Presentations from the DPC Briefing Day 'Links that Last' in Cambridge in August are now available online at:

http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/47-linksthatlast?xref=49

DPC is supporting our colleagues in the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale with a conference in 11-12 December 2012 in Florence on the topic of 'Trusted Digital Repositories & Trusted Professionals'

The following topics will be investigated:

• how to preserve digital contents in a trusted digital repository
• how to understand cultural heritage and digital humanities specific requirements
• long term preservation policies for trust and sustainability
• the role of standards and the importance of cooperation among user communities
• user needs for training and re-skilling of professionals in cultural institutions
• a focus on the Italian policy framework for the cultural and scientific heritage
It is our intention to follow this event with a similar briefing day in the UK at a point to be agreed in 2013. For more details see:

http://www.rinascimento-digitale.it/conference2012

Vacancy at British Library: Digital Preservation Software Engineer

Software Engineer
Location: London or Boston Spa
Position Type: Fixed term till 1st Feb 2015
Salary: £27477  - £31912 (+London weighting)
Closing Date: Monday 6th August

The British Library has a long term commitment to preserve digital content and plays a significant role in the EU co-funded research and development project Scalable Preservation Environments (SCAPE). If you are a JAVA developer with an excellent understanding of software development, you can help advance our groundbreaking work to archive and preserve the nation’s cultural memory in new digital formats.

The purpose of this role is twofold:
• to provide a strong technical contribution to developments on the SCAPE Project.
• to support implementation of digital preservation solutions in business units across the Library.
You will be part of a research and development team that collaborates widely with libraries, archives, and commercial organisations across Europe to develop innovative digital stewardship solutions. You will help ensure our internationally renowned collection survives through time and remains accessible for future researchers.
 
For more details or to apply, visit  http://goo.gl/5BVOt

Vacancy at Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington New Zealand: Assistant Digital Archivist

Assistant Digital Archivist
Location: Wellington New Zealand
Position Type: Permanent
Section: Knowledge, Information, Research and Technology
Salary: $56,392  - $76,295
Closing Date: 1700 Tuesday 7th August

The Alexander Turnbull Library is currently recruiting for a position to assist with the management of the Library's digital collections. The Alexander Turnbull Library is one of New Zealand's premier research libraries. The Library is responsible for building, managing, preserving and providing access to a national documentary heritage collection, an increasing proportion of which is digital. The Assistant Digital Archivist will be responsible for working with the Digital Archivist and the curatorial staff to ensure that the Library builds a national collection of born digital materials for permanent retention. The appointee will assist the staff of the Alexander Turnbull Library with the acquisition, management and preservation of digital collections, both published and unpublished.

The appointee will require technical knowledge about digital materials. An archival or library qualification is essential and experience of IT projects within a library or archival environment is preferable. If you are a positive, well organised and enthusiastic team player with a strong interest in our digital memory we would like to hear from you! Please note that interviews for this position will not be conducted until late August 2012.

Applications Close 5pm, Tuesday 7 August 2012

For a full job description and details on how to apply, please see: http://www.bfound.net/detail.aspx?jobId=107734&CoId=164&rq=5

The Digital Preservation Awards celebrate the excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is available tomorrow. It was first awarded in 2004 as one of the Conservation Awards and it has been presented on four occasions (2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010).  2012 is the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the DPC. To mark this occasion, and in recognition of the increasing diversity of digital preservation research and activity, DPC will offer four separate prizes in 2012

• DPC Decennial Award for an outstanding contribution to digital preservation
• DPC Award for Research and Development in Digital Preservation
• DPC Award for Teaching and Communicating Digital Preservation
• DPC / OPF Digital Preservation Challenge

This is the second call for nominations which are due for submission by 1200 on Friday 17th August. The judging panel is now also able to confirm the following dates associated with the awards which prospective applicants may wish to put in their diaries:

• Wednesday 1st August - Final Call for nominations
• Friday 17th August - Nominations Close
• Monday 8th October - Shortlist Announced, Palace of Westminster, London
• Tuesday 13th November - Shortlisted Candidates present to Judging Panel, London
• Monday 3rd December - Winner announced, Wellcome Trust, London

For more information including an application pack, see the Digital Preservation Awards online at: http://www.dpconline.org/advocacy/awards

Details will follow of the Digital Preservation Challenge. 

