What's New - Issue 29, September 2010

In this issue:

• What's on, and What's new
• Editorial: On the value of storytelling (Kevin Ashley, DCC).
• Who's who: Sixty second interview with Catharine Ward, Incremental Project, Cambridge University Library
• One world: Pam Bjornson, Director General, NRC-CISTI
• Your view: Commentary, questions and debate from readers

The DPC Leadership Programme is offering scholarship to attend the Digital Preservation Training Programme in London 4-6th October 2010.  The deadline for applications is 17th September.  See the DPC Leadership Programme for more details including a brief description of the course, elgibility and how to apply.

The DPC has responded to the consultation on the Public records review, welcoming the explicit statement that digitized and ‘born digital’ materials constitute a public record, noting and supporting the focus on informational content and the consequent need for ‘technology proofing’ and the management of formats.  The DPC has offered its assistance in identifying and resolving issues that may arise.

Research shows that clear advice about the preservation of digital materials is both in high demand and can be difficult to procure, so we note the new role for the Keeper of the Public Record to advise and inspect archives.  The DPC has offered its help in two ways: to assist the Keeper in the production of specialist advice notes; and to support the Keeper in the wider dissemination of advice to a diverse audience that is hungry for solutions.

'This represents an opportunity to build capacity for digital preservation in a diverse range of authorities' explained William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC.

Full text of the DPC response to the consultation.

Full text of the consultation.

Presentations from the successful one day workshop 'Decoding the Digital', organised jointly between the DPC and the British Library Preservation Advisory Centre in London on the 27th July are now available online at http://www.dpconline.org/events/decoding-the-digital-a-common-language-for-preservation.html

What's New - Issue 28, August 2010

In this issue:

• What's on, and What's new
• Editorial: Preservation Planning on a Spin Cycle, William Kilbride, (DPC).
• Who's who: Sixty second interview with Sharon McMeekin, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)
• One world: Tim Keefe, Trinity College Dublin
• Your view: Commentary, questions and debate from readers

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome St Andrews University as its latest associate member.

Birgit Plietzsch, Arts Computing Advisor at the University explained 'Most of today's information is held in a digital format. As a University we need to ensure that digital information remains accessible for as long as required. Our current focus is on the preservation of Arts and Humanities electronic resources. Such resources are often the outcome of expensive publicly funded research projects. It is in the interest of the scholarly community within the University to ensure the data contained within these resources is preserved in the long-term.'

'The DPC unites a wealth of national and international expertise in different areas of digital preservation. Through joining the DPC we look forward to integrating our efforts within the wider national context.'

'We're really delighted that St Andrews have joined us', commented William Kilbride of the DPC. 'As well as gaining access to events and working groups, their membership will help them to sustain and develop new partnerships and it will undoubtedly strengthen the coalition.  St Andrews are our fifth new member since the start of the year.  This rapid growth underlines the demand for digital preservation advice allied with a heightened sense of the need to work together.'

The DPC, with help from the British Library , Portico and ULCC, and with funding from JISC, is pleased to announce the launch of the fourth in a series of Digital Preservation Case Notes.  The Case Notes offer straightforward examples of organisations and individuals tackling the digital preservation challenges that come from mass digitization.  The latest describes the Archival Sound Recordings (2) project from the British Library.  It discusses the benefits that accrue to preservation when content and metadata are wrapped together - and a technology called METS which can help to achieve that.

We're also delighted to announce that, in collaboration with JISC, we will be adding more papers to the Case Notes series in the near future.  Details will follow.

The full set of Case Notes is online at: http://www.dpconline.org/advice/case-notes/index.html

The DPC Digital Preservation Award 2010 and ICON Conservation Awards deadline approaches - noon 30th July 2010.

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

A complete entry pack is now available for download from the DPA 2010 pages.

The judging panel for the 2010 awards: Kevin Ashley, Director, Digital Curation Centre; Adrian Brown, Assistant Clerk of the Record, Parliamentary Archives and previous winner; 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; and Richard Wright, Senior Research Engineer, BBC

What's New - Issue 27, July 2010

In this issue:

• What's on, and What's new
• Editorial: Fragmentation and Success, Kevin Ashley, DCC Director
• Who's who: Sixty second interview with Tracey Powell, The National Archives
• One world: Bjarne Andersen, State and University Library, Denmark
• Your view: Commentary, questions and debate from readers

At its meeting today, the DPC Board approved a new class of membership which will allow sole traders, consultants and recently graduated students to participate in the work of the Coalition.  Personal membership has been introduced for a trial period of 12 months from 1st August 2010.  It permits attendance at all public events supported by the DPC, priority access to DPC publications and it enables members to apply for funds from the DPC Leadership programme to attend designated training events.  Because this is a trial period, personal members will also be asked to participate in a review toward the end of the year in order that personal membership can be fully integrated into the constitution of the Coalition. In the first year, personal membership will be capped at 25 members allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

For more details see personal membership pages.