The 2010 Digital Preservation Award

The Digital Preservation Award celebrates the excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is available tomorrow.

The Digital Preservation Coalition sponsors the Digital Preservation Award, one of a set of awards which are collectively called the Conservation Awards. The Conservation Awards began in 1993 and their presentation is co-ordinated by a working party of the Institute for Conservation (ICON). There are five awards in total. The Digital Preservation Award has been run three times (2004, 2005 and 2007) Although based on the high level criteria of the Conservation Awards, the size of the community and the nature of the work it recognises means that the Digital Preservation Award is is distinctive in how it implements the criteria and eligibility. The award will be offered in 2010.

The Digital Preservation Award 2010 has been won by Old Dominion University and Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Memento Project.

The complete application pack is below for information only ... the deadline for sumissions passed at 1200 on 30th July 2010.

The Prize

The Digital Preservation Award consists of 4 elements: a cash prize (value to be confirmed but not less than £2,500); a bespoke glass trophy to be returned from the previous winner; a miniature of the trophy to be retained by the winner; a certificate which is retained by the winner. It is awarded to the nominee who, in the eyes of the judges, best demonstrates excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is available tomorrow.

Eligibility

Scope: The judges will assume a broad definition of digital preservation: projects which describe themselves with specialist terms like ‘conservation’, ‘continuity’, ‘curation’, ‘legacy’, or ‘sustainability’ will be eligible so long as they can demonstrate that they are working towards ensuring our digital memory is accessible tomorrow.

Who can apply? The Digital Preservation Award is open to all. There is no restriction on public or private sector and there is no restriction to whether the nominee is a member of the DPC. Entries should be supported by senior management within your institution and nominations based on an external grant or commission should be supported by the grant giving agency or commissioning agent. Joint entries are welcome from individuals or teams working in the public or private sectors, though a single point of contact should be agreed. Small projects with modest outcomes are encouraged to apply: impact will be assessed in proportion to the total resource expended.

Where can you apply from: We seek entries from all around the world and impose no geographical restrictions. The judges are predominantly based in the UK and the DPC/ICON will be using UK media outlets to promote the event and communicate the results. So nominees should demonstrate an impact in the UK and should present their entries in terms that a UK audience will understand.

Is there a timeframe? The Digital Preservation Award is given for work that was completed between 31^st March 2007 and 31^st July 2010. Work may have begun at any date before 31^st March 2007.

What can we submit? Any work which has contributed to ensuring our digital memory is accessible tomorrow. By ‘work’ we mean any sustained and unified effort that provides discrete and definitive outcomes. This could include a one-off project, the development and delivery of innovative services or a single programme of work. Pilot projects and full scale projects can be submitted though applicants may wish to signal the relationship between them. Small projects with modest outcomes are encouraged to apply: impact will be assessed in proportion to the total resource expended.

What isn’t appropriate? Combinations of projects which happen to operate in the same sphere but which have no structural linkage should be avoided. Typically digitisation projects will not eligible unless they offer a specific deliverable that will improve long term access to the digital estate.

Judging Criteria

The Digital Preservation Award is awarded to the nominee who, in the eyes of the judges, best demonstrates excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is available tomorrow.

Recognising the rapid development of this field, the judges do not wish the criteria to be restrictive. All nominations will be considered which meet the eligibility criteria. The judges will begin their assessment of applications against the ten criteria listed below which are derived from the criteria used in the Conservation Awards. Nominees should be aware that the judges will be free revise or weight these criteria as they see fit for the purposes of short-listing. Shortlisted nominees will be provided with a definitive set of criteria and weightings to assist their preparations for presentation to the judges:

Clarity of aims and objectives.
Effectiveness of the methodology used to achieve those aims.
Exemplary or innovative application of digital preservation tools or principles.
Impact of the work and its relevance and applicability to others.
Understanding of digital preservation issues and reference to existing body of knowledge.
Clarity and practicality of benefits that accrue.
Durability of contribution to the field.
Demonstrable effectiveness of resources and effort expended.
Significance of heritage preserved.
Assessment of quality by peers.*

*It is our hope to measure the ‘assessment of quality by peers’ through an online voting mechanism open to the membership of the DPC. This will occur after short-listing. Arrangements will be confirmed in due course.

Example submissions

The judges will welcome submissions in many different forms and do not want to discourage applicants. All are encouraged to apply no matter how large or small. The examples below are not intended to be proscriptive:

an intervention which has secured a significant element of our digital heritage that might otherwise have been lost
a publication which has advanced the theory, practice and understanding of digital preservation.
a project which tested the theory of a particular digital preservation strategy.
a tool, software application or standard which has helped the long-term storage of electronic objects.
an innovative piece of thinking which has changed how we perceive digital preservation.
a campaign which has raised public awareness of digital preservation issues.
a programme of work which has provided targeted training and support.
a new service that supports digital preservation.

Conditions of entry

The work must have been completed between 31st March 2007 and 31st July 2010.
Joint entries are accepted: all parties to a joint entry should support the nomination.
All nominees must complete the nomination form and submit this to the DPC by 12 noon on Friday 30th July 2010.
Nominees must be clearly identified with a clear point of contact. In the case of joint entries there must be a lead party.
The nominee must have been a lead contributor to the work being nominated.
The nominated work should demonstrate benefit for the UK, but may be carried out elsewhere.
Entries should be supported at senior management level within the nominee’s institution.
The DPC will reject any entry that does not meet the conditions of entry.
The decisions of the judges are final.
Nominees must not discuss their entries with judges after submission.
Nominations should comply with the wider conditions of entry of the Conservation Awards

Key dates

The following sets out key dates

Late March 2010: Preliminary announcement, expressions of interest opens CLOSED
31st May 2010: awards open, application pack made available, list of judges and short biographies published. COMPLETED
1^st July 2010: second call for applications. CLOSED
14^th July 2010: final call for applications. CLOSED
30^th July 2010: awards close (12:00), applications received, checked for eligibility and distributed to judges. CLOSED
Late August 2010: first meeting of judges. COMPLETED
September 2010: online voting for shortlisted candidates*. COMPLETED
Mid October 2010: online voting closes.* CLOSED
21^st October: second judges meeting with presentations from shortlisted candidate.
1st December 2010: awards ceremony in London (after DPC AGM / Board meeting)

Judges

Kevin Ashley, Director, Digital Curation Centre
Adrian Brown, Assistant Clerk of the Record, Parliamentary Archives
William Kilbride, Executive Director, Digital Preservation Coalition
Pip Laurenson, Head of Time-based Media Conservation, Tate
Zoe Lock, Lead Technologist for ICT, the Technology Strategy Board
Eefke Smit, Director for Standards and Technology, Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers
Dave Thompson, Digital Curator, The Wellcome Library
Matthew Woollard, Director Designate, the UK Data Archive
Richard Wright, Senior Research Engineer, BBC

What to do now?

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED