DPC

How to find us:

University Gardens, Glasgow

By Car
There is very limited car parking directly adjacent to the Glasgow Office but nearby car parks may be found on Ashton Road, Lilybank Gardens and Kelvinbridge Subway Station.

By Public Transport
The Glasgow office is close to the Hillhead stop on the Subway. From the Subway, exit left onto Byres Road and take the first left signposted Ashton Lane. Follow the lane all the way round until it meets University Avenue, take the second left onto University Gardens and find the office on the left hand side of the road.

By Rail
Glasgow is served by two central railway stations, Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central Station, each of which have stops on the subway system. 

By Air
Glasgow airport is around 10 miles west of the city centre. Connections to and from the University may be made by bus or train.

Tanner Row, York

By Car

There is one disabled parking space available, please ask to book this in advance. The parking area is to the left hand side of the building. If being dropped off by taxi or car, please ask to be dropped at the side entrance as there is a ramp to the entrance. There is also a large car park directly opposite our side entrance, with secure parking available 24 hours a day.

By Public Transport
Tanner Row is adjacent to York's central bus interchange on Rougier Street which is served by all of the main bus routes into and out of the city centre.

By Rail
Tanner Row is very close to York Railway Station. To find the office, cross the road directly in front of the station. Turn left and pass through the city walls throughthe arch ahead of you. Walk past the front of the Grand Hotel York. The office is directly through the large gates at the far side of the hotel.  

By Air
Leeds-Bradford Airport and Manchester Airport are the most convenient airports for York. There is a half-hourly bus service to Leeds station, from which frequent trains are available to York, and there are direct trains from Manchester Airport which take around 2 hours.

London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) have excellent international air connections, with onward travel to York consisting of a 45-75-minute Underground (or train plus Underground) journey to London King's Cross station, followed by the 2-hour train journey from King's Cross to York.

University of Melbourne, Australia 

The DPC is governed by an Executive Board and is accountable to members through a Representative Council and a series of thematic Sub-Committees. It employs eleven staff.

President

• Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

Representative Council

The DPC Representative Council is formed of a delegate from each of our full members.  It ensures that the DPC remains tightly focussed on its strategic plan, and that the strategic plan is relevant to members' emerging needs. It meets every three months, immediately before or after the Executive Board to receive and review the DPC's workplan and progress reports.

• Reports to DPC Representative Council

Executive Board

The Executive Board oversees delivery of the DPC strategic plan and is responsible for governance and compliance.  It meets quarterly to receive reports on major risks and set forward financial plans. The Executive Board comprises 4 officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Financial Director, Executive Director); 4 Sub-committee Chairs (Advocacy, Workforce Development, Research, Management); and 4 'Ordinary' members. Directors are not representatives, they are required to act in the best interests of the DPC and have legal responsibilities for it. A register of directors interests is maintained to ensure neutrality. The Chair and Vice Chair are elected annually at the AGM, Executive Diretor and Financial Director are are ex-officio with continuous appointment. Other directors serve for a maximum term of 6 years (with an option to renew but only after one year hiatus), and are appointed subject to a competency-based recruitment framework. 

• Prof Jane Winters - Chair (December 2023)

• Michelle Donoghue - Director for Workforce Development (April 2023)

• Tim Gollins (March 2024)

• Edith Halvarsson (March 2022) 

• Leslie Johnston (March 2022)

• Tim Keefe - Financial Director and Chair of Management Sub-Committee (January 2018*)

• Dr William Kilbride - Executive Director (January 2018*)

• Kate Murray - Vice Chair (March 2021)

• Roxana Maurer - Director for Research (October 2019)

• Vicky Plaine (March 2023)

• Paul Stokes - Director for Advocacy and Community Engagement (April 2020)

• Dr Alicia Wise (April 2023)

• Jaye Weatherburn, University of Melbourne - Observer 

Register of Directors Interests can be viewed here (member login required). 

*Continuous appointments Ex Officio

Sub-Committees

The DPC has five Sub-Committees drawn from the membership which meet every 3 months or so.  Each is charged with oversight of one or more of the DPC's strategic six goals.  Each one is chaired by a Board director, has 6-12 member representatives and each one supports the work of a DPC staff member. The Sub-Committees make important decisions about the work of the coalition such as the awards of grants or review of funding proposals, and they have detailed involvement in the development of our workplan in each area.

• Australasia Stakeholder Group (Chair: Jaye Weatherburn)

• Advocacy and Community Engagement Sub-Committee (Chair: Paul Stokes, Director for Advocacy and Community Engagement)

• Management and Governance Sub-Committee (Chair: Tim Keefe, Financial Director)

• Good Practice Sub-Committee (Chair: Roxana Maurer, Director for Research)

• Workforce Development Sub-Committee (Chair: Michelle Donoghue, Director for Workforce Development)

Sub-Committee membership is refreshed at the start of every calendar year.

See all Sub-Committee members.

