its members. Meetings so far have explored the topics of ingest: how to get things into our collections (with really interesting presentations from the Archaeology Data Service and North Yorkshire County Record Office) as well as benchmarking (mainly focused on exploring the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Rapid Assessment Model and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s Levels of Digital Preservation). The committee is dedicated to ensuring the usefulness of the community and the meetings so we are looking at ways of collecting feedback to make sure we are continually refining and fulfilling the group’s purpose collectively.
If you are interested in becoming a member of DigiPres North, please email digitalpreservation@sheffield.ac.uk.
Both of these communities provide me with valuable spaces for sharing information, problem solving and collaboration. I have really enjoyed meeting and hearing from members and feel an overarching supportiveness, kindness and openness not just from my regional digital preservation colleagues but also the national and international digital preservation community in general. What a wonderful community to be a part of!