New Members

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Department of Information Studies of the University of Aberystwyth at the as its newest member.

‘Aberystwyth University is an established and highly respected centre of excellence in Information Studies,’ explained William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC. ‘Their programmes in information skills, librarianship and archive management reaches upwards of 1000 students at any one time given their widely-regarded investment in distance learning. This is a time of real change for library and archive schools. Skills and career prospects are changing rapidly in this sector with tremendous opportunities opening up for those who innovate. ‘It’s is a clear signal that Aberystwyth University is committed to ensuring their students and researchers remain actively involved in the rapidly-growing digital preservation community.’

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Services of the University of Edinburgh at the as its newest member.

"The University of Edinburgh is a blend of an historic institution that has significant collections of diverse materials and a high-performing research intensive university'' explained John Scally, director of Library and Collections . "These present us with a changing array of digital preservation requirements - from the digitisation of physical collections to the influx of new digital data in volumes previously not seen, often with unknown preservation expectations. We have recently included digital preservation as a significant strategic theme in our forward plans and are joining the DPC to assist us in the framing of a plan to address this important area."

Richard Ovenden, chair of the Coalition, welcomed the University of Edinburgh to the DPC. ''We are delighted that they have decided to join us. Their membership will strengthen their work by giving them priority access to staff development, knowledge exchange and other leaders in the field. As well as seeking solutions, all our members bring expertise to the table: so this will strengthen the Coalition. The University of Edinburgh is our second new member since the start of 2013, a fact which underlines the demand for the mix of services which the DPC offers."

• For more about the Library and Collections at the University of Edinburgh see: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/about/organisation/library-and-collection
• For more about the Digital Preservation Coalition, or to join see: http://www.dpconline.org/join-us

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome Royal Museums Greenwich as its newest member.

Richard Ferguson, Documentation Manager, Royal Museums Greenwich said 'Having the opportunity to join a community of practice which has a focus on addressing and developing greater understanding of the challenges of digital preservation is most timely.'

'We have a mission to illustrate for everyone the importance of sea, ships, time and the stars and their relationship with people through maximising access to its collections and its expertise. Developing robust and sustainable strategies, processes and infrastructure to support management, care and preservation of both collection and corporate digital assets is a core objective of our strategic plan.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the University of Manchester Library as its newest member.

'The University of Manchester Library has a strong interest in digital preservation at both a strategic and operational level,' explained Sandra Bracegirdle. 'We have recently carried out a significant review of our digital preservation work as we see this as a key issue for the Library. '

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Directorate of the University of York as its newest member.

'Accessing and preserving digital information is one of the great challenges of the 21st century,' explained Chris Webb of the University of York. 'We recognise the importance and scale of the challenge, and we're pleased to join the DPC, which is a key partnership that enables these difficult areas to be tackled for the benefit of all.'

DPC is delighted to welcome the London School of Economics as its newest member.

‘LSE Library has been developing its digital preservation capacity for around two years - since initial planning and making the business case’, explained Ed Fay. ‘We have already made use of the events programme offered by the DPC to train members of our specialist team. Now that our preservation capacity is moving from development to operation we enter a new phase of activity.’

The University of Leeds has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition.

'Over the last few years our digital collections have grown and diversified', explained Bo Middleton of the University Library. ' They represent a considerable investment and we must move to protect these assets through active preservation.'

'We have joined the DPC because we want to be active participants in discussions of key digital preservation issues. We also recognise the benefits that will accrue from access to world class research. We are delighted to become members of the key forum for the digital preservation community which is working to develop policies and encourage the adoption of best practice.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the University of Portsmouth as its latest associate member.

'The Future Proof Computing Group at the University of Portsmouth has a track record of research and development of digital preservation through initiatives like the KEEP project (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable)' explained Dr David Anderson. 'We're about to start a new project, POCOS, funded by the JISC, on the preservation of complex objects, and have interests in topics like the sustainability of computer games technology, the history of computing, emulation, virtualization and data warehousing.

Dr Janet Delve observed 'We’re delighted to join the DPC as a way of amplifying and facilitating our research, especially for the KEEP project.'

'This is just one example of the wide range of expertise within the coalition that we’re keen to share. DPC has an impressively diverse membership: working with them will help ensure the greatest possible impact from our research.'

The National Library of Ireland is the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition, helping the Library to address the challenges and opportunities associated with long term management of digital collections.

'The core mission of the National Library of Ireland (NLI) is to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland,' explained Della Murphy, Assistant Keeper at NLI. 'One of our key strategic aims is the development of a digital collections policy with preservation and access infrastructure to match. By putting in place the necessary policy and infrastructure, we will maximise access to our resources, enhance and expand the services we offer, and enable users to work with the Library and Library collections in new and innovative ways.'

'The National Library of Ireland believes that working with partners in the DPC will vitally inform and support the implementation of best practice in relation to policy and infrastructural development in the area of digital preservation.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at Glasgow University as its newest associate member.

Since its foundation, HATII has had a strong commitment to digital preservation and digitization. It has been involved in a large number of collaborative initiatives such as the Digital Curation Centre, the PLANETS project, Digital Preservation Europe and Erpanet.