Staff

• Dr Amy Currie, Training and Grants Manager

• Dr Andrew Jacskon, Preservation Registries Technical Architect

• Dr William Kilbride, Executive Director

• Sharon McMeekin, Head of Training and Skills 

• John McMillan, Head of Administration and Finance

• Sarah Middleton, Head of Advocacy and Communication

• Jenny Mitcham, Head of Good Practice and Standards

• Ellie O'Leary, Administration Manager

• Michael Popham, Digital Preservation Analyst

• Angela Puggioni, Community Engagement Manager

• Karyn Williamson, Digital Preservation Analyst

• Paul Wheatley, Head of Research and Practice

• Robin Wright, Head of DPC Australasia-Pacific 

Previous Office Holders 

• Kevin Ashley (Vice Chair 2012-2022) 

• Neil Beagrie (Secretary 2002-2003)

• Dr Juan Bicarregui (Chair 2018 - 2023) 

• Frances Boyle (Executive Director 2008-2009)

• Dame Lynne Brindley (Chair 2002-2006)

• Reg Carr (Vice Chair 2002-2005)

• Maggie Jones (Secretary 2003-2006)

• Patricia Kernaghan (Vice Chair 2011)

• Patricia Killiard (Vice Chair 2012)

• Bruno Longmore (Vice Chair 2006-2010, Acting Chair 2009)

• Laura Mitchall (Chair 2013-2017)

• Ronald Milne (Vice Chair 2005- 2006, Chair 2006-2009)

• Richard Ovenden OBE (Chair 2009-2013)

• Najla Semple (Secretary 2006-2007)

TIMBUS was a research project co-funded by the European Commission. It addressed the challenge of digital preservation of business processes and services to ensure their long-term continued access. TIMBUS analysed and recommended which aspects of a business process should be preserved and how to preserve them. It delivered methodologies and tools to capture and formalise business processes on both technical and organisational levels. This included their underlying software and hardware infrastructures and dependencies on third-party services and information. TIMBUS aligned digital preservation with well-established methods for enterprise risk management (ERM), feasibility and cost-benefit analysis, and business continuity management (BCM). Visit the TIMBUS website for more information.

Project highlights:

• A Risk Management Approach to Preservation of Business Processes explores the application of risk assessment to the digital preservation of business processes.

APARSEN was a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission, which ran from January 2011 to December 2014. DPC had responsibility for the 'APARSEN Training' work package and had a range of interests in other elements of the network. During the course of the project the DPC coordinated 6 training events, including 2 week-long summer schools. Visit the APARSEN website for more information.

• Report - APARSEN, 2012. D43.1 Survey for the Asssessment of Training Material/Assessment of Digital Curation Requirements.

4C - the 'Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation' was aimed at helping organisations across Europe invest more effectively in digital curation and preservation. Research in digital preservation and curation has tended to emphasise the cost and complexity of the task in hand. 4C reminded us that the point of this investment is to realise a benefit. With this in mind the 4C research encompassed related concepts such as ‘risk’, ‘value’, ‘quality’ and ‘sustainability’ leading to the conclusion that organisations that understand this will be more able to effectively control and manage their digital assets over time, but they may also be able to create new cost-effective solutions and services for others. Visit the 4C website for more information.

Project highlights:

• The 4C Roadmap: an outline of the steps that should be taken in the 5 years leading up to 2020, in order to maximise the efficiency of digital curation.
• Curation Costs Exchange: Understanding and comparing digital preservation costs to support smarter investments.

The veraPDF consortium will deliver a definitive validator for PDF/A: an authoritative corpus of test files establishing the objective frame of reference for validation of all parts and conformance levels of PDF/A, an open¬source, and a purpose¬built validator and policy checker to implement the collecting policies of memory institutions. We expect a vibrant community will develop to sustain these efforts.

The veraPDF consortium brings together a unique network of stakeholders with complementary perspectives from existing collaborative efforts in the PDF industry (through the PDF Association and its association with the respective ISO committees), small and large memory institutions (through the Open Preservation Foundation and Digital Preservation Coalition), and commercial software service providers (Dual Lab and KEEP SOLUTIONS).

Over time, veraPDF will dramatically reduce costs associated with ingesting, quality¬controlling, and managing PDF documents through normalization of the preservation¬ready capabilities of PDF document creating and editing suites worldwide.

Visit the veraPDF website for more information.

A study commissioned by the UK Data Service as part of their 'Big Data Network' programme on the preservation concerns of two types of big data: 'Preserving Social Media' and 'Preserving Transactional Data'. Preserving Social Media investigated current methods for capturing and archiving this new and novel form of data within the confines of strict platform Terms of Service and increasing technological demands. Preserving Transactional Data looked at the technical, legal, and ethical complications of capturing, curating, and sharing this rich source of data, defined as data captured in the course of everyday activities online such as filling out a form on a government website or making a loan payment. Recognising the value of large amounts of user-generated data in machine-readable formats, both of these studies provided guidance to overcome the challenges posed by capturing social media and  transactional data, derived from platforms and programmes built on quickly changing technologies with frequently updated data policies.

Project highlights:

• Technology watch report: Preserving Social Media
• Technology watch report: Preserving Transactional Data

In co-operation with commercial systems providers, E-ARK will create and pilot a pan-European methodology for electronic document archiving, synthesising existing national and international best practices, which will keep records and databases authentic and usable over time.

The methodology will be implemented in an open pilot in various national contexts, using existing, near-to-market tools, and services developed by the partners. This will allow memory institutions and their clients (public- and private-sector) to assess, in an operational context, the suitability of those state-of-the-art technologies.

Our objective is to provide a single, scalable, robust approach capable of meeting the needs of diverse organisations, public and private, large and small, and able to support complex data types. E-ARK will demonstrate the potential benefits for public administrations, public agencies, public services, citizens and business by providing simple, efficient access to the workflows for the three main activities of an archive - acquiring, preserving and enabling re-use of information.

• Visit E-ARK services for information governance at the Knowledge Centre
• Visit the E-ARK website for more information