Vacancy - Digital Archivist at The Archaeology Data service (ADS), York, UK

The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has a vacancy for a Digital Archivist for a fixed term of two years, commencing immediately.

The post will involve accessioning, mounting, and indexing of data collections, validation of data and conversion into preferred formats; curation and migration of digital collections; design and development of user interfaces; and discussion and data audits with data depositors.

You should have a first degree or postgraduate qualification in archaeology and/or computer science, and you should possess an exceptionally high level of ICT skills.

Full details and a job description (PDF) are available from the University of York jobs pages:

https://jobs.york.ac.uk/wd/plsql/wd_portal.show_job?p_web_site_id=3885&p_web_page_id=142228

Notes from POCOS 'Preserving Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds' (Cardiff, January 26-27) now available

Informal notes from the 'POCOS' Preserving Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds Symposium are now available online for DPC members.

JISC is funding Portsmouth University and partners to host a series of seminars and reports on the preservation of ‘complex objects’. This ‘POCOS’ project hosted an event on visualisation and simulation in London in June on the preservation of software art in October. This third and final event on gaming was held in Cardiff on 26 and 27 January 2012.

• Notes from the Preserving Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds are available for DPC members (login required, PDF, 132KB)
• login or register for the DPC website

Trust and EJournals - Slides Now Available

Presentations from the DPC event 'Trust and E-journals' 31 January 2012 are now available online at:

http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/39-trust?xref=39

They include presentations from Neil Beagrie, Liam Earney, Kate Wittenberg, Adam Rusbridge, Randy Kiefer, Marcel Ras, Peter Burnhill, Fiona Murphy and Richard Kidd. The event notes have been written up on Etherpad by Patrick Hadley PhD student at The University of York. A full report will be available here shortly.

Student Conference 'What I wish I knew before I started' - slides now available

Presentations from the DPC / Archives and Records Association joint student conference 'What I wish I knew before I started' are now available online at:

http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/38-studentconference?xref=38

They include presentations from Sarah Higgins, William Kilbride, Dave Thompson, Adrian Brown, Andrew Fetherston and Helen Hockx-Yu.The event has also been blogged by Catherine Macintyre of LSE who attended: http://lib-1.lse.ac.uk/archivesblog/?p=4012

Leeds University Library is delighted to announce the launch of the Sustainable PReservation Using Community Engagement (SPRUCE) project. SPRUCE will inspire, guide, support and enable HE, FE and cultural institutions to address digital preservation gaps; and to use the knowledge gathered from that activity to articulate a compelling business case for digital preservation.

SPRUCE is aiming to foster a vibrant and self-supporting community of digital preservation practitioners via a mixture of online interaction and face to face events based on the successful AQuA Project mashups (see http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/AQuA/Home). The events will provide support and technical expertise to address specific digital preservation challenges. The best work from event attendees will secure funding awards to further develop the activity and embed it within business as usual processes at the home institution. £60k is available for these awards and will be allocated during the 2 year life of the SPRUCE project.

SPRUCE will build on the experience of these activities in order to develop a strong business case for digital preservation, with the aim of supporting and embedding good DP practise beyond the life of the project.

The first SPRUCE mashup will be held in Glasgow in April 2012. Details will be made available shortly on the SPRUCE website here: http://www.dpconline.org/advocacy/spruce

SPRUCE is a JISC funded partnership between Leeds University Library, the British Library, the London School of Economics, the Digital Preservation Coalition, and the Open Planets Foundation.

Vacancy - Project Manager at University of Leeds - SPRUCE Project

The University of Leeds has recently been awarded Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funding to undertake the SPRUCE Project under JISC 12/11 Digital Preservation Funding Call. The SPRUCE Project will inspire, guide, support and enable UK Higher Education Institute’s (HEI) to address preservation gaps and to use the knowledge gathered from that support work to articulate a compelling business case for digital preservation. The Project will be led by Leeds University Library in collaboration with four partners: the British Library, the Digital Preservation Coalition, the Open Planets Foundation and the London School of Economics.

A graduate with a good knowledge of relevant issues in Higher Education, you will be able to demonstrate your experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team, and with senior business and IT/IS partners. In particular you will have experience of working in one or more of the following areas: digital content creation and/or description; digital preservation strategies, tools or techniques; business case creation and/or cost/benefit analysis; management of a JISC funded project; institutional policy creation; stakeholder evidence capture and analysis; event organisation and facilitation; formal report writing.

Professional & Managerial Grade 8 (£36,862 - £44,016 p.a.), Full time, Fixed-term until 30 November 2013. Deadline 23rd Jan 2012. For more details see: http://t.co/xkM7ltmA

The DPC and Neil Beagrie are delighted to invite comments from members on a draft outline of our planned Technology Watch Report on 'Preservation, Trust, and Continuing Access.  This report will examine preservation of eJournals and the services that support them.  It will consider how standards and workflows have been established in this sector and what this might mean for the wider community.

Comments are welcomed by email to william_AT_dpconline.org by the end of the first week in February.  Members interested in this topic may also be interested in a forthcoming briefing day on 31st Jan 2012 which will examine the same issues.

The draft outline is available online for members - pdf login required.

What's New - Issue 41, January 2012

In this issue:

• What's On - Forthcoming events from January 2012 onwards
• What's New - New reports and initiatives since the last issue
• What's What - The Next Big Thing - William Kilbride, DPC
• Who's Who - Sixty second interview with Lee Hibberd, National Library of Scotland
• One World - Digital Preservation in Spain - Alice Keefer and Miquel Térmens, University of Barcelona
• Your View? - Comments and views from readers

What's New is a joint publication of the DPC and DCC

The deadline is approaching for DPC members to apply for scholarships to attend the Digital Futures Academy in London in March.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is offering four fully-funded scholarships to attend the Digital Futures Academy at the British Library, between the 19th and 23rd March 2012. Led by experts of international renown, Digital Futures focuses on the creation, delivery and preservation of digital resources from cultural and memory institutions. Lasting five days, Digital Futures is aimed at managers and other practitioners from the library, museum, heritage and cultural sectors looking to understand the strategic and management issues of developing digital resources from digitization to delivery. Digital Futures is operated and organised by the King’s College London and normally costs 975 per person. DPC scholarships meet the tuition fees for the course.  The deadline for applications is 1200 on Monday 9th January.

For more details of the scholarships including eligibility and how to apply see the DPC Leadership Programme.

The DPC wishes you a Happy Christmas and New Year. Our offices are closed till the 3rd January and we may not be able to reply to email or phone calls before then.