New Members

The UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) became the Digital Preservation Coalition’s newest Full member in January this year.

The Mechanism is mandated to manage the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as its own archives, which consist of both physical and digital records.

Long standing Associate Member, the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) has joined forces with the University of Glasgow Library and upgraded membership to become the latest Full Member of the DPC at the start of 2017.

With HATII joining the Coalition in 2010, ongoing collaborative initiatives with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Europe, as well as the library’s commitment to sustaining access to digital materials, have meant that the University of Glasgow has continued to make a significant contributions to research, teaching and application of practices in Cultural Heritage, Digital Humanities and Information Management and Analysis.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is very pleased to welcome the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust) as its newest associate member. Based in the USA at the University of Virginia, the APTrust is a 16-member consortium of American research university libraries committed to the creation and management of a sustainable environment for digital preservation.

The DPC is delighted to welcome the University of Bern, Switzerland as its newest associate member.

The University Library of Bern currently provides books and journals in print and electronic format as well as access to subject-specific databases. The team at Bern also aims to open its archive to the university community, incorporating access to more complex objects and formats in the digital editions it holds.

Marion Prudlo, the University of Bern’s Head of E-Library Service Centre explains why the University chose to join the Coalition. “Joining the DPC will move us forward another step towards our goal of providing a trustworthy preservation infrastructure to the university community in Bern. We are looking forward furthering our own knowledge, but to also engaging more with the digital preservation community at large.”

The DPC is pleased to welcome University College Dublin (UCD) as its newest Associate Member. Founded one hundred and sixty years ago, UCD has continued to make a unique and substantial contribution to the creation of modern Ireland and in particular to digital services through its UCD Digital Library, the UCD Institutional Repository and the national Irish Social Science Data Archive, operated through the Library.

“Digital preservation is a key part of our digital and data lifecycle,” explains Julia Barrett, UCD’s Research Services Manager. “Investing in digital preservation enables long term access to content for our users - providing greater access and increasing overall impact.”

“We see our DPC membership as a resource for the continuing development of our digital and data collections and services,“ she adds, “and feel that being part of the DPC will ensure that we develop best practice in this fast changing area.”

The DPC is pleased to welcome European Central Bank as its newest Full Member. Details will follow.

The DPC are delighted to announce Unilever Archives and Records Management (UARM) as its latest full member. Unilever consists of several well-known brands, including PG Tips, Lux, Persil and Marmite, all of which feature in the company archive. This internationally significant collection of business records has been recognised by The National Archives as being of a high standard and has received “Designated Status” by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council.

Claire Tunstall, Heard of Art Archives & Records Management at UARM said, “Joining the DPC will allow us to think strategically and extend our purpose of preserving and conserving the archives of Unilever, including born digital materials. We hope that by connecting with other DPC members, their expertise will help us to take active steps to prevent the creation of a digital black hole within our archive.”

The DPC is delighted to announce that a major international humanitarian agency has joined as a full member. Membership of the DPC will assist in their aim of ensuring both reliable and long-term access to records for and about refugees and displaced people globally.

The announcement can be found here (members only, login required).

Digital data exists in the British Museum in many different forms, from many different sources and for many different uses. It includes digital images registered as collection objects, photographic assets of the wider physical collection, scientific and conservation data related to the collection, and archival data amongst other things.

Laura Mitchell, chair of the DPC said “The museum sector is facing a wide variety of digital preservation issues and it is therefore great news, and very encouraging, to see the British Museum joining the DPC. This significantly increases our profile in the museum sector and I look forward to welcoming many others following the example set “.

“The Museum views the sustainable management of its digital assets as an organisational priority in attaining our larger goal of being a museum of the world for the world. This aim has been supported by the Museum’s African Rock Art Image Project which is registering some 25,000 digital photographs into the collection; a first for the Museum,” explained Glenn Cumiskey, Digital Preservation Manager at the British Museum. “We view membership of the DPC as an essential step in facilitating the capacity building necessary to enable our vision.”

The University of Bath has an excellent reputation for both teaching and research and has been ranked as the UK's top university in the Times Higher Education (THE) Student Experience Survey 2015. The Library manages and maintains a diverse collection including archival resources, historical records and other publications to support the University's teaching and research activities as well as those in the wider academic community.

Kara Jones, Head of Library Research Services at the University of Bath Library said 'One of the core activities of the Library is to provide advice, advocacy, expertise and skills training in accessing and using the available information resources, which in many cases is digital. Hopefully by joining the DPC, we can benefit from shared knowledge from other members within similar Institutions to help us meet the ongoing needs of all our library users'.