News

The DPC is deepening its commitment to help members in a time of crisis.

From 1^st August 2020, the DPC is launching a new support program in anticipation of the economic pressures that members are likely to face from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As we have moved through the phases of COVID-19 pandemic, the DPC has responded swiftly and thoughtfully at each step: closing our offices before the lockdown began, moving all our operations online, launching a wealth of new resources, and opening up a new series of activities for members and partners around the Globe.  We have delivered – and in many ways exceeded - the commitment that we made that our members would leave the lockdown better connected and better skilled.  The DPC community is much greater than the sum of its parts, and members contribute much more than money to the cause.

The DPC is pleased to announce that additional places are now available for the August, September, and October monthly cohorts for the Novice to Know-How course for DPC Members.

The Novice to Know-How learning pathway aims to provide those who are new to Digital Preservation with the skills required to develop and implement simple digital preservation workflows within their organisation.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to introduce its international panel of expert judges for the 2020 Digital Preservation Awards, as nominations remain open for the most prestigious celebration of significant and innovative contributions to securing our digital legacy.

As in 2018, the Digital Preservation Awards expert Judging Panel represents digital preservation interests from all sectors and from around the world.

The OCFL Editors are pleased to announce version 1.0 of the Oxford Common File Layout, reflecting over 24 months of work by the OCFL Editors and the digital preservation and technology communities.

The initiative originated in September 2017 from informal discussions at a Fedora/Samvera camp in Oxford, UK. These discussions identified the need for a simple, non-proprietary, specified, open-standards approach to the layout of files for the purpose of preservation persistence. Subsequently, a kickoff community meeting attracted 47 attendees from 32 institutions, confirming the need and resulting in the establishment of the OCFL Editors team.

Almost all heritage institutions have them: CDs, DVDs and floppy discs bearing digital heritage. Unfortunately, at about 40% of the Dutch heritage institutions this material is in danger of being lost, according to a recently published study by the Dutch Digital Heritage Network (DDHN). That is … if no action is taken now.

"The information on these CDs and other so-called physical carriers belongs to collections and should therefore be permanently accessible," says Niels Komen, project leader of the DDHN project Endangered Digital Heritage on Portable Media. This spring, his project group conducted research among 150 Dutch heritage institutions.

Niels: "We saw that many heritage institutions don’t really know what to do with floppy disks, CD-ROMs or a hard disk. Sometimes because there is no equipment available to read them, sometimes because the carrier has been damaged over the years. But if action is not taken in time, in many cases the content of the carrier will be lost forever."

With six weeks left to submit your nominations, do not miss your opportunity for recognition as part of the most prominent celebration of achievement for those people and organisations around the world who have made significant and innovative contributions to securing our digital legacy!

Send your nominations by 09:00 am (BST) on Monday 10th August and be in with a chance of being named the best in your field of expertise.

Entry to the Digital Preservation Awards is free and open to all, apply now!

The Digital Repository of Ireland invites early career researchers to apply for our annual Research Award. This Award grants a prize to an original piece of research (e.g. research done for Master’s or PhD thesis, article or publication) informed in whole, or in part, by objects/collections deposited in DRI. Unpublished research will also be considered, as long as the work is intended for eventual publication.