Delaney Sweep is Digital Preservation Technician at the University of Calgary.
Last week I was delighted to attend the DPC Members Forum and Networking Event – Americas in Nashville, Tennessee. This two-day event, which was hosted by Vanderbilt University, was the first of its kind in the USA. It provided both in-person and online attendees the chance to not only connect with other digital preservation professionals from across the region but also the opportunity to discuss ideas and learn from each other.
The first day of the event was open to anyone with an interest in digital preservation, including those from non-member institutions. The focus of the sessions was primarily centred on the topics of getting started with digital preservation and advocating for our field. In the afternoon, participants could choose to attend one of the two continuous improvement workshops: one for the Rapid Assessment Model (RAM) and one for the Competency Audit Toolkit (CAT). I attended the RAM workshop and discovered that the act of working with someone who is outside my organization to complete the benchmarking was highly beneficial. Hearing the reasons why others ranked their institution a specific way and getting their interpretation of the levels helped to advance my own understanding of not only the model but also my institution’s digital preservation capability.
Day 2 of the forum was exclusively for DPC Members and offered a diverse range of member led sessions to choose from. These presentations and the resulting discussions provided valuable insights into the specific projects and challenges facing digital preservationists. In particular, the chance to candidly share our past experiences and “failures” within the Digital Preservationists Anonymous forum allowed participants to learn from these errors in a safe environment.
In speaking to both members and non-members over the course of the two days, I felt a growing sense of community within the Americas region. Everyone who attended was open in sharing their personal experiences with digital preservation and extremely supportive when providing advice during discussion periods. Working in digital preservation can sometimes feel isolating, especially if you are in a small (or single person) department. The candor and friendliness of those in attendance, both in-person and online, made this members forum and networking event truly remarkable and I look forward to the continued growth of the DPC Americas community.
Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to all the staff at Vanderbilt University and at the DPC who helped in putting together and hosting this event.