The Digital Preservation Awards are back for 2024! The awards celebrate the work of our welcoming and inclusive global community which works together to bring about a sustainable future for our digital assets. The awards are held every two years.
Created in 2004 to raise awareness about digital preservation, the Digital Preservation Awards provide a rare opportunity to engage in high-profile advocacy, articulating nuanced messages about how and why one might engage in digital preservation. They enable the DPC, acting on behalf of the global digital preservation community, to endorse and celebrate outstanding work which may go unrecognized by others, and which may be little known among the senior managers of the agencies sponsoring this work. Therefore, nominations which have received recognition through other schemes such as the NDSA Excellence Awards are unlikely to be recognized again by the Digital Preservation Awards.
In its early iterations (2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010) the DPC sponsored a single award under the auspices of the Conservation Awards. In 2012, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Coalition, the DPC organized the Digital Preservation Awards under its own mandate, offering 3 awards. In 2014 a further 2 awards were offered and, in 2016, the DPC Fellowship was introduced for the first time. And in 2020 a new category allowing for an explicit celebration of collaboration was added. In 2022, we marked the DPC’s 20th Anniversary with another award which celebrates a continuing, substantial and impactful contribution to the digital preservation community in any form, over the preceding 20 years.
The Digital Preservation Awards winners from 2022 have been enjoying a greater profile for their work.
Back row (L-R): Matthew Addis and Joao Fernandes (ARCHIVER Project), Neil Beagrie (DPC Fellow), Emmanuel Modozie (NCTR), Adrian Brown (DPC Fellow); Middle row (L-R): Sarah Cook (on behalf of sasha arden), Sarah Higgins and Sally McInnes (Learning through Doing), Teo Redondo (ARCHIVER Project), Panagiotis Papageorgiou (archeological virtual reconstructions), Clare Lanigan and Lorraine Grimes (Archiving Reproductive Health); Front row (L-R): Micky Lindlar, Karin Bredenberg and Eld Zierau (PREMIS Editorial Committee)
Now in 2024, the Digital Preservation Awards offers:
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Award for Collaboration and Cooperation, celebrating significant collaboration across institutional, professional, sectoral and geographical boundaries which have had a demonstrable and positive impact on digital preservation since the last prize round (i.e., completed between August 2020 and July 2022). The award includes a cash prize of £1000, a trophy and certificate(s).
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The Award for Research and Innovation, recognizing excellence in practical research and innovation activities since the last prize round (i.e., completed between August 2020 and July 2022). The prize in this category consists of a trophy to be retained by the recipient, certificates for participating individuals, and a cash prize of £1000 payable to the lead nominee’s institution.
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The Award for Teaching and Communications, recognizing excellence in outreach, training and advocacy since the last prize round (i.e., completed between August 2020 and July 2022). The prize in this category consists of a trophy to be retained by the recipient, certificates for participating individuals, and a cash prize of £1000 payable to the lead nominee’s institution.
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The Award for the Most Distinguished Student Work in Digital Preservation, encouraging and recognizing student work in digital preservation completed in the period August 2020 and July 2022. The prize in this category consists of a trophy to be retained by the recipient’s institution, certificates for participating individuals, and a travel grant covering the costs of attendance at an international conference in 2023.
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The Award for Safeguarding the Digital Legacy, celebrating the practical application of preservation tools to protect at-risk digital objects (completed in the period August 2020 and July 2022). The prize in this category consists of a trophy to be retained by the recipient, certificates for participating individuals, and a cash prize of £1000 payable to the lead nominee’s institution.
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The Award for the Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third Sector, encouraging and recognizing the adoption of digital preservation tools and approaches in an organization that is not explicitly a memory institution, completed between August 2020 and July 2022. The prize in this category consists of a trophy to be retained by the recipient, certificates for participating individuals, and a cash prize of £1000 payable to the lead nominee’s organization.
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The DPC Fellowship Award, in recognition of a substantial, generous and distinguished contribution to securing our digital legacy. Nominations are not sought for DPC Fellowship. Instead the membership of the DPC will be invited to make confidential recommendations of individuals they think meet this description.
Winners and finalists will receive a print quality logo for reproduction on websites or stationery. All nominees will receive practical commentary on their nomination including comments from the ‘public vote’. Informal feedback suggests that this feedback has been widely re-used by nominees in grant applications and curricula vitae.
The exciting awards process will culminate in a presentation at the iPres 2024 Conference on Monday 16 September 2024.