DPC

This page describes two of the key roles required to facilitate the Python Study Group (PSG) program. Each includes a person description, details of the time commitment, and the responsibilities that are included within the role. 

Governance Group Member

The Python Study Group governance group will meet two times a year, with ad hoc meetings as needed, to conduct oversight of the Python Study Groups program. 

The governance group will comprise six total members: five voting representatives and one non-voting DPC staff member who will fulfil an administrative role. Of the voting members, at least one will be a member of staff of the DPC and another a staff or committee member of the BCC. The remaining three voting members are open to participants in the Python Study Group program community who are members of DPC or BCC. Ideally, at least one member will be/have been a participant in the program and one member will be/have been a mentor.

Person Description

Volunteers for the PSG governance group will:

• Be a digital preservation practitioner or program manager in good standing within the community.

• Have an interest in the use of Python to facilitate digital preservation activities

  • Practical coding skills are not a requirement.

• Have an interest in or knowledge of education and/or professional development, particularly in relation to technical skills. 

• Be community minded, collaborative, and committed to increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion within digital preservation.

Time Commitment

It is expected that participation in the governance group will involve a maximum of 10-15 hours a year. Members are expected to commit to participating in the group for a minimum of a year.

Responsibilities:

• Attendance at virtual biannual governance group meetings, and ad hoc meetings as required

• Participate in the resolution of any Code of Conduct violations or other violations of the Terms of Reference

• Contribute to the administration of annual evaluations of the Python Study Group program

• Make recommendations on programmatic changes based on feedback received

• Participate in subcommittees as needed, e.g. an every-other-year curriculum review committee

• Contribute to strategic planning for the Python Study Groups program

• Help steward the Python Study Groups GitHub repositories, particularly through content management

Study Group Mentor

Although it is hoped that study groups will be largely self-driven, it will be useful for participants to be able to consult with experienced practitioners from time to time. This might be to ask advice on a particular approach or for help when having issues with a script. For this reason, the PSG program hopes to recruit a small team of volunteer mentors to help support participants in their learning.

Mentors will provide support to study group participants in two forms:

• By being available during study group meetings to drop-in to groups who require advice. 

• By responding to pull requests posted by participants on the PSG GitHub repository detailing coding issues they are experiencing.

Particular responsibilities will be assigned after recruitment, to be determined by the number of mentors recruited and their task preferences.

Person Description

PSG Mentors will:

• Be a digital preservation practitioner or program manager in good standing within the community.

• Be proficient in coding with Python.

• Have experience of utilizing Python to complete digital preservation tasks.

• Be familiar with GitHub.

• Have an interest in or knowledge of skills development. 

• Be community minded, collaborative, and committed to increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion within digital preservation.

Time Commitment

The time commitment required from PSG mentors is somewhat dependent on the number of mentors the program is able to recruit. However, it is expected that acting as a PSG Mentor will involve a commitment of around 10 hours a PSG cycle (6 months). Mentors are expected to commit to participating in the PSG program for a minimum of one cycle.

Responsibilities:

• Attend a mentor briefing meeting at the beginning of each PSG program cycle

• Attend PSG meetings as required based on an agreed rota (no more than one a month)

  • Provide guidance on python coding to participants at PSG meetings when requested

• Respond to pull requests on the PSG GitHub as required based on an agreed rota of availability

  • Guidance may include problem solving and/or feedback on scripts posted by participants

• Provide feedback to the governance group on the PSG program at the end of each cycle

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…

Songs, video clips, hackathons, global events and institutions opening their doors showcasing what digital preservation is all about: That’s World Digital Preservation Day in a nutshell. On Thursday 2 November – in just 2 weeks’ time - World Digital Preservation Day (WDPD) 2023 starts when the sun comes up in Samoa ... 

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.

A Forum on the Histories of the Internet, 9^th January 2024

Central London and Online

Join a multi-disciplinary set of academics, practitioners and leaders from civil society, business, industry and government to review major technology innovations of the past six decades and discuss what lessons can be learnt about the societal impacts of emerging technologies.