Digital Preservation Summit 16th January 2001

Neil Beagrie

Summary

This article reports on a digital preservation summit held in London on 16th January 2001 to discuss establishment of a Digital Preservation Coalition in the UK. The Coalition aims to develop a UK digital preservation agenda within an international context.

Outcomes from the Summit

Participants included representatives from a range of national, university and public libraries, archives, data archiving services, publishers, research councils, museums and government bodies. They unanimously endorsed the need for co-ordinated work on digital preservation and for the establishment of a Coalition. Participants recognised that the subject is bigger than any one institution or sector.

It was agreed that the aim of the Coalition will be to develop a UK digital preservation agenda within an international context.

The Coalition was seen as operating on four levels:

• activities undertaken individually by member institutions and sectors but accomplished and co-ordinated in line with their commitment to the principles of openness and dissemination in the draft manifesto;
• core coalition activities of common interest and benefit to all its members supported by resources from its membership;
• collaborative projects and programmes which would be taken forward with project funding drawn from a variety of sources.
• the creation and further development of a national digital archiving infrastructure in the UK.

Suggestions for core activities and first programmes included:

• awareness raising amongst key funders and stakeholders;
• development of a digital preservation portal incorporating the Preservation Management of Digital Materials Workbook, in collaboration with international partners;
• establishing a dialogue with software and hardware manufacturers;
• developing standards to support digital preservation;
• training and addressing the skills and competencies needed for digital preservation;
• applied practical research and development in member institutions and sharing experience;
• archiving of commercial e journals;
• web archiving;

Funding and the most effective organisational model for the Coalition were discussed, and JISC and the BL agreed to continue and widen discussions with potential partners in the Coalition and to co-ordinate its establishment during 2001.

Further information and news on the Coalition will be disseminated via the digital- preservation email list on JISCmail (to subscribe to the list or view its message archive see the Web pages at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/digital-preservation.html). Wider discussion and participation on proposals for the Coalition from individuals and institutions are welcomed.

Enquiries about the Coalition can be addressed in the first instance to:

Neil Beagrie
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JISC Office
King's College London
Strand Bridge House
138 -142 Strand
London WC2 1HH

Attendance

Chairs
1. Lynne Brindley (British Library)
2. Reg Carr (Joint Information Systems Committee)

Participants

3. Neil Beagrie (Joint Information Systems Committee)
4. David Dawson (Re:source)
5. Nancy Elkington (Research Libraries Group)
6. Peter Fox (Cedars/Cambridge University)
7. Duncan Simpson (Public Record Office)
8. Cliff Morgan (Publishers Association)
9. Helen Forde (Public Record Office)
10. Helen Shenton (British Library)
11. Sheila Anderson (Arts and Humanities Data Service)
12. Paul Ayris (Consortium of University Research Libraries/University College London)
13. Robin Dale (Research Libraries Group)
14. Lorcan Dempsey (Joint Information Systems Committee)
15. Claire Bell (The Libraries Partnership - West Midlands)
16. Suzanne Keene (consultant - formerly Science Museum)
17. Vanessa Marshall (National Preservation Office)
18. Anthony Watkinson (Publishers Association)
19. Marilyn Deegan (Oxford University)
20. Melanie Wright (Data Archive)
21. Colin Edwards (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council)

Apologies

Seamus Ross (Glasgow University),
Paul Jeffreys (Central Laboratory Research Councils)