The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to share its new program of activities for the coming year, 2024-2025.
The prospectus is the DPC’s plan for the next twelve months. It lists the range of new publications, training, webinars and specialist briefings, and supporting resources which will be released in the year ahead. It is shaped by members’ needs but is shared with the entire digital preservation community around the world, in multiple languages and in multiple time zones.
“By working together as a group of institutions from a diverse range of sectors and domains and many different countries, we hope to provide the resources, tools, support and skills which will be needed to ensure a sustainable access to our digital memory,” says Sarah Middleton, Head of Advocacy and Community Engagement for the DPC.
“With an established DPC presence now in the Americas as well as Australasia and Asia-Pacific, and 161 members in 24 countries around the globe, this new prospectus makes a concerted commitment to the digital preservation community worldwide. Regular, thematic and returning events will be offered in time zones for Australasia and Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa, and the Americas, allowing participants from across different time zones to share the benefit of the knowledge and expertise in their own regions.”
Highlights of the coming year include a face-to-face Unconference and Networking Event in Canberra, as well as an in-person launch event in the USA which will mark the official start of the DPC Americas; both taking place in October 2024. The Digital Preservation Awards returns celebrating the inspiring people and projects which have contributed to the community, all presented at exciting ceremony in Ghent, Belgium on Monday 16th September 2024. Work will begin on a brand-new edition of the ever-popular Digital Preservation Handbook.
The DPC will continue to offer targeted support and advice to Full Members as part of their membership and this year the staff will also extend an offer of consultancy for a trial period. This is a paid for service and is available to all: members and non-members alike.
A program of online events will cater for different time zones, providing insight and advice on ‘Appraisal of Digital Content’, ‘Digital Preservation for an Uncertain Future,’ ‘Preservation Planning,’ and ‘Case Studies on Access,’ as well as addressing the community zeitgeists of ‘AI and Digital Preservation.’ A broader range of task forces and working parties than ever will continue to provide focused peer support on specialized areas of digital preservation.
The Workflow Webinar series returns this year, enabling Members to exchange experiences and see ‘what’s worked’ for various parts of the digital preservation lifecycle.
A new resource, Digital Preservation for Community Archives will support those working with community generated digital content will be launched in 2024, on World Digital Preservation Day, 7th November 2024. This preservation toolkit, which has been created alongside the University of Glasgow as part of the Our Heritage, Our Stories (OHOS) project, has been developed in collaboration with a range of community archives, and will include a range of practical guidance, support, and advice to those working with digital records in the community context
The widely read series of authoritative but accessible Technology Watch Reports will continue investigations into the latest topical and technical issues encountered by DPC Members, with revisions of ‘Web Archiving’ and ‘Preservation Metadata’ to be published this year, as well as titles including ‘Digital Forensics,’ ‘Cybersecurity,’ ‘Disaster Planning’ and ‘Preserving Digital Art’ to be developed as part of the accompanying Technology Watch Guidance Notes series.
The DPC will continue to offer free of charge ‘Novice to Know-How’ online training to the community, both the original beginner level course plus content on email preservation and creating digital asset registers. Development of the courses was funded by The National Archives, UK. Members are also allocated priority places in the popular DPC / Bit Curator Consortium ‘Python Study Group Program.’ New training opportunities will be developed, and confirmed modules include the highly anticipated: ‘Web Archiving for Beginners’ (in partnership with IIPC). All DPC-branded training will be free for members.
The DPC invites all agencies to try out its maturity modelling tool, Rapid Assessment Model on an annual basis, enabling effective benchmarking of an organization’s digital preservation capability whilst remaining agnostic to solutions and strategy. Where feasible, DPC collates and aggregates the results from this survey, providing a benchmark for internal advocacy or as evidence to include within a business case.
Members of the Coalition receive free-of-charge priority access to all DPC events and publications, and the program is overseen by Full Members who commission research tied directly to their strategic needs.
An international charitable foundation and advocate for digital preservation, the Coalition helps its members around the world to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance. Its vision is a secure digital legacy.