In March 2012 the DPC Leadership Programme awarded a scholarship to Louise Lawson of Tate so that she could attend the Digital Futures Academy in London.  In this short interview Louise reflects on the scholarship and how, having started work as a conservator, she has since found herself working in digital preservation.

Louise Lawson, Tate, on the DPC Leadership Programme and the Digital Futures Academy from William Kilbride on Vimeo.

The DPC, with assistance of colleagues in the Digital Curation Centre, is delighted to announce that the outline of a new report 'Preserving Computer-Aided Design' has now been released to members.  This report, which will be written by Alex Ball of UKOLN and the Digital Curation Centre at the University of Bath will provide a guide to current developments, practical and emerging issues which organisations are facing in preserving computer-aided design (CAD) models.  CAD plays an important role in both engineering and architecture hence such issues are of key importance not only to industry in general, but also for example to academics working with large-scale facilities and instruments.  Researchers in archaeology are increasingly using CAD models to document excavated sites, and are thus producing unreproducible CAD models of lasting historical significance that need to be preserved.  The report is intended for general publication by March 2013 but will be available as a preview to DPC members before that.

• Register or login to the DPC website
• Access the Outline of Preserving Computer-Aided Design [PDF login required]

DPC has today released the first in a series of short videos where we follow up with recipients of grants from our Leadership Programme. Six short videos will be released over the next 6 weeks.  The first short video introduces the programme and asks candidates to summarise how grants from the DPC have impacted on their own career development.

How the DPC makes a difference to your staff from William Kilbride on Vimeo.

What's New - Issue 47, July 2012

In this issue:

• What's On - Forthcoming events from July 2012 onwards
• What's New - New reports and initiatives since the last issue
• What's What - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Research Data, William Kilbride, DPC
• Who's Who - Sixty second interview with Patrick McCann, Digital Curation Centre
• One World - nestor - The German Network of Expertise for Digital Preservation, Sabine Schrimpf, German National Library
• Your View? - Comments and views from readers

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

The Digital Preservation Coalition are delighted to offer its members a preview of the latest DPC Technology Watch Report ‘Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Preservation by Andrew Charlesworth of the University of Bristol.

‘While a number of legal issues colour contemporary approaches to, and practices of, digital preservation, it is arguable that intellectual property law, represented principally by copyright and its related rights, has been by far the most dominant, and often intractable, influence,’ explained Andrew Charlesworth. 

‘It’s essential for those engaging in digital preservation to understand the letter of the law and to be able to identify and implement practical and pragmatic strategies for handling legal risks in the pursuit of preservation objectives. Moreover, those engaging in digital preservation need to advance a coherent and cogent message to rights holders, policymakers and the public with regard to the relationship between intellectual property law and digital preservation.  It is in the long-term interests of all stakeholders that modern intellectual property law permits both the implementation of effective and efficient mechanisms of digital preservation.’

This is the third of the DPC technology watch series to have been commissioned with Charles Beagrie Ltdas series editors.  Two more reports – on Preservation, Trust and E-Journals, and Digital Forensics for Preservation - are now well advanced and a further batch are now in development.

The managing editor has been further supported by an Editorial Board drawn from DPC members and peer reviewers who have commented on the text prior to release.  The Editorial Board comprises William Kilbride (Chair), Neil Beagrie (Series Editor), Janet Delve (University of Portsmouth), Sarah Higgins (Archives and Records Association), Tim Keefe (Trinity College Dublin), Andrew McHugh (University of Glasgow), Dave Thompson (Wellcome Library).

The preview report is now online for DPC members:

• Login or register for the DPC site
• Download the preview report

It will be available for general release in the third quarter of 2012.