News

The World Digital Preservation Day theme this year asks the question ‘Why Preserve?’ and prompts the global community to share powerful motivations and reasons for preserving digital materials with the rest of the world.

Launched alongside the iPRES 2025 conference in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand today, the campaign aims to inspire action through powerful, practical and relatable messages which can be used to help organisations and individuals advocate for digital preservation within their own contexts.

“As a community we understand that digital preservation matters for many reasons - and those reasons vary across sectors, regions, and communities,” explains Sarah Middleton, Chief Community Officer for the Digital Preservation Coalition, which convenes World Digital Preservation Day.

“But if we can frame the reasons WHY we preserve in a way that is more broadly relatable, we hope we can inspire greater support and action!”

As this message goes live at 8pm UK time, the new day is already well underway in Kiribati - one of the first places on the planet to greet the sunrise - and just behind them, Aotearoa New Zealand is waking up too. And with so many of our digital preservation friends gathered there for the iPRES 2025 conference, it feels like the perfect place to kick off World Digital Preservation Day 2025!

From those first rays of daylight in the Pacific, WDPD2025 is officially rolling...

The iPRES 2025 conference opened today in Wellington, New Zealand, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa marking the start of a week-long gathering and celebration of digital preservation worldwide!

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to support the international community in recognizing more than two decades of shared progress and innovation in digital preservation.

iPRES is the leading international forum for digital preservation practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to exchange ideas and explore new ways to safeguard our digital memory. This year’s conference promises lively discussions, creative thinking, and local inspiration from Aotearoa New Zealand, where Mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) and tikanga (customary practices) enrich the experience and encourage reflection on preservation through diverse cultural lenses. The conference themes, ‘journey encounter and connect’ set a tone for collaboration and engagement which resonates with digital preservation as an emerging practice, and which centres the other.

The countdown is on! In just one week, on Thursday 6 November, the global digital preservation community will come together for World Digital Preservation Day (WDPD2025) under the theme “Why Preserve?”

This year’s celebration is extra special. For the first time ever, World Digital Preservation Day falls within THE conference in the digital preservation calendar: iPRES 2025, taking place in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Join the Digital Repository of Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland next June 2026 for a ‘playful’ conference experience focused on stories of experimentation, creativity - and even failure: the Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DPASSH) Conference!  The call for proposals is open until January 7, 2026.

DPC Members, are you heading to the iPRES 2025 Conference? If you are planning to be in Wellington the evening before the conference begins, you are invited to join us for an informal networking meet-and-greet drinks event.