On 23rd-25th May 2011 the Estonian National Library, Library of Congress and the Educopia Institute hosted a conference to discuss alignment of digital preservation strategies.  120 delegates attended from Europe, North America, Australia and various parts of Asia.  WK attended on behalf of the DPC.  Informal notes of the meeting are now available for DPC members [PDF 278KB - login required].  A full and authoritative report of the event will be released in due course.

The DPC was invited to attend a workshop in Luxembourg at the start of May to help the European Commission establish priorities for digital preservation research from 2013 onwards under the next Framework programme.  Informal notes from this meeting (pdf - login required) have already been made available to DPC members but the official report has now been released by the European Commission from the official raporteur Clive Billeness.

What's New - Issue 36, May 2011

In this issue:

• What's on, and What's new
• Editorial: The Evolution of Research Data Policy – where are all the requirements leading? (Sarah Jones, HATII)
• One world: A Glance at Digital Preservation in Sweden (John Lindström & Prof Lennart Karlsson, Luleå University of Technology)
• Featured Project: TIMBUS - Digital Preservation for Timeless Business (William Kilbride)
• Your view: Commentary, questions and debate from readers

 JISC is encouraging DPC members to attend the ICE - International Curation Education - Forum in London on 29th June.  This event will be to provide an international meeting place for educators, trainers, students and practitioners of digital curation to: discuss, evaluate, swap knowledge, and potentially improve practice around:effective curricula and course design; production of advice and guidance materials (beginner, intermediate and expert); and the creation and use of textbooks and scholarly material. While this event will focus on sharing information about the latest developments in digital curation teaching and training it will also be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about the range of resources available to help practitioners improve their curation skills.

There more information online at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/preservation/iceforum

DPC members can send two delegates for the price of one  So DPC members in the public sector can send two delegates for 45 pounds, and DPC members in the private sector can send two delegates for 60 pounds. To take advantage of this offer, members should open the online registration form and add the text 'DPC Member free registration offer +1' in the address field.

This offer is available only to current DPC members listed online.  See the DPC website for information about joining,

The Digital Preservation Coalition and Charles Beagrie Limited are delighted to announce a collaboration to produce 5 new DPC Technology Watch Reports. The collaboration follows a DPC call for proposals issued in December last year and selection of Charles Beagrie Limited as the preferred bidder.

The collaboration will produce a series of 5 Technology Watch Reports over the next 12 months under the general supervision of an editorial board and Neil Beagrie as principal investigator and commissioning editor. The 5 proposed reports and their authors are as follows:

• Preserving Email, Chris Prom
• Preserving Moving Picture and Sound, Richard Wright
• Intellectual Property Rights for Preservation, Andrew Charlesworth
• Digital Forensics and Preservation, Jeremy Leighton John
• Trust in Post Cancellation Access Services, Neil Beagrie

The DPC is establishing an editorial board for the series. It will be chaired by William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC.

The Mellon Foundation has funded four universities (Stanford, Yale, Virginia and Hull) to reflect more deeply than is often possible about the development and management of  digital collections – especially born digital archival collections.   The project – the AIMS project – has therefore invited DPC members to join them for a day of debate and discussion about archival principles in a digital environment.  (London on the 10th of June.) Funding has allowed the AIMS project to offer one space at this event to each member of the Coalition.  The project team have made it clear that they would be happy to accommodate more than one person from those organisations that have a particular interest and experience to share and there are limited travel grants for those interested in attending but who would be travelling the greatest distance.   

Details including an outline programme and registration are now available online. Please do forward this to colleagues or students that may be interested.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has awarded six scholarships so that members can attend the Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP) in Glasgow in May.

‘Feedback from members tells us that they really value the scholarships which the DPC makes available to members through its Leadership Programme’, explained William Kilbride of the DPC. ‘We originally advertised five scholarships, but after looking over the applications we found we had six really strong candidates who could demonstrate how the scholarship would make a real difference to their employer and have an impact on their career progression.  So we’re delighted to be able to make an extra award.’

The following applicants were selected:

• Ginevra House of the University of York who is a student with the Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Nicola Johnson of the British Library
• Neil Miller of the National Records of Scotland
• Meadhbh Murphy of Trinity College Dublin Library
• Hannah Smith of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
• Heather Stanley of the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland

Applicants were judged against three main criteria: the role that DPTP would play in career development; the benefits to their organisation from attendance; and the extent to which the applicant’s job profile within the organisation pertains to digital preservation. Applications were open to DPC members and associates.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is partner in two projects recently funded by European Commission, called 'APARSEN' and 'TIMBUS'.  These projects will influence and extend the work of the Coalition in the next three years and will considerably enhance the range of benefits associated with membership.

On 4-5th May 2011 the EC hosted an invitational event to discuss and consult on future plans for digital preservation in Europe. It sought to look beyond the current Framework Programme and establish priorities for research in digital preservation for the next (FP8). William Kilbride attended on behalf of the DPC though there were various members present in their own right – BL, JISC, DCC, Portsmouth University - there were 64 people present. The action plan for FP8 is progressing rapidly and the first complete draft will be complete within a couple of weeks. Suggestions for priority additions can still be made but suggestions need to be submitted within the next two to four weeks if they are to make the first draft. DPC members are therefore encouraged to review this document and contact WK early if they wish to make proposals or amendments. See section five.

These informal notes are intended to give DPC members an informal briefing. They are not intended as an official record: an official report will be published. DPC thanks Neil Grindley of JISC for his contribution to the document.

Members's briefing notes on 'The Future of the Past' [pdf 276kb - login required]

Getting Started in Digital Preservation - Slides now available!

Slides from all four 'Getting Started in Digital Preservation' events in London on 4th Feb, Glasgow on 28th Feb,Cardiff on 21st March and York on 15th April are now available online.  Feedback from the events has remained positive throughout with participants noting that the presentations were encouraging and accessible, giving them confidence as well as practical soltions to start digital preservation planning in their own institutions.Although the series is now over the slides collectively give a really impressive overview of the state of practical implementation of digital preservation in the UK.  They will remain useful for a while, and not just for participants who attended.