The DPC has today released its prospectus of activities for 2011 and 2012.  The prospectus explain the work of the Coalition and the benefits of membership for the 12 months ahead.  It outlines the specialist working parties, expert events and publications that members will get priority access to over the period, including:

• Practical Tools for Preservation - a hack-a-thon
• The Future of the Past of the Web - Conference
• Intellectual Property Rights for Preservation - an invitational briefing day
• Trust in outsourced E-Journal services - an invitational briefing day
• Preservation and the Cloud: Trends in Data Storage - an invitational briefing day
• Preservation and Business Continuity - an invitational briefing day
• Persistent Identifiers and Robust Linked Data - an invitational briefing day.

The DPC Prospectus 2011-12 is available online.

The DPC, JISC and the British Library invite you to a wokshop and conference at the British Library Conference Centre, Euston Road, London on Friday 7th October 2011.

The Web expands at an astonishing rate. Statistics suggest that more than 70 new domains are registered and more than 500,000 documents are added to the web every minute. This rapid expansion continues to challenge those charged with preserving an effective memory of the web.

Memory institutions – in particular national libraries and archives – have been central to web archiving. Since the mid 1990s, they have captured a dynamic and highly distributed snapshot of the web as it evolved. These growing web archives provide an untapped resource for creativity, innovation and enterprise. The web archiving community has grown as more institutions establish their own web archiving programmes. Universities and researchers are also taking part in this effort and commercial archiving services have started to appear.

Use and impact of web archives are under-explored topics in discussions about web archiving. Alternative modes of access and new types of exploitation mean that the time is ripe for another examination of how the web archive collections are being used and what opportunities they open up.

The workshop has a programme of invited talks and discussion panels by UK and international speakers, featuring use cases of web archives and exciting new developments. Web archives are no longer just individual web pages for reference but also aggregated datasets with inherent properties which can be exploited for many new possibilities. Access to archived web data in bulk, and machine-to-machine interaction are definitely the new trends.

For more information, including registration see:

http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/35-future_past_web?xref=35

DPC members are invited to share their views on intellectual property rights in digital preservation.  In preparation for the forthcoming DPC Technology Watch Report on Intellectual Property Rights for Preservation, Andrew Charlesworth of Bristol University has issued a survey and questionnaire to help identify key issues and challenges which members face when dealing with intellectual property rights.  The report is intended to provide authoritative guidance to support policy and processes in preservation services.  This is a large topic and Andrew is keen to ensure that the report accessible and relevant to member needs.  Your views are welcomed, especially if they can be delivered by the 15th August.

Click here for the survey questionnaire [pdf 276 KB]

Practical Tools for Digital Preservation: A hack-a-thon, York 27-29 September

The Open Planets Foundation and the Digital Preservation Coalition invite you to a hack-a-thon at the DPC office in York 27^th-29^th September.

This ‘hack-a-thon’ is designed to bridge the gap between collections owners and developers in the development of practical tools for preservation. It will provide a forum for practical problem solving. It will help collection owners to articulate their requirements in ways that developers can address; and will help developers respond more precisely to the needs of a community hungry for solutions.

This event will interest:

• Collection owners and managers who can bring along samples of their problematic digital collections. You will be asked to give a short talk to provide an overview of the content and the known or potential issues to the group.
• Developers / technical experts who want to gain hands-on experience of applying digital preservation techniques to digital collections. You will be asked to give a short talk about your technical experience and interests.

DPC and OPF members enjoy priority, free registration which is now open: non-members are also invited to register at the cost of 200GBP. For more details, including registration see: http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/34-hackathon?xref=33

The TIMBUS project currently has a vacancy for a PhD researcher to study digital preservation of business processes.  This three-year scholarship is offered by SAP Research. Further details of the post including how to apply are available online at: http://bit.ly/lmavMo  DPC is a partner in the TIMBUS project.  For more details about TIMBUS visit the TIMBUS Project Website, or see the DPC briefing paper about TIMBUS and APARSEN (pdf login requitred). TIMBUS is funded by the European Commission under the Information and Communications Technologies theme of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development.

This vacancy is now closed.

Thanks to all who commented online on the draft outline of the Technology Watch Report on Digital Forensics for Preservation to be authored by Jeremy Leighton John of the British Library and also to those who provided direct feedback at the forensics briefing day in Oxford at the end of June. A final version of the outline and production schedule is now online for members at: http://www.dpconline.org/component/docman/doc_download/637-twroutlinedigitalforensicsjuly2011 (pdf login required)

The John Rylands Library at Manchester University is seeking a consultant to help them review their digital preservation strategy.  Members interested in applying for this opportunity are invited to consult the attached announcement (pdf 77KB - login required).

The server platform which hosts the DPC website will be undergoing maintenance from 1600 on Monday 11th July, expected to last two hours.  The website will likely be offline for a period during this maintenance and any email sent to @dpconline.org domain will be stored and delivered on completion.  We apologise for this interruption but we are assured that the resulting work will bring improvements to the service provided.

The DPC is delighted to announce its new Editorial Board for its popular Technology Watch Reports series.  The Editorial Board, which  provides strategic direction to the series and makes sure that each report is focussed on the needs of DPC members,  consists of Neil Beagrie (Series Editor), Janet Delve (University of Portsmouth), Sarah Higgins (Archives and Records Association), Tim Keefe (Trinity College Dublin Library), Andrew McHugh (DCC), Dave Thompson (Wellcome Library) and will be chaired by William Kilbride (DPC)

The DPC established a Technology Watch Report series in 2002 and since then it has been one of the Coalition’s most enduring contributions to the wider digital preservation community. They exist to provide authoritative support and foresight to those engaged with digital preservation or having to tackle digital preservation problems for the first time. These publications support members work forces, they identify disseminate and discuss best practice and they lower the barriers to participation in digital preservation.

Each report analyses a particular topic pertinent to digital preservation and presents an evaluation of workable solutions, a review of potential or emerging solutions and posits solutions that might be appropriate for different contexts. The reports are written by leaders-in-the-field and are peer-reviewed prior to publication. Each report includes a ‘key message’ précis of not more than 50 words and explicitly identifies its target audience.

• For more details of the Editorial Board including it's draft terms of reference, see: http://www.dpconline.org/about/working-groups-and-task-forces/736-technology-watch-editorial-board
• For more details of the Technology Watch Reports Series see: http://www.dpconline.org/advice/technology-watch-reports

The British Library - a DPC Member - is looking to recruit a new member of staff to work on the APARSEN Project. 

This new post will provide the opportunity to play a leading role in developing innovative digital preservation financial models, drawing from experiences in Libraries, Archives, Research Institutions and Commercial partners. As a project officer in APARSEN you will work alongside world-leading experts in the digital preservation and will collect and analyze cost parameters concerning digital assets and construct financially sustainable solutions for their preservation. You will draw on the experience and technologies developed by APARSEN members and join a diverse project team directly influencing a major pan-European initiative.  Full job description and supporting documents can be found on The British Library’s recruitment pages British Library Recruitment.  For informal enquiries please contact Max Wilkinson on 020 7412 7040. Closing date: Thursday 15^th July 2011