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This blog was written by Tara Majoor and Allison Graycon at Museums of History New South Wales

Museums of History NSW manages and preserves the State Archives Collection for the State of New South Wales, Australia, as well as place-based collections of objects and materials associated with our portfolio of historic houses and the Caroline Simpson Collection of publications, objects and materials related to homes, gardens and domestic life in Australia.

This blog was written by Linda Shave for the Records and Information Management Practitioners Alliance (RIMPA)

Australia like many countries around the world is struggling with the rise of a data rich metaverse world, the rise of Quantum information processing and navigating the pitfalls of disinformation, misinformation and malinformation.  Traditional approaches for identifying digital archives for digital preservation are not necessarily agile in today’s world.  Traditional approaches are not designed for ploughing through the metaverse nor in identifying what is the truth or not the truth.  Our future depends on a universal concerted effort to find a way forward in collecting, archiving and preserving digital assets now and into the future or we could risk entering a digital dark age. 

Martin Gengenbach is Digital Preservation Policy and Outreach Specialist, National Library of New Zealand

| Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa

Since the inception of the DPC Rapid Assessment Model (RAM) in 2019, the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa has used the framework annually to identify strengths and gaps in its digital preservation programme, and to adjust resources and initiatives accordingly. However, there was little direct comparison of RAM results between organisations. We were unsure who else was using the RAM within the region, and then COVID-19 related lockdowns proved challenging to many local collaborative initiatives. (But not all of them --  We see you, Australasia Preserves!)

Paul Meredith is Pou Ārahi – Deputy Chief Executive, Māori, for Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision in Aotearoa New Zealand

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision has been engaged in an unprecedented programme of community based magnetic media digitisation within indigenous communities. Rokirokitia (a Māori word that can be translated as “to preserve or care for”) was devised and carried out by Aotearoa New Zealand’s audiovisual archive between 2021 and 2023.

William Kilbride is Executive Director at the Digital Preservation Coalition

World Digital Preservation Day takes a musical turn this year. Recognizing the many roles and skills which are required to preserve digital materials, our theme is ‘A Concerted Effort’. 

It’s a wonderful metaphor which invites all manner of variations: we will be striking chords, keeping the beat and mostly all singing the same tunes. We will be hitting high notes, developing themes, and calling for all manner of improvisation. It will reach a crescendo (for DPC at least) with the release of the Bit List. There may even be actual music involved at various points. I am looking forward to the complimentary puns and witticisms that will certainly follow.

This blog post has been written by Jaye Weatherburn, Program Manager, Digital Preservation and Elise Bradshaw, Digital Curation and Archives Specialist at the University of Melbourne.

In honor of World Digital Preservation Day 2023 on Thursday 2 November, the Digital Scholarship (Research) team responsible for digital preservation at the University of Melbourne is planning a day of reflection and self-directed learning. This will include advocacy work and watch parties of conference recordings and webinars, as well as a team lunch. 

Joyce Wong is an Archivist (Digital Preservation) at the National Archives of Singapore, National Library Board, Singapore. She attended the ASA 2023 Conference with support from the DPC Career Development Fund, which is funded by DPC Supporters.

The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground served as the backdrop for a remarkable gathering of professionals convened at the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) 2023 Conference. I had the privilege of receiving the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) Career Development grant, which enabled me to attend the conference in person to meet and connect with other professionals – a highlight after the Covid-19 pandemic. The theme of this year's conference, "Rising To Our Challenges," resonated with the conference delegates and prompted meaningful discussions of the challenges encountered by the archives.

Earlier this year, we established our DPC Reading Club. It is something we had talked about doing for a while but we finally put those thoughts into action and held our first session in April this year. It has been a monthly fixture in our events calendar ever since and we even managed a face-to-face session at our unconference in June.

Our Reading Club sessions are small, informal and friendly and genuinely one of the highlights of my month. I was really sad to miss last month’s after being called away to a conference in Stockholm. I mean, the Stockholm conference was great, but I’d so been looking forward to seeing what everyone thought of ‘Alexa, is this a historical record?’! 

I’d love to get a few more people coming along though, so this blog post is a series of (highly persuasive) counter arguments to any excuses you might have for not signing up to one of the forthcoming sessions in our events calendar…

Emma Burgham is Archivist at the Science and Industry Museum, Science Museum Group. She attended the DCDC 2023 Conference with support from the DPC Career Development Fund, which is funded by DPC Supporters.

I am the Archivist for the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, which is one of five institutions making up the Science Museum Group (SMG). In July 2023, I attended the Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities (DCDC) conference, thanks to a DPC Career Development Fund grant. One of the strengths of the conference is its drawing together of the GLAMA sectors. The museum sector can learn a lot from libraries and archives about digital collecting and preservation practice. Within my institution, there is a drive to prioritise digitised and born-digital archives, so I was keen to hear from a broad range of speakers and delegates working with digital material.

Today is World Mental Health Day. It’s a day I always like to mark with a blog post, aka “Sharon’s yearly overshare”. This year I’d actually hoped that things would be a bit different, and I would be able to announce the publication of the report on our Mental Health and Wellbeing survey of the Digital Preservation Community. Alas, time and circumstances have not been on my side and the release date is still a TBC (probably December, *she says with her fingers crossed